I saw the trailer by chance and decided to see this movie with some good expectations. The acting seemed to be not bad and for the first 30 minutes I found myself thinking that this movie was a lucky discovery. Unfortunately the promises made by a well shoot trailer and by some good scene at the beginning are not followed by an adequate development. In my opinion this movie falls deeply around minute 40, from that moment on it reveals some major script problem, it is not clear whether the movie wants to make you laugh or thrill, and unfortunately it fails both. Another black mark consists of the music, which is almost always inappropriate and contributes in letting the premises of the trailer down.

After a plane crash in central London, a group in a storage containment facility find themselves trapped inside with the vicious alien creature released during the crash and must try to fight if off in order to get out alive.This turned out to be a rather decent enough creature feature. One of the more enduring elements to this one is the fact that there's a refreshing simplicity to how it plays out, as the film's basically a one-note plot that really goes on through the notes quite efficiently and effectively to where it becomes routine more than anything about what goes on It consistently turns into confrontation, escape, confrontation, escape which is plenty of fun due to the tight, cramped location to work with the rather convoluted layout of the area and the continuous encounters where the creature chases them through heating ducts, storage units and throughout the building itself that the scenes make for a rather creepy and exciting set of action. The fact that the alien creature here is quite imposing is where it really helps score a little extra as well because the otherworldly appearance, as the spiked mouth, tentacled fingers and humanoid body create a powerful enough figure without seeing too much of it to lessen it's visual appeal as the creature really helps generate a lot of good marks during the film as the repetitive, action-packed nature of the film results in a creepy monster stalking and attacking people trapped in a creepy location, only to escape and run into it later on so there's a sense of familiarity to this as it goes on which can lower this somewhat. As well, the film's blatant disregard for information-revealing is a bit of a problem as it tends to keep so many ideas and plot-points completely unknown to the viewer about the alien creature, what happened to it and the fates of several characters, and about the only plot-point to this that doesn't work is the long build-up here that results in some painful amount of time not going anywhere due to the aggravation of the animosity towards each other. Otherwise, this is a fine effort.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

STORAGE 24 is a British indie featuring several friends trapped in a storage facility with a creature on the loose. Complicating matters is a love triangle which will test the bonds of friendship as all work together to survive. A down-to-earth take on ALIEN, this one adds a layer of suspense through its emphasis on character, setting up and defying expectations throughout the proceedings, and surprising us as to who will be our hero. The creature, although realized in part through CGI (always a caution flag for this reviewer), is very effective and satisfying. Like the facility, itself (a clever setting as the characters forage adjoining units for any resource that will aid their plight), this film has scares, emotional depth, and character surprises tucked away for its audience. The leads are Noel Clarke, who recently appeared in Star Trek: Into Darkness and Colin O'Donoghue, known for Once Upon A Time (TV Show) and the underrated, The Rite, where he held his own, opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins). Highly recommended.

Okay, so we have a Brit flick in the 'alien sci-fi' sub genre, a huge departure from the usual independent fare we get to see from the little Island, and economically just about scraping the barrel of low budget independent at the £1.5m budget that is widely attributed to the film, primarily by (he described it as 1/10 of the budget of Attack the Block @ $13m) writer/producer Noel Clarke.In no uncertain terms it draws heavily upon the genre's benchmarks of creativity (Alien, Mimic, Independence Day - all landmark films for their own reasons) and drops them into the most claustrophobic, visually uninteresting, and echoing environment they could come up with. Whilst a storage facility is not the most entertaining of settings in which to base any movie, let alone an alien led sci-fi movie, the filmmakers didn't allow themselves to be hamstrung by such a location, instead drawing on set-pieces from their favourite movies - crawling through the vent shafts (Alien), the pursuits down corridors (er...Alien), and the final confrontation between the lead character and the creature (yep you guessed it.....Alien). What is clear is that since 1979, no matter how 'inventive' the filmmaker, or imaginative the screenwriter, creatives the world over have struggled to throw off the shackles of a film that will go down in history as the greatest sci-fi horror of all time. No ! Not Storage 24 funnily enough.And to that end all Storage 24 can do is offer up a little bit of familiarity in a script that has too little in its legs to carry it over the feature threshold, dialogue that gets strained and repetitive very early on, and a tired, almost contrived presentation of character from the majority of actors that you can't help but wonder if it was all actually worth the effort. I like Noel Clarke as an actor - he's not up there in Johnny Depp territory but he's affable and presentable and has a bit of an idea. Sadly same can't be said for his colleagues in this, particularly Ms Campbell-Hughes whose 'sucked p**s off a nettle' expression all the way through got very tiresome. Haddock provided some eye candy relief but frankly she'd be much better if given a bigger, or more daring role that stretched her emotional range. But it was the appearance, albeit brief, of the reliable Ned Dennehy, that brought some comic relief and acting gravitas to what would otherwise have been a very bland affair in the acting stakes. The main objection for me in this film was that it procrastinated over whether to go the whole hog, balls to the wall horror, or to stay firmly in the "scare 'em, chase 'em, make 'em chuckle" parody of what horror is supposed to all be about. It decided on neither. The moments of levity were all generated by character and not situation which is what you expect in parody. and apart from the odd gross out moment of gore there was just not enough scare, violence, blood, or suspense to justify this as a horror film. There are pre-requisites to hit mainstream with any horror (big scares, blood, gore, nudity, sex, and containment). For decades these general observations coupled with great scripts and masterful acting, have decided the difference between the good and the bad. But you can't have a few. It's either all or nothing. Make the deaths more gruesome, make the chase truly reflective of the urgency without breaking off into repetitive dialogue that draws away from the sweaty palmed sense of encroaching doom, if you're going to have secret lovers in a lock up (regardless of how likely it would be) lets have some flesh on show, get fumbling with the stickies until you really cant go any further without bumping uglies. And as for Laura Haddock in the toilet - a great opportunity to tease the audience with a little more 'knicker' shots or partial flesh exposure. But above all - time the damned reveal of the creature. Horror exists on the slow reveal of the antagonist in stages, bit by creepy bit - not all in one go. If you are to take ANYTHING from the classic 'Alien' take that. Horror movies that last are those which understand the importance of their component parts.So in summary, Storage 24 is an entertaining little flick that aspired to be greater than the level of its ultimate achievement. Competently shot, with moments of real suspense but overall a bit of a damp squib. The creature design is nice, not in the Woodruff Jr ballpark but pretty damned good nonetheless. It's just a shame it wasn't utilised properly according to the genre's requirements.