PLOT: When a highly dangerous fungus escapes from a secret laboratory, a former bioterrorism agent is called back into action. Alongside two young employees, he must confront an invisible and out-of-control threat.
REVIEW: Based on the novel by David Koepp, Cold Storage is a tale of government ineptitude, lovable losers, and just trying to do the right thing. The story follows two employees at a storage facility who have to confront a dangerous fungus who’s main purpose is to take over its hosts and spread. They’re aided by a government operative who has a history with the fungus and knows the danger it poses. Think Zombieland meets Evolution. And don’t let the trailer fool you: this is not a zombie tale.
As much as this is an alien/zombie-style narrative, it’s really all about characters. Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell have a really fun dynamic together as Teacake and Naomi. They’re constantly trying to one-up each other, which leads them into their predicament. But smartly, this really just makes them more prepared for the situation at hand rather than the cause of the outbreak. It’s easy to root for them as both Keery and Campbell have such a likability to them. Teacake, in particular, being a bit of a dummy makes him all the more affable.
Liam Neeson’s Robert Quinn is the type of role as a government fixer that we’ve seen time and time again. But rather than straight-faced and humorless, he’s constantly witty and making light of the situation, while still acknowledging its severity. He genuinely has some of the best jokes in the film, and is always ready to take someone down a peg or two. He has back problems, and it’s fun to see how it hampers an otherwise on top-of-his-game operative. As someone who has back problems of my own, it was oddly relatable and had me wincing. He has a fun partnership with Lesley Manville’s Trini Romano, giving us another two-hander outside of Teacake and Naomi.
Sosie Bacon also shows up in a brief role at the beginning. As a big fan of Smile, it’s nice to see her still horror adjacent. Richard Brake also has a small role, and I’m starting to wonder if he’ll ever be cast in anything other than the bad guy role. Thankfully, he always plays those parts well and here is no different. I do wish we got a little more development from some of the side characters, as they’re mostly just fodder and fairly interchangeable.
For the most part, the FX work is all handled incredibly well, with just the right amount of practical and digital. There’s an explosion in this movie that is one of the more impressive that I’ve ever seen. Sure, it’s obviously CGI but it’s so well done with the ground buckling in sections and it looking more photorealistic than you’d expect. They could have easily just done a bright light and cut but the impact is quite impressive. Visually, the film looks similar to Zombieland, only without the excessive text and editing flourishes. The title cards we do get are dynamic, but they never become overwhelming.
I’m pretty tired of the zombie genre by this point so I was a little worried about dealing with more stumbling ghouls. Thankfully, outside of their appearance, there’s nothing particularly zombie-like about them. They’re a hivemind and their sole purpose is to spread. There’s a bit of inconsistency in when they explode and it’s seems mostly story-based, but it’s never overly egregious.
From Jurassic Park to Mission: Impossible, David Koepp is one of the most prolific writers out there, so it’s easy to have a certain set of expectations with his involvement. Adapting his own novel, Koepp has to cut down some of the character interactions that make the book so memorable, but gives us enough to know and like all of them.
Cold Storage doesn’t feel very high stakes with our characters never being in any real danger but honestly, in this day and age, it didn’t bother me. The tone is light and breezy and it’s entertaining to just sit and hang out with these people. I never expected anything bad to happen to them, and just wanted to see them accomplish their goals. And sometimes, that’s all you need from a movie like this.
Cold Storage releases to theaters on February 13th, 2026.
