Melissa (Leet) discovers her boyfriend Daric (Keeslar) cheated on her so she joins a play in a small Tennessee town to get away. On the way there she has a brutal car accident and is found on the side of the road by Clive (Searcy). Clive is a mentally challenged man who lives in a shack by himself in the woods. Seeing Melissa as a gift from God for his extreme loneliness, Clive takes her up to the shack and begins a relationship with her, mostly in his mind. Melissa's sister Cathy (Carter) takes a guilt ridden Daric with her to the town to discover what happened to her sister. Director Tony Elwood working from a script by himself and Mark Kimray steers Cold Storage in several different directions. It's hard at first to tell if Melissa is seriously injured from the crash of out right dead. Soon you realize she is dead and Clive is moving around a corpse which is creepy in itself. Clive is so delusional and his loneliness so fierce, he is just thrilled to have another body with him. This is when this movie is at its best. Elwood makes Clive sympathetic even though his outward appearance his gross and you actually feel his loneliness. As mentioned, Elwood takes the story down different paths including dark and intentional humor which doesn't always work. There is a lecherous neighbor named Luther Spoole (Brett Gentile) that is stupid and unwanted. The movie never really picks up momentum. It just runs along until the end confrontation with Clive and the sister and boyfriend. There isn't much horror or suspense in the film until the very end when Cathy is captured briefly. Credit must be given to Tony Elwood for resisting the urge to turn this into low grade torture porn. Nick Searcy is strong and believable in the lead role of Clive. Unfortunately 'Cold Storage' doesn't move the meter in the horror department and may have worked better as a twisted drama.
Review of Cold Storage
Cold Storage
(I) (2009)
Independent effort might have worked better as a Drama
2 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers