When four friends – of sorts – are trapped inside a storage unit, a domestic dispute becomes bloodier than anyone could have imagined.
Directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City) and starring Noel Clarke, Colin O’Donoghue, Laura Haddock, and Antonia Campbell-Hughes,Storage 24 was released in 2012, and combined the best elements of no-exit films and the 1980s monster films, with a creature that was a delight for Alien and Predator fans. Produced by Manu Kumaran alongside Noel Clarke, it was released by Universal Pictures.
“I had been making films in England since 2006,” says Kumaran, “but for the Indian market. Storage 24 was the first film I made for the Western market and Universal Pictures came onboard to release it. It was a big high and an encouraging first step for Mediente as we charted our expansion from being an India focussed company to a film production company making films for different audiences in different markets,” he says. Mediente Films (then Medient) went on to make films like Yellow (Nick Cassavetes) and was listed at the stock exchange as Medient Studios Inc, a 360-degree media studio.
“With Storage 24, the objective was to try and make something in the nature of Alien – a genre film but treated like you would treat a drama. That was the approach in the sense of narrative, the look and style we wanted,” he says.
To direct the film Kumaran and Clarke zeroed in on Johannes Roberts who had just directed F, a slasher film set in a school. “We were all very impressed with F and what he had achieved on a very limited budget,” says Manu Kumaran. “We knew that if we gave him the scope to make a film with proper resources, he would do something extraordinary and he justified that faith,” he added.
The film was shot initially at a disused brewery in Wandsworth, with interiors following at HDS Studios in Hayes, Middlesex, in UK.“While talking about making films in UK, people tend to focus on their extremely successful tax credit structure. What they often ignoreis the availability of a large talent pool of technicians that help significantly enhance the quality of a film.The creature design and the extensive VFX work required to bring it to life, for example would not have been possible if we had not made the film in the UK,” says Kumaran.
“Designing a new, iconic creature was part of what made the movie so appealing to us,” says Kumaran. “I think the prospect of being able to create a new creature, unique in its design and its construct– that’s what appealed to me when we decided to greenlight Storage 24.”
Released in 2012, Guardian in its review called the film, “unexpectedly entertaining”, and Hollywood Reporter praised director Johannes Robert’s “atmospheric use of the claustrophobic location to inspire retroactive dread the next time you venture into such a building to retrieve your possessions.” The film won the best VFX award at 24 FPS International Animations Rewards.
The international rights of Storage 24 were handled by Medient Studios Inc, a 360-degree media studio established by Manu Kumaran who served both as its CEO and chairman. It was released in USA by Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Films.
