New Aussie chiller comes out of STORAGE

By Michael Helms

When he had to put most of his possessions into a storage facility, young Australian filmmaker Michael Craft found himself contemplating various reasons why people might use such a place—and what exactly they might have stashed behind the many locked doors. Combining these thoughts with details drawn from one of his country’s worst serial-murder sprees—which has become widely known as the “bodies in the barrels” case—Craft soon found he had the basic material for his debut feature, STORAGE. Four years later, he has come up with a tense Hitchcockian thriller that, following limited theatrical release Down Under, will make its Stateside debut care of IFC Films sometime this year, and he provided Fango with the exclusive gore pic seen below the jump.

STORAGE tells the tale of Jimmy (Matthew Scully), who has his life completely rearranged after he witnesses the murder of his father by a knife-wielding scumbag. Although Jimmy and his dad had just been watching DEATH WISH 2, STORAGE is no straightforward revenge thriller, but a twisty study of suspicion and murder that leaves any predictability bleeding in the gutter. Taken in by his uncle Len (Damian Garvey), who runs City Storage, Jimmy is introduced in short order to the workings of the building, along with Len’s assistant Zia (Saskia Burmeister) and, most importantly, the mysterious coming and goings of Francis (Robert Mammone). A dark horse among Australian genre regulars, Mammone is a talent to watch who has already appeared in everything from the Stephen King TV projects NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES and the ’SALEM’S LOT remake to the Peter Benchley telefilm THE BEAST and Brett Leonard’s MAN-THING, as well as the Australian/Canadian co-production ARCTIC BLAST, recently filmed in Tasmania.

Shot in Brisbane, STORAGE sported a crew including production Designer Michelle Sotheren and art director Christopher Cox, who performed the same duties on ACOLYTES. The movie’s solid and messy prosthetics gags were provided by Miles Blow and Jules Pitts. Craft reckons his film will appeal to those viewers who are into psychological thrillers, noting that, despite its basis in reality, the movie is more akin to J-horror in tone before adding, “STORAGE is a hard-as-nails thriller with its fair share of bloody moments.” Look for more on the movie as it gets closer to release, and see the trailer below and the official website here.