Junkyard slasher, warehouse zombies, or storage facility alien

What’s your pleasures? Psycho killer, zombies, or alien? I’ve got one of each!

WRECKAGE (2010)

After their car breaks down, two couples walk to a junkyard to find the right part to fix it. One couple just got engaged (and he’s a mechanic), the other couple is unmarried and expecting a baby. When the idiot daddy-to-be whips out a gun and starts goofing around, one of the girls is accidentally wounded. So the mechanic heads off to get help. When he returns with the cops and EMTs, his friends are gone.

It’s unusual to see a slasher in which a majority of the killer’s victims are police and EMTs, but that’s what you get here. Sort of dilutes the horror. But various junkyard machines and dangers are used as weapons, which adds some fun to the kills. And when the search party comes across some hick dude who works in the junkyard, he singlehandedly steals the show with some great one-liners.

In the end, there’s a twist that you knew had to be coming since the movie opens with a tragic incident involving little kids….

The best way to check out Wreckage is if it pops up on one of your horror channels and there’s nothing better on.

STATE OF EMERGENCY (2011)

Remember that commercial with the guy on a train platform who changes his train ticket so he can sit next to a cute girl on the train, thereby ensuring that his kid will grow up to be the president? That freckled cutie is named Jay Hayden, and you’ve probably seen him in at least half-a-dozen commercials.

Jay is also the main man in State of Emergency. This zombie—or should I say “infected”—movie features Jay all alone in a town after something has turned everyone into raving zombies with red eyes. He’s holed-up in this big barn/stable at the beginning, which makes for some of the scariest moments in the movie, including an intense confrontation with one single zombie.

Before long, Jay is contacted by a threesome hiding in a warehouse down the hill, so he joins them. The majority of the film focuses on the characters, not the zombies. In fact, despite the whole town being overrun with infected, we only see about 8 to 10 in total throughout the movie, and our heroes only face off against them one at a time. No swarms here. But they are cool zombies—very creepy, very fast, and relentless.

Even though they are fast zombies, they actually seem comatose; they just stand out in the fields completely still. That is until they spot you! Then all hell breaks loose and it is intense. One of the eeriest moments, when someone comes knocking on the door, feels like an homage to a scene from The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price. Great scene.

On top of that, we get to see Jay shirtless—and several of the zombies are studly dudes with no shirts on? I don’t get it, but I’m not complaining!

Unfortunately, the ending of the film falls short and feels quite rushed. Not specified but included in the deleted scenes is an extended ending that seems to be a bit more logical but then takes a bizarre turn that doesn’t make much sense; both endings fail to really clarify anything.

Even so, State of Emergency somehow succeeds in entertaining with only a limited number of characters and only a couple more zombies.

STORAGE 24 (2012)

Storage 24 totally rox. This is my favorite of this triple feature. It is just pure creature feature gory sci-fi/horror fun. A military plane crashes in London and the otherworldly cargo is still alive. Little does the group of people in a nearby storage facility know that when the shutters malfunction, leaving them trapped inside the building, they are not alone. The alien has found a new home!

Storage 24 has plenty of melodrama since the two groups in the storage facility happen to be on rival sides of a couple that has just broken up, each of them coming to get their belongings at the same time. But who cares? It’s all about the fricking awesome alien monster! And the movie doesn’t skimp in showing him. We get to see his freakiness right from the start, and he loves blood.

While there are little glimmers of subtle humor throughout (a dildo moment being my favorite), this is generally a very intense and serious film. Then suddenly, near the end, a “weapon” is used against the alien that would make more sense in an alien comedy flick like The Watch. Here, it seems really absurd and totally out of place.

The movie quickly gets right back to its intense tone for the climax, and the final visual is wickedly momentous! You’d never see it coming.

In the end, you’re sure to find something you like about each of these films….