Rented storage can be pretty interesting, mostly in the frustrating way, or in a way where you wonder what the thrill was for a whole week. For a pitch which seems so banal, storage films do need to have a great plot to justify all that time spent on the setting. Which mostly is horror or thriller. Of course, you could never imagine a romantic comedy which is set in a fact that the central theme always is, a storage unit which is filled with a handful of crooked people and a predictable ending, neither do you leave feeling satisfied. Unit 234: The Lock Up by Andrew Tennant is just engaging enough to different you from the boredom that the setting was.
Laurie, a caretaker of a rather secluded storage which was previously managed by parents, takes the role of a night manager since no other options are available. Meanwhile, after Anthony McCarthy, a very obnoxious man claiming to have a unit, repeatedly bugs her, she goes investigating and finds a guy completely passed out in Unit 234, locked, as well. This man called Clayton is in a gurney with no left kidney and gory tattoos. A band of thugs wants to get back Clayton, who for some mysterious reason never appears to be painted in a good light.
Unit 234 is a very concise unlimited thriller that progresses at breakneck speed to a nail biting cat-and-mouse on the storage unit. The location itself has intriguing but at the same time very frustrating drawbacks so that Laurie is left with little choices to outsmart the gang. Thankfully though a bit astonishing, the only thing we are shown, however, is a very grim thing as to why and how Clayton came to be in a body bag with a kidney missing, that is, black market organs. And the pace of the story doesn’t relent. They did include a few stretches of time to allow Laurie to recite her back story, and even the cast’s designated ‘bad guy’, Don Johnson as an ex fiancé, but these more melancholy moments only serve as a further distraction from the flimsy plot. The suspense starts to rise right after the ‘package’, who turns out to be Clayton, steps foot on the storage and does not stop until the very last sequences in which Laurie is fighting for her life. In a film, such as this one where the premise and the plot are both gruelingly simplistic, the plot’s progression is original in that it is equipped with the means to evolve along with characters.
Only one factor was negative about the film which was a turning point or a realization at some point in the third act. This one I think is a little too late though it is expected in some shape or form.
The cast consists of only a few characters, and decent ones at that but it is Isabelle Fuhrman as Laurie who really gets across to the audience. It is very easy to believe how a character who starts in owning a very small storage space ends up having that storage space dominating her life. Also, she portrays her action-movie talents quite well, which makes it a pity that she hasn’t had a larger role in the action genre yet.
All in all, Unit 234 is an unexpectedly thrilling, suspenseful, and amazing movie to watch. Who would ever expect a story with a storage unit premise to be so entertaining?
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