Review

"He shot everyone, in cold blood like he always wanted to" - Kelly

Okay everyone has read the spoiler warning up the top there right, last chance because in the very next paragraph I am going to unleash spoiler hell. Do not read on if you haven't seen the last couple of episodes of Cold Storage.

Just when we thought Chase had join the truly dead, head shot will get them every time, we find he survived and was only creased by B.J's parting shot, (see what I did there). Chase manages to escape the toxic dumpster, says hello to an old friend, and manages to get back inside the storage facilitate without becoming zombie chow.

For no apparent reason he then decides to check out storage locker 326, a room B.J. seems to be taking undue interest in. No wonder, the dirty digger was keeping a chick tied up in there. Chase manages to free her and we learn exactly what went down at the facility immediately post apocalypse. A final showdown with B.J. ensues.

Great closing episode nails the concept that monsters aren't all in the walking dead ranks

Got to say I loved the opening to this episode. Just when we thought things would go in a weird direction our main dude is still alive and kicking, the head shot just grazed him, knocking Chase back into the dumpster fill of dead bodies and buzzing flies. I really felt for the guy as he clambered over bodies to get out of the garbage pile of death, pretty dramatic stuff. Naturally we're expecting some payback, what horror story doesn't have a little revenge mixed in, and we do get it, but from a completely unexpected direction. Anyways great start to the episode setting up nine intense minutes of dramatic interlude in amongst the walking dead.

I was also pleased when Chase ran into an old friend after clambering out of the body melt, totally unexpected moment and it rocked the house down. Guess writer John Esposito had this whole closure thing going down with the circle of life featuring in a weird fashion. Armed with a machete Chase breaks into the storage facility, which indirectly I guess left an opening for the zombies to shuffle in. Okay a slight touch of author largesse with B.J. not being in the office when Chase arrives to get the keys to locker 326, was that a spur of the moment decision based on catching B.J. exited the room on one of the monitors or did Chase have the notion prior? - not important moving along, he also arms himself with a combat rifle.

I should point out that Director Greg Nicotero has the episode cutting between live action and CCTV footage throughout the episode, adding a sort of realistic narrative to Parting Shoots. The Director knows exactly what he's doing and keeps things tightly focused on his three characters as the drama heats up. Not going to say a whole lot more on that as spoilers are bubbling to the service. About the only element missing was perhaps a zombie clear and present danger, then again Cold Storage has been less about the dangers of the shambling dead and more about the dangers the living can pose. As stated elsewhere on site the dangers of the living are a constant refrain of the zombie sub genre.

I'm going to rush past the ending to avoid spoilers but did want to point out a couple of things. Firstly horror is littered with examples of people doing bad things and then paying the ferryman for their actions, we get another example here. Equally I was wandering if Director Greg Nicotero wasn't perhaps winking at the audience with the final scene, I took it as a nod to Romero's Day of the Dead, if you have seen both outings then you'll know what I'm getting at. Don't know about you but I was fairly satisfied with the conclusion to Cold Storage, poetic justice perhaps.

Overall I've real enjoy the webisode series and think that writer John Esposito and Director Greg Nicotero achieved what they set out to do, tell a simple morality play in an almost slice of life fashion. We have no idea why Chase and Harris were on the roof the building that introduced the series, equally at the end of this episode we have no idea where Chase and Kelly are going or even if they will survive. It's the telling of the immediate tale that is important and not what comes after. For those who want complete closure I would suggest one of the teen lite melodramas Hollywood have been turning out in the name of horror. Now that's something truly frightening.

Props to the makeup department for some excellent zombie effects that rival the main show, you could readily believe the extras were walking dead or Queensland Liberals. While the zombies haven't been front and center the attention to detail on them was still pretty cool.

Once again I had a good time with a Cold Storage episode and really appreciate AMC taking the time and effort to make these spin off webisode series. The final episode did what it set out to achieve, didn't over stayed it's welcome, and left me fanging to see the next series. If you haven't dived into Cold Storage yet then you are missing one heck of a series. We're talking maybe 30 minutes max, take some time to groove to a little bit of the zombie apocalypse, it comes in small chunks and should tie you over before the main event launches once again.