Film Review: THE BATTERY (2012)

 THE BATTERY (2012) USA 1hr 41mins

Director: Jeremy Gardner

"I always have to be present and aware coz you don't wanna deal with shit! You're always hiding behind headphones Mickey." - Ben

"But we just go and go man ... where are we going?" - Mickey

"If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck it's probably a fucking zombie!" - Ben

Two former baseball players are wandering the rural back roads of New England during a zombie apocalypse. They have been surviving for months but it has not been easy and tempers are wearing thin. Mickey (Adam Cronheim) misses the way things were and really isn't equipped for the survival game (he cant even bring himself to say the "Z" word!). He spends most of his time moping about with his headphones on listening to music and using up all the batteries. Whereas, Ben (Jeremy Gardner) has taken to life on the road like a duck to water. He is practical and takes a hands on approach to coping with the undead. He finds supplies and kills the zombies whilst Mickey does very little. They travel round the country in their Volvo estate just to keep moving and existing. On a trip into town they raid Mickeys girlfriends house and find some walkie talkies. After intercepting a call between other survivors Mickey desperately tries to see if they can join them at their settlement but is told very directly to stay away. Things between Mickey and Ben go from bad to worse as Ben tries to get Mickey to "man up" by shutting him in a room with a zombie and forcing him to kill it. Mickey retaliates but it actually kind of worked and they start to work together more. After an altercation on the road with some unsavoury characters Ben and Mickey find themselves trapped in the volvo surrounded by zombies with very little hope of making it out alive.

THE BATTERY titled as such in relation to the baseball term which is the collective word for the pitcher and catcher in the game, which just so happen to be Mickey and Bens positions, is one of those low budget gems that comes along sadly rather infrequently. It is one of the best indie zombie movies of modern times. Jeremy Gardner has created a fantastic character driven apocalyptic story that is incredibly tense, unashamedly human and terrifyingly claustrophobic It captures the boredom and loneliness perfectly as well as dealing with the frustration and fear that goes along with it. It is very stripped back with a small cast. Jeremy Gardener and Adam Cronheim have a great on screen chemistry together and although they are totally different personalities there are times when they have fun and just deal with the situations thrown at them. Music plays a huge part in this as there are long moments with no dialogue and some great montage scenes. The music is heard by us the viewer from Mickeys point of view as he is mostly in charge of the CD walkman. Bands like Wise Blood and Sun Hotel feature along with a great version of "Anthem For The Already Defeated" by Rock Plaza Central sung in karaoke style by Gardner over a drunken dancing scene. They know exactly when and where to put the music in to keep your attention at times when there isn't always a lot going on. The score itself is also just as effective and fun. It was written by a friend of Gardner, Ryan Winford and as well as using conventional instruments he also used a variety of household appliances and everyday objects like a toaster and beer bottles to make the eerie incidentals to accompany the movie. Due to the budget being rather tight they only had a very small crew and Gardner often used Craigslist as a place to find crew members but in doing this he did find some great people. They found a dedicated make up artist who put her heart and soul into creating the zombies. With the use of lots of latex, tissue paper and fake blood they made some pretty convincing zombies. They do look really good and every zombie gives it their all. A lot of the zombies are played by the crew or friends and family of the cast and crew and they all did a fantastic job. There are no fast zombies here either it's back to the good ol' fashioned shuffling zombies. Often it is just the odd one or two rogue zombies but they do ramp it up at the end when they swarm the Volvo. Even though there may not be a lot of zombie action as such the zombies do appear in every significant scene. Without giving too much away the undead are an integral part of some of the most uncomfortable and disturbing scenes not to mention the soundtrack to the most claustrophobic chapter.

The setting and pacing play a huge role in this with some beautiful set pieces and scenery that makes the apocalypse come to life. THE BATTERY manages to hold your attention even when they decide to go for the "long scene" which is one continuous scene lasting a good 11 minutes of Ben sitting in the car waiting, the suspense is quite excruciating and carries you along. THE BATTERY took a few years to complete and once you have seen this I urge you to check out TOOLS OF IGNORANCE: THE MAKING OF THE BATTERY (2014) to really discover just how much trouble they had making this movie. When it did finally come out it was met with a huge positive response. It won nine awards at various film festivals including Best Film at at least three of the festivals. All I can say is that THE BATTERY deserves all of those awards. It is not often a zombie movie makes this much of an impression especially an indie, proving that a huge budget and massive FX don't matter a shit when you have quality content. THE BATTERY is a thought provoking, realistic version of how events could play out in this situation. I know that THE BATTERY has a lot of fans but if you haven't seen it yet then please do so as soon as you can as you really are missing out if you don't! I score THE BATTERY 4.5 brains out of 5. It misses out of the full 5 brains for me as it could have done with just a few more zombies but apart from that it is pretty much faultless!

THE BATTERY is available on DVD and Blu Ray.