THE BATTERY ***** U.S.A. 2012 Dir: Jeremy Gardner 100 mins
The Battery is the tale of 2 baseball players, Ben (Jeremy Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim) forced together during the apocalypse and trying to survive. Ben is the one taking out the zombies, always on the look out, scavenging and embracing the lawlessness and great outdoors whereas Mickey seems constantly distant, moping about with his headphones on, more interested in his ex and finding a comfy bed for the night, oh, and terrified of the zombies. We follow them as they travel around New England trying to find a safe place without being trapped in.
The film is pretty much just Ben and Mickey interspersed, very sporadically with some very well done old school slow zombies who although number few at the start do pick up as the film progresses. They eventually manage to contact another group but it was probably best they hadn’t. During a showdown with a desperate individual Ben tries to talk him down by saying “Don’t you think we’ve got enough to worry about without worrying about each other”, very true statement given what then befalls the unfortunate pair. For a low budget film the acting is fantastic from all involved but, of course, especially from the 2 main characters who also wrote, directed and produced the film. The way they interact with each other is highly amusing but also, given the incredibly claustrophobic nature of it especially at the end, they really show the boredom and tension involved with such a situation. The film features a great original score by Ryan Winford who used beer bottles and toasters, as well as the usual instruments, as percussion and also has songs from bands Wise Blood, The Parlor and there is an awesome scene where a drunken Ben sings along to Rock Plaza Centrals “Anthem For The Already Defeated”. This film has won various awards and also spawned a making of feature length documentary called Tools Of Ignorance: the Making of The Battery which if you enjoyed the film will be a welcome accompaniment. I most definitely do not have a bad word to say about this film, really I would have liked to have seen a few more zombies ideally but I do love a good zombie film especially ones that try to be different, it just makes them that bit more appealing. Totally love this film!