The Battery hit Blu-ray from Scream Factory on September 16th
Battery: In baseball, the term battery refers collectively to the pitcher and the catcher, who may also be called batterymen or batterymates of one another. [Wikipedia]
The zombie craze is supposed to be dead, or at the very least decaying. And yet, here on the other side of the peak of cultural saturation, 2014 brings us The Battery, a solid indie with a new take on a genre where there aren’t supposed to be any fresh ideas left. Writer/Director Jeremy Gardner stars as Ben, a former baseball player navigating the new world of the undead with Mickey (Adam Cronheim). The two couldn’t be more dissimilar, so amidst the standard drama of the zombie apocalypse you have a growing tension and conflict between two leads who simultaneously desperately need one another to survive.
The Battery feels exactly like a hipster indie drama, only there are zombies in it. One person might read that description and run for the hills while another might urgently take note. And that is okay. There’s a good chance that fans of true indie cinema and fans of zombie films alike would find a lot to appreciate about The Battery. From the character-based approach, to the rumored $6000 shooting budget, to the “shot on a Canon 5D Mark II” indie sensibility, to the script which explores areas unexplored in any other zombie cinema I’ve seen, fans of indie cinema have a lot of reasons to laud The Battery. Gore and zombie hounds will also likely find plenty to enjoy in this creature feature and find the world very familiar to other properties featuring the greatest lumbering metaphors in cinema history.
What new elements does The Battery bring to the table amidst a crowded subgenre? Primarily the voice of writer/director/star Gardner. His screenplay mines deep and finds some unexplored and deeply human elements that aren’t very common for a zombie film. Ben is adapting remarkably well to a world overrun by zombies, though it seems he may have been the less socially adjusted of the two of them in the pre-zombie world. Ben has very little trouble with the detachment and wandering lifestyle they’ve adopted in order to survive. Meanwhile Mickey refuses to kill any zombies, closes himself off from the world by escaping into his headphones, and desperately longs for a woman. This simple set up creates several brilliant moments (if never any giant set pieces) which feel meaningful, funny, or simply fresh. As a for instance…when the lonely Mickey encounters a freshly dead zombie that used to be a pretty girl…what follows is both humorous and patently human. Their shared past in baseball also uniquely informs their partnership dynamic and allows for some fun segments of passing the time by playing catch together or hitting apples with a baseball bat in a beautiful montage. And the final act involves some bravura filmmaking, including an unbroken shot inside of a car that lasts several minutes. While the limitations of a minuscule budget can be felt in some of the performances and shortcuts taken with scope and scale, the character work, digital cinematography, and human elements make this a standout in a majorly oversaturated subgenre.
At the same time, I struggled some with the film and probably didn’t like it as much as I hoped I would. The experience of watching the movie was enjoyable, but lots of the shortcuts taken for budgetary reasons did feel like cheats to me. And the final act, while interesting for how non-traditional it is, sometimes felt like it was allowing space for creative freedom, and other times simply felt like the only final act the team could afford on their limited budget. It is probably a little bit of both, but it calls to mind an interesting dilemma when it comes to critiquing films. I largely enjoyed The Battery, but had some significant problems with it, such that the film didn’t quite live up to my expectations. However, once I found out that initial photography was done for only $6000, my whole framework for what was accomplished in the film shifted. I was impressed by how good the film was for how little money was spent on it. And yet…did the film really stand tall on its own without the knowledge of how humble its beginnings were?
Regardless of its insanely low budget, The Battery is an entertaining and incisive take on the zombie apocalypse. The rough elements are plentiful, but the unique voice of Gardner and his team are enough to push the film into the recommend column. Knowing just how little was ultimately spent to create this film is simply icing on the cake.
The Package
Scream Factory can be very hit or miss (baseball pun intended?) with their modern day acquisitions. While I tend to be excited by their catalog title releases and usually enjoy their repertory selections, there have been quite a few current films put out by them that didn’t click with me at all. But here they’ve selected an exciting new indie horror film that will be discovered over and over again throughout the years, and marks the arrival of a talented filmmaker in Jeremy Gardner. On top of the film being a worthwhile acquisition, Scream Factory has also loaded the disc up with bonus content. I watched the entire 90 minute behind the scenes documentary, which was engaging and informative for anyone dreaming of someday making a feature film of their own. There’s also a commentary which I wasn’t able to commit to, timewise, given that the documentary is itself feature length. There’s other typical fare such as outtakes and a trailer, as well as a featurette focusing on some of the very distinct and hip folk-style music from the film. Basically, this little indie film that could has gotten a top notch Blu-ray release packed with features and looking pretty gorgeous for one of the first feature films I’ve ever seen shot entirely on the Canon 5D Mark II. The Battery won’t deliver much in the way of spectacle, but it makes up for that with a clear vision, solid character work, and an overall DIY spirit that is contagious.
And I’m Out.