The Battery (2012) User Reviews

A remarkable "anti-zombie" story

[StevePulaski · 9/10 · 5 June 2013]

I love film and I love it even more when it sneaks up and surprises me with something completely unpredictable and original. Jeremy Gardner's The Battery, made for only $6,000 and released on video-on-demand outlets as of June 4, 2013, is one of the most surprising endeavors I've stumbled upon in months. It's a free-spirited, "anti-zombie zombie movie," combining wonderfully played dialog, palpable circumstances, and enough wit and soul to liven an entire franchise of movies. If this is the future of independent horror, I got some serious renting to do.

Gardner, who directed, wrote, and produced the film, stars as Ben, traveling down the back-roads of Connecticut with Mickey (Adam Cronheim), both of whom were once ballplayers. Their polar-opposite personalities and resistance of closeness and bonding tells us they weren't the two sitting next to each other at the bar when they celebrated a win. Ben and Mickey are traveling the back-roads in an attempt to flee the zombie apocalypse and find adequate shelter.

I'll interrupt myself by saying that I use the phrase "zombie apocalypse" loosely; very loosely. Gardner is smart to shove the undead to the background, while the relationship and humanity of Ben and Mickey proudly takes the foreground here. While both men may not be the best of friends, neither would've gotten far without the help of each other. Mickey is petrified of "zombies" (I put the word in quotes since the only time the word is uttered is reluctantly and hesitantly indicating the overusing of it in recent times) and leaves all the killing and maiming to Ben, who likely would've went insane without the companionship.

The device used to unite the men are Mickey's headphones, which do different things both both men. Mickey uses them to temporarily close out the world around them; he employs them when he is frazzled or nervous about the dubious times. Ben uses them as a lighter form of escapism, cheerily dancing to Rock Plaza Central's "Anthem for the Already Defeated," making for one of the best scenes in the entire picture.

The Battery works so well because it doesn't try to be just another film capitalizing off of the incredibly childish, overblown idea of a zombie apocalypse, which would be much easier to do in the wake of The Walking Dead and World War Z. An "anti-zombie zombie movie" is the perfect way to describe this picture. Despite placing emphasis on the undead, the film's focus is on the living, making for a very realistic, pragmatic take on a relationship that may come through during such an abhorrent event.

With sun-soaked cinematography by Christian Stella, capturing the woodsy atmosphere and the sweltering climate of the wilderness and vastly open plains of grass and wheat better than any films I've seen in recent years and a soundtrack composed of delightful but not cliché indie rock tunes, aesthetically, The Battery has it all to a tee. This is certainly one of the best looking films of the year, as well. While this is Gardner's first formal outing, he conducts it like an incomparable professional, staging shots that are tricky and clean, making use of a setting for more than twenty minutes, and even holding on one continuous shot for eleven minutes. None of this is boring, by the way. The final act takes place entirely in a van and is one of the most intimate, realistic exchange between two characters I've seen in a film like this, mainly because the conversations and exchange of thought it so typical and atypical to the situation. Regardless, the film is wholly unpredictable and that's one of the highest compliments I can pay to a film.

Stories like Ben and Mickey's are far more interesting than redundant survivalist drama in the wake of an apocalypse or a subversive yet lukewarm look at zombie romanticism. If we're past the point of ques and cinematic semantics and are formally referring to the The Battery as a horror film than this is, by far, the best horror film of 2013. It certainly is one of the best dramas of the year as well. And comedies. And action films. And thrillers. And satires. And films in general.

Starring: Jeremy Gardner and Adam Cronheim. Directed by: Jeremy Gardner.

Zombie film but very unlike the usual blood&gore. Rather studying two different characters coping in a hostile environment. With humor as a secret ingredient

[JvH48 · 9/10 · 12 April 2013]

I saw this film at the Imagine film festival 2013 in Amsterdam. The festival website labeled it as Horror, but the IMDb website rightly adds the Drama label as well, the latter better describing the essence of the story. There is no real plot, other than the zombie plague that apparently is spreading. We are left in the dark how and why this came about. The number of zombies in sight is kept to a minimum, being not really important for the story, only needed as entourage creating the circumstances in which the two men have to survive. The few humans they encounter on their journey are hostile on average, only trying to survive like our two main characters. Meanwhile they talk about lost relatives, family members, and (of course) former girl friends whose fate is uncertain.

We see two very different characters, formerly working together as a so-called Battery (a catcher and pitcher couple in baseball), roaming from place to place, eating canned food, using empty houses for shelter when available (after being checked for zombies, and swept clear of it when needed), but otherwise having nothing useful to do other than practicing and quibbling. Their interaction is the real subject of this film, and keeps us interested for the whole 101 minutes running time. The secret ingredient is the humor that is interwoven throughout, and their differences in coping behavior.

The long final scene in the confines of a car is unique. From the Q&A after the screening we learned that it was even 17 minutes long originally, later cut down to 11 minutes, but still stretching the patience of contemporary viewers. But it worked: wondering how this would come to an end (and which end?) kept us alive and prevented a walk out. Unique for the film as a whole is that it adds humanity to the zombie category (a takeaway quote from the Q&A). It shows that it is not always needed to have an abundance of blood&gore in a horror movie to keep us interested. Apparently, this story works as a vehicle to let us think about what might happen when our way-of-life is turned upside-down. How will I cope in such circumstances??

Of course, the post-apocalypse situation always gives rise to questions: where to find petrol (out of stranded cars??), bullets (how to obtain??), and batteries. They burn a lot of the latter, e.g. the walkie-talkies took 4 each, and the continuous use of a discman is utterly irresponsible. But all of that may be wrong questions to ask, especially in this movie that tries to be different and succeeds very well in that, so we really should not be bickering about such tiny details.

All in all, I was very satisfied to put this film on my "must see" list, regardless of the synopsis not sounding that much interesting. But it worked out very well for me, after all, as can be derived from above paragraphs. I scored a maximum (excellent) for the audience award when leaving the theater. As of today, this film ended second (score 8.43) on the audience award listing, so I'm not alone in this.

Just when you thought you couldn't take yet another low-budget zombie movie, here's one that is actually worth seeing.

[doravale · 8/10 · 16 April 2013]

The thought of yet another low-budget zombie movie filled me with dread, but I was hearing good word of mouth about Jeremy Gardner's $6000 zombie pic THE BATTERY, so I gave it a whirl at Amsterdam's Imagine film festival. And am very glad I did, as it turned out to be probably my favourite film of the all the ones I saw there.

It's a (nearly) 2-hander about two guys crossing rural New England and, very occasionally, fighting off zombies. The title is a baseball term referring to the partnership between the pitcher and the catcher. Or something - forgive if if I've got that wrong; I don't know much about baseball, but it doesn't matter anyway.

And that's pretty much all you need to know about the plot.

Like the best zombie films, it's more about the living than the dead. This is a double-pronged character/relationship study (which thankfully never degenerates into the bad soap of The Walking Dead) rather than an action movie and there isn't an awful lot of gore, so younger viewers with ADD might get fidgety. But anyone who enjoys a well-crafted screenplay and nicely-drawn characters will have a blast. The climax, which makes a virtue out of the film's low budget, is particularly ingenious.

There are no wobblicam, jitterbug editing, CCTV, found footage, flashy camera effects or modish colour grading. Just a brace of good performances against a backdrop of leafy green countryside in broad daylight, beautifully edited & classically filmed so that (and this is a novelty these days) you can actually SEE what's going on.

Also has an excellent soundtrack.

Both Superb Entertainment and a Cautionary Tale..

[A_Different_Drummer · 10/10 · 11 July 2013]

Gardner is brilliant. Never met the man, not related, but the comment stands. Brilliant. It is easy to get distracted by the fact that this movie was produced for the approximate cost of a weekend catering budget for a typical Hollywood film. So we won't go there. Where we will go is to the notion that Gardner took THE EXTREMELY OVERDONE ZOMBIE FORMULA (overdone because the current culture Gestalt is a sense of impotence as the Masters of Our World, the 1%ers, work their will on us lesser mortals) and turned it inside out. Is it a zombie movie? Is it a buddy movie? Is it a Road Movie? Is just a darn good movie? Garner not only wrote, directed and produced but in fact his performance is the best in the film. He is a natural actor. He also has a flair for music videos, as attested to by the ANTHEM FOR THE ALREADY DEFEATED bit, just a few minutes, but it haunts you for days. The camera work in the last scene will be discussed in film classes for years. This is both entertainment and also a cautionary tale for the over-bloated Hollywood where, as always, films are made based on who you know, and who owes you what. See it. Seriously. See it.

Brilliant new addition to the zombie genre

[fung0 · 9/10 · 1 June 2016]

I'm truly astounded by the mediocre rating for this superb little film. The Battery has humor, horror, character and visual style. It packs more cleverness into each scene than most movies - including those with 10 or 100 times the budget - manage in their entire length.

The story is deliberately slim: two average guys (who happen to be baseball players) wander the countryside some time after the zombie apocalypse. One of them is easy going, happy to take each day as it comes. The other is lonely, living in denial and longing for his old life and our vanished civilization. That contrast is played out in a series of vignettes, each with a sly and subtle point.

The dialog is very sharp, and the two leads are played to perfection. The pace and style of the film are unusual: it really feels like a camping holiday, where there's no hurry about anything. It's also hilariously self-aware. This is the kind of zombie movie where the characters have actually seen every previous zombie movie. Call it a post-zombie road-trip movie. It comments on the genre, while extending it in an interesting new direction. It lets us get to know its characters, slowly but thoroughly, and shows us how average people might really feel in a world empty of people but filled with undead menace.

The ending came as a bit of a surprise to me, but it made more and more sense the longer I thought about it. This definitely is a movie you'll want to think about. One that will stay with you. Top-notch, on every level.

Far better than World War Z crap

[searchanddestroy-1 · 27 December 2014]

At last a good zombie flick. Since a long time now. Since 2007 and the rebirth of the zombie genre with 28 WEEKS LATER - a terrific experience as a viewer - we found legion of not only zombies but zombie movies, and not necessarily the best ones. Most of them worth the garbage can. I love this kind of small production, made among pals for six thousand bucks, with a total freedom, and without f...executive to watch every move you make, evaluate how much toilet paper you bring to the men's room. All those jerks who know sh...about movie production, who hardly know how a set is made and who only watch the dol register. Those clerk pricks. Yes, I like this little feature, but I agree with another viewer, it could have been shorter, for instance seventy minutes. It would have been far enough. Sure, the character study is OK. Well done for such a tiny budget. A good little gem.

Nicely offbeat road film drama... with zombies

[Corpus_Vile · 7/10 · 5 May 2013]

Ben (the director, Jeremy Gardner) & Mickey (Adam Cronheim) are two ex pro baseball players who are eking out an existence while wandering a zombie infested America. Ben is nomadic and doesn't like staying in one place for too long, while Mickey longs for settlement. Mickey hides himself away from the zombie apocalypse via solace in his headphones which he almost permanently wears, while Ben is more the hunter gatherer type, more concerned with survival. On they wander, smoking, fishing, playing catch and generally getting on each others nerves, as when one has survived a zombie apocalypse, one unfortunately doesn't get to choose one's traveling companion.

And that's pretty much it in terms of plot as The Battery is more of a quirky, offbeat character driven road film than an outright zombie film, with the zombies themselves only very occasionally making an appearance. However, while being flawed, The Battery is at heart a pretty decent film, with great and believable chemistry between our two squabbling protagonists, and while shot on a minuscule paltry budget of a mere $6,000 it's a beautiful looking film and easily transcends its shoestring budget via its wholly believable performances. It's also gut bustingly funny in parts with great dialogue and one unutterably wrong but absolutely hilarious scene that had me on the floor.

It's not a film without its flaws though, with some scenes going on far too long, which kinda annoyed me and I really think it could've benefited with some leaner editing. However, for a debut film shot with such ultra limited resources, it's overall a minor quibble as ultimately The Battery is a winner, so horror fans should give it a chance as it's an ambitious and satisfying film with a ton of heart. Awesome soundtrack too.

A Singular Zombie Movie Experience

[Simon_Says_Movies · 7/10 · 20 August 2013]

As those enticed by the sport of baseball will know well, a "battery" is the two person team of the pitcher and catcher, also known as batterymen or batterymates and so to is the source of the relationship between Ben and Mickey, two wandering souls in a world consumed by the zombie apocalypse. But the title of this immensely intriguing low budget project shares a duel meaning as Mickey's collection of batteries he keeps in his travel pack holds the power of denial, allowing his Discman and a bundle of CD's to shut out the world. All his companion keeps a checklist of the number of undead he offs with his bat or revolver. This is but one of the intriguing dynamics present in The Battery, a very deliberately paced but ultimately very satisfying approach to the genre.

In all honesty calling The Battery a zombie film at all would be a misnomer as this time around the stumbling monsters are relegated to bloody window dressing with the film instead focussing on the relationship (and unlikely bond) these two very different people share. Ben is brash, aggressive, unnecessarily assertive and very frank, whereas Mickey is a meek romantic, the type who upon hearing a woman's voice over a walkie talkie immediately dreams of the potential for some sort of a far fetched relationship. Despite appearances, these two need one another – Ben relying on Mickey to keep him sane and Mickey on his caveman like partner to protect him and ultimately keep him in the moment.

I know for a fact however that there will be people who despise The Battery, and not because of the genre to which it belongs. This is a very slowly paced film and also one that fills a good portion of its running time with no dialogue scenes of the two traversing the sun soaked New England countryside. Other extended sequences simply fixate on Mickey listening to his music, often playing entire songs without anything else but a static shot of the actor's face. "Maddening" (and certainly "boring") will be used by some but for me, despite some similar issues, The Battery had a transfixing quality and a strong, emotionally satisfying payoff.

The pitfalls of any micro budget ($6,000) flick remain, from having to skimp on makeup effects (which is still quite respectable actually) gore, the best props, ability to shoot scenes multiple times, etc all remain and with first time director-writer-star Jeremy Gardner at the helm, hiccups were to be expected. He and co-star Adam Cronheim's acting chops dip from time to time though they do better than most considering the circumstances. What I enjoyed most about Gardner's script was its blunt depiction of the way two twenty-something dudes would talk, swinging between simply silence and to-the-point sarcastic banter. This is a shoot the **** writing style and it works more often than not.

As the finale rolls around we find our leads trapped in their car, without keys and a horde of the undead surrounding them and rocking the vehicle without fatigue. It starts out very comedically but slowly loses that quality and becomes quite maddening, a feeling or protagonists certainly share. The very final (unbroken) shot was reportedly 17 minutes long originally but was then cut to 11. It's a fantastic and effective ploy but one I think would have been even more searing if it hadn't been preceded by so many other long takes. The third act as a whole is melancholy in its construction but also rousing and triumphant in a way and also offers a neat spin on the oft seen refuge camp, a la The Governor's Woodbury in The Walking Dead.

In fact in spite of its budget The Battery employs a number of interesting approaches to the genre (if not every completely fleshed out) such as how to baptize the uninitiated into the art of zombie killing, how one might satisfy their "needs" in the situation and simply how two guys might actually react to the situation and where they (or at least one of them) might feel safe to sleep at night. Blended with the indie soundtrack (one that never goes into quirky hipster territory) strong editing and its unwavering approach and style, The Battery is a singularly unique take on the zombie phenomenon and one that is nothing close to something I would recommend to everyone.

Unfathomably uneventful...

[paul_haakonsen · 2/10 · 23 December 2015]

Right, well I get suckered in by anything even remotely zombie, despite most zombie movies turning out to be bad, and "The Battery" was bad.

I wonder what isolation the reviewers who wrote 'this movie is outrageously, insanely good', 'the first must-see zombie movie in a hell of a long time', 'truly amazing' and 'raises the bar' have been trapped in. If they think this was good beyond words, they are out of tune, pure and simple. Those above-mentioned statements were brandished on the DVD cover along with some nice-looking zombies.

But lets stop right there! I got suckered in by false advertising so you don't have to. The aforementioned statements seems to be minted on a whole different movie, and t he zombies in the movie look nowhere near those on the DVD cover.

In fact, the zombies in the movie were just people with really poor zombie make-up. But wait, it gets better, as you actually see a zombie woman consciously removing hair from her face during the motel scene. That was just so stupid.

While "The Battery" offers absolutely nothing to an audience that crave proper zombie make-up and the obligatory gore, then it is disturbingly difficult to find anything worthwhile spending 96 minutes on suffering through this lack-of-zombies movie.

The only thing that "The Battery" had working in its favor is the acting talents of both Jeremy Gardner and Adam Cronheim.

But all in all, then this movie is not really worth suffering through, and if you do, then it is the type of movie that you watch once, then bag and tag it to let it collect dust on the movie collection shelves.

This was a major disappointment and a slap in the face if you are a zombie aficionado like me.

Toothbrushs and the end of the world

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 27 April 2016]

Ben (Jeremy Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim) survived the zombie apocalypse with a little luck and lots of patience inside a house surrounded by the undead. Now they travel around in the country with a simple strategy to survive: keep moving, so they can't catch us, and stay away from the towns and cities where most of them are lurking.

You might divide Zombie movies into 3 types: stage 1, when zombies only occur on remote islands, while the rest of the world doesn't notice ('White Zombie', 'I Walked With A Zombie', or Lucio Fulci's 'Zombi 2'). Stage 2, when a city is overrun, but with the aid of military forces, mankind may still emerge victorious ('Return of the Living Dead', Lenzi's 'Nightmare City'). Stage 3, when the zombies won and only few survivors are hiding or running ('Day of the Dead', 'Resident Evil: Extinction'). The problem is, too many 'stage 3' movies have been shot in recent years, including the TV series 'The Walking Dead' which took the commercial potential to a whole new level. So, if you pushed apocalypse to the top already, where can you go from there? 'The Battery' aka 'Ben & Mickey vs. the Dead' recognized you cannot push destruction and violence any further, so it takes apocalypse from a huge scale down to a small personal level. Ben and Mickey don't massacre the undead. They just try to stay out of the way and live a life with small pleasures. They'll be happy to find a toothbrush, clean socks, batteries for the CD player or a bottle of booze. The lack of heroic ambition and the wish to avoid fights leads to a lazy life (with the risk of an early demise, nonetheless). If viewers describe the movie as boring, slow or uneventful, that's because the two main characters love to live as uneventful as possible. The orchard, where nobody could pick up the apples because they are all dead, is a quiet and ultimately disturbing symbol for the decay of the world – you don't need to show a burning city for the same statement. The movie is kind of unique in its modesty - and very tongue-in-cheek, too. In my opinion, it deserves to be watched because it takes a different approach to the zombie genre, which is hard to achieve in a genre that accumulated so much attention of movie makers in recent years.

Power cell

[kosmasp · 8/10 · 21 April 2014]

At times this seems to be dragging at a speed that even a slow walking zombie would feel offended by. But the road movie and the road ahead in general have powerful things to say. While this is obviously a low budget movie with mostly two characters on display (and their interactions), it does have a lot of punches along the way.

You could ask if some conflicts were necessary, but you can never truly know how you'd react to a situation like the one those two friends find themselves in. And it's always good to have two guys who have a different personality. The movie is also not shy when it comes to more adult jokes and themes that would certainly come up while on the road for so long.

An independent movie like this seems to need all the promotion it can get, therefor it will be called "Ben & Mickey vs. The Dead" in Germany. Some might be aware of this, but it is "normal" for German distributors to change English titles of movies into English titles ... that may spark a wider interest. The movie speaks for itself, but don't expect this to be a comedy. It's independent, it gets down and it is dirty ...

Surprisingly Good Zombie Drama.

[jailbirdtri · 7/10 · 21 December 2015]

Made on a meagre indie budget, The Battery is a character study of two guys on the move following a zombie apocalypse. And it turns out to be a well-crafted horror-drama. The movie follows two baseball players, Ben played by Jeremy Gardner (who is also the Writer, Director & Co-Producer) and Mickey played by Adam Cronheim (who is also the Co-Produced). The movie is set in New England & the protagonists are on the run after a recent zombie apocalypse.

The movie deals with the personality clashes that the guys encounter as they travel through the woods of New England. Ben is a survivor, a bad-ass and as he calls himself, a realist. Whereas Mickey is a guy who has a lot of emotional inadequacies. Both the characters are likable and have a lot of aspects that the viewers can relate to. Both of them have done justice to their roles and the acting is okay, but not great. The storyline is simple and the characters provide the depth to the movie.

The movie is well directed for the simple storyline that it carries. Special mention has to be given to the DOP. A lot of filters seem to be used, but they have succeeded in capturing the lush greenery of the woods and certain frames are inexplicably beautiful. And of course, the soundtrack is awesome. I am not familiar with the songs used, but I may check them out later.

Unlike the usual Hollywood zombie flicks, the movie does not rely much on bloodbaths, gore, jump scares or CGI. The zombies are not depicted as smart-ass walking dead men who learns what the living are up to and then tries to outsmart the living. Rather they are depicted realistically as slow moving beings with minimal use of the CGI & makeup. So if you are a genre fan, don't expect the usual fun zombie ride, rather expect a slow character driven drama.

Definitely worth a watch.

Slow, boring, art-house version of the zombie apocalypse

[Logan-22 · 4/10 · 11 October 2013]

This is a long, slow, boring indie movie that has little to no zombie action and what little there is fails to satisfy. It's more of an indie art-house movie with a little comedy thrown in than horror. The story is about two buddies trying to survive months after the zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately, it's super-easy to do when the budget can't afford any cool action scenes--not even one. The violence is all off-camera or way off in the distance.

The bearded guy (who is also the director) is a decent actor but looks like Zach Gillifinakis from The Hangover but with crappy forearm tattoos. The other guy is a weak actor who has a stupid, annoying character that deserves to get killed for constantly putting himself and his buddy at risk. For example, he listens to loud music with headphones out in the open, which is a really bad idea because he can't hear zombies sneaking up, and he never learns his lesson! I would leave that jerk behind if he tried that a second time. Unfortunately, the bearded guy lets his moron pal hang around with predictable results. However, in an attempt to both "prank" this jerk and teach him how to kill zombies on his own, the bearded guy throws a hungry zombie in his room and locks the door on him while the guy is sleeping, yelling at him to wake up and use the baseball bat he left in the room for that purpose. Wow. That is pure sociopathic evil, totally unlikable, and a whole lot worse than beating his ass and leaving him behind. So neither character ends up being likable. No likable characters = no likable movie. Screen writing 101, dude!

On a positive note, I will say I enjoyed most of the soundtrack, which is some kind of Johnny Cash-inspired weirdness. Unfortunately, it's used all too often as an excuse to drag scenes out into awful montages like the director dancing around in his underwear ala Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Um, no thanks, dude. Nobody wants to see that!

Liberal fast-forwarding is required to get through this snoozer's interminable run time. That's not to say The Battery is terrible in the way most SyFy Channel movies are, it's just not the kind of zombie movie most people want to see (then again, neither is Steven Seagal or Levar Burton vs. zombies, but at least those movies have gory action and decent zombie make-up). I found some of the "guy talk" dialog amusing, but the movie didn't seem to get going until a hostage scene over an hour in, then it was over and the two guys spent the rest of the movie (at least another half hour!) trapped in their car, peeing in bottles and eating tuna fish out of cans. The big action/revenge scene that was promised never pays off and the movie just ends.

Man, this movie needed tighter editing. Scenes drag on forever with nothing interesting happening. Also, during the trapped scene, they leave the windows partly rolled down so the zombies can reach into the car! WTF? And it's patently obvious the zombie actors are trying not to reach in very far and are acting all wimpy about trying to break in and grab the guys. One zombie, a bearded old man on the right-hand side of the car at the beginning of the siege, is a horrible actor who keeps looking into the camera for direction and is barely pawing at the glass. The zombie make-up is terrible, just some blood splashes and dark circles under the eyes. The only thing worse than crappy-looking zombies is crappy-acting zombies, of which this movie has more than its share of both.

The glowing reviews seem to be from the cast and crew and their friends and family. No doubt anyone voting this review "unhelpful" is one of them.

Montage!

[greyfith · 4/10 · 17 July 2013]

I will admit that there were a few memorable and clever scenes.

Despite this, as a whole the movie was a too-long series of montages set to too many hipster tracks leading to the final act, which actually displayed the potential for a story.

I understand the budget was small, but that doesn't excuse the lack of story. Shouldn't a good film be story and character-driven? I don't really feel that enough time was spent on either. I felt nothing for the characters. Why resort to musical montage filler that doesn't actually contribute anything?

If the intent for this film was to be an artsy vehicle for the writer / director/ producer's musical interests, well then good job!

Nice effort, but I struggled to stay awake.

too much nowhere

[radhrh · 3/10 · 23 August 2014]

This is a zombie movie pure and simple. Don't try and call it a drama or a character study or what ever else the pseuds would have you believe. It has zombies in it and therefore it is a zombie movie and as such it should be compared and judged next to other movies of the same genre. By this yardstick it is painfully slow, there are relatively few scenes with zombies in them and the zombies themselves are pretty rubbish. There are a couple of good scenes, a few good ideas and surprisingly a few good laughs as well. But most of the time, like 90% of the time, we are stuck with the same two guys hanging out together, roaming aimlessly from one part of nowhere to the next, having dull conversations and smoking a hell of a lot of fags, all accompanied by a pretty dreary soundtrack. The film runs for 96 minutes, not including the credits but the ground covered in it could easily have been explored ( and very thoroughly explored at that ) in 60 minutes. Hats off to the guys for trying to do something different, it very nearly works in parts but there are just too many empty spaces in the film, too much nothing, too much nowhere...

A good short movie gem hidden in a movie that is way too long.

[azraeliz · 4/10 · 25 August 2014]

A low budget movie about 2 baseball players traveling through zombie infested land. That is the basic concept of this feature. I found this movie to be very interesting but in my opinion it would have worked much better as a 25-30min long short flick. I see lot of good ideas bubbling under the surface but it's dragged on by way too many music scenes of those 2 main characters smoking, eating or just doing nothing. that is not the right way to add to the length of the movie. The music was OK :) I see a bright future for all involved, especially Jeremy Gardner. Overall it's well made budget movie. but this flick has too little flesh on the bones to justify the 100min running time.

Boring AF!!!

[Pumpkin_Man · 1/10 · 12 April 2018]

My friend's dad has been begging me to watch this for awhile, and I honestly don't know why. It was turrible. Slow paced, no action, no plot, no ending, just a big waste of my time. Something sorta kinda interesting happens an hour into it, but that's about it. For a 'zombie' movie, there's hardly any gore.

Two baseball players named Ben and Mickey wander around during the apocalypse, scavenging for food and supplies. They talk about random boring stuff, come across a zombie every once in awhile, talk to a girl on the radio, listen to crappy indie music and get stuck in a car. That's literally it! Do yourself a favor and don't watch THE BATTERY!!!

Boring, long and boring

[orionhi · 1/10 · 17 July 2020]

The positive reviews cannot be honest reviews. This is an extremely boring movie. I gave it a chance because there were a few funny parts but do we really need to see a guy sitting in the car doing nothing for 10 minutes? Don't believe the positive reviews. They are lies

Perhaps the Zombie Apocalypse starts with being bored to death by this movie...

[sdiegotw · 1/10 · 6 August 2013]

It's hard to understand why anyone would give this movie a positive review. Every positive review must come from a cast member, crew member, or investor.

NOTHING happens in this movie. When 45 minutes had passed with absolutely nothing happening, I began to realize that this movie is hopeless. But I had already paid to see it and hoped in vain that there would be at least one interesting scene. That hope was dashed.

This movie shouldn't have been made at all. If someone decided it had to be made, it should have been a 20 minute short.

Do yourself a favor and stay away. FAR away. Unless you want to be bored to death.

Highly disappointed

[Lucabrasisleeps · 4/10 · 21 March 2015]

This is clearly not a horror movie. Well, at least not the kind of horror movie that I am used to. I have heard about slow burn movies but what about movies which don't have a payoff at all? The Micky character..Jeez, what a whiner! I was expecting him to just run away in the end and leave his friend to be eaten or something like that. Why not, at least give a shocking ending in the end. Give me something. I didn't just spend 100 minutes to see a lot of arguments and songs. And why are there so many songs? Is this Bollywood? And even a dance. I was rolling my eyes at the dancing and the annoying songs in the middle which spoil any sort of atmosphere they want to build. I guess they can pad the run time by including all these songs.

At the hour mark, suddenly I was curious about what is going on. I thought that this is the time the movie perks up. Something like Dead man's shoes or something. I was getting ready for the second half. Instead I get another long sequence in the car with a bunch of songs and the guys playing around. And the zombies? These must be the most useless zombies ever.

What about the Orchard? I didn't really care much but the way they built it, I was expecting something towards the end. That is fine but at least don't bore me by showing them brush their teeth and play baseball and all. A few kills would not interrupt whatever nonsense these two were doing.

I did laugh at a few points. It is not totally boring if you don't expect a horror movie. But even then, I couldn't stand that Micky character and I was getting a little tired of the unnecessary songs. Edit out the songs, expand on the Orchard and voila - there is a decent movie. Maybe not a horror movie but something good. Some points for some interesting scenes. Masturbating at a zombie and all. I think my problem was that I expected a straight forward serious horror movie. A rare commodity these days.

4/10

A Fantastic Indie Gem!

[dplowsav · 8/10 · 17 July 2013]

The Battery is the sort of film you get into with low expectations. It has the usual recipe for disaster; low-budget, check.. Actors you never heard of, check.. Directors you never heard of, check.. Featuring zombies so double potential for cheesiness, check..

Yet The Battery deifies the tradition of low-budget slapstick rubbish and slaps you with an unexpected dose of excellence. From its outstanding soundtrack to the realistic camera shots portrayed on screen in true masterful fashion by a director who truly understands how to capture scenes on camera and drown-out the usual traditional Hollywood tripe, The Battery aims to please and will leave you begging for more.

It has easily placed itself into my rather strict standards for Zombie genre excellence, and is now one of my favorite films in the blink of an eye.

Jeremy Gardner's performance in the film as Ben is what drove the film onwards and stopped it falling short. While his character could have been fleshed out just a bit more, his ongoing dualistic attitude towards Mickey was interesting to watch as well as refreshing to see a character in a zombie film utilize some common sense. A well rounded written character performed by a very talented actor that until now, remained undiscovered. Lets hope Hollywood doesn't butcher this mans career.

The film is not without its flaws however, and I found myself teething on the edge regarding the rating. Does it really deserve a 9/10 from my standpoint? The film had a few moments in which several supporting actors didn't shine as well as they should. Particularly Jamie Pantanella, who plays Egghead. Thankfully it was reserved as a small role, but his performance was poor and any more screen time could have dragged the film down. Adam Cronheim, who plays Mickey, had a few moments in which his performance dipped below the scale of his fellow actor, Jeremy Gardner, but it was easily overlooked as the on screen duo had good chemistry.

Cronheim's character is a bit of an enigma. Mickey's mentality is almost childlike, and at certain times during the film your left extremely frustrated with his character as a whole, and I found myself becoming less sympathetic to anything he does, which is a problem when it comes to the end..

Regarding the main stars of the film, that is, the Zombies, they were certainly a pleasant surprise. I was expecting some really poor make-up and badly choreograph Zombie actors, instead my expectations were let down. What I got was Zombies being Zombies. Granted, there wasn't many close-ups of the Zombies themselves, so the make-up department didn't have to work overtime, but you could tell they were effective enough to portray the fact that they were indeed, Zombies..

Despite some of its flaws, (including a ever so slightly flawed ending) The Battery has a gripping sense of survival realism and the director doesn't fall short on giving you that sense. I was going to give this film an 8/10, but I realized that I can overlook some underlying flaws that it suffers from and notch it up another point.

The Battery; an enjoyable experience, and a break from the usual high-octane action Zombie flicks.

the most boring zombie movie ever

[kghispredi · 4/10 · 3 July 2013]

This is an independent, low budget movie that focuses not that much on fighting zombies but on two guys who wander around the post-apocalyptic world. It's a cross between a road movie and a character study and I welcome that angle, rarely seen in a zombie movie - but however it fails to deliver.

The main characters are not very interesting and most of the movie is spent on showing them arguing and doing mundane stuff like playing catch, fishing, eating, brushing teeth, smoking. Playing catch and actual zombies are given roughly the same screen time! There are a few funny scenes but they are not worth the effort of enduring such a slow and cheap movie.

Uneven but worth watching and quite impressive given the budget.

[capkronos · 6/10 · 24 August 2014]

It's zombie apocalypse time yet again in a film that at least tries to do something a little bit different. We're never told the reason behind this particular outbreak at any point in the film because it is simply not important. What IS important is the relationship between the two central characters: Ben (Jeremy Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim), an odd couple who have nothing at all in common aside from their love for baseball and chain-smoking and their drive to survive in a new world where danger lurks around every corner. Ben is the 'strong' one. He's loud, crude and has no issue bashing in heads when need be. In fact, he goes out of his way to make sure that every zombie that crosses his path is killed. He feels it's his responsibility. Mickey, on the other hand, is the 'sensitive' one. He's lonely, emotional and wants to cling to whatever bits of normalcy he can (sleeping in beds, listening to music...) He's also not at all the violent type and has somehow managed to survive this entire time without popping his brain-bashing cherry; something his buddy eventually forces him to do out of sheer necessity.

Despite being frequently at odds with one another, both know there's strength in numbers and, since it's been months since they'd last encountered other surviving humans, they're kind of stuck with one another. Like many couples, they fight, bicker and do thoughtless, careless things they deserved to get bitched out over, but they always manage to make up. Whatever conflicts arise, it's nothing that can't be worked out by tossing the ball back and forth and talking it through. The two men have managed to survive for months traveling through the New England countryside where the zombie population is more scattered, but things finally start to unravel once they reach Connecticut. First, they're carjacked by a crazed man desperate to be reunited with his family in Arizona. Then, they find themselves running across a band of not-so-friendly survivors who live in a place called "The Orchard." After Ben is shot in the leg by one of them, he and Mickey find themselves trapped inside a car at the side of the road with a swarm of zombies crowded around outside.

Based on the reviews on here, this seems to be a 'love it or hate it' type of film for most viewers. I guess I'm one of the few people who is somewhere in the middle. While I liked a lot of what I saw here, I did have some major problems with this film that tried my patience. I began growing a little tired of all of the overlong, self-indulgent shots and the frequent time-killing music montages that went on for an eternity and seemed to exist solely to pad out time. This film could have easily been shorn of about twenty minutes with nothing lost in the process. The ending was also extremely frustrating because of the protagonists don't seem to do all that much to try to get themselves out of their desperate predicament when they have many tools at their disposal. There is no sensible reason why two men who have a baseball bat, a lighter, a knife, alcohol and other such things on hand would just hop out of a car and brave a zombie horde without even taking a weapon with them! I mean, make a torch, fashion a spear out of the knife and bat, or just take the bat... do *something*

Regardless of those annoyances, I did find myself drawn in enough to actually care about how things panned out, which is more than I can say for a lot of other films. Though the performances aren't brilliant by any means, they're not bad either for amateurs. The screenplay has some intelligent moments and character observations and there are nice, simple touches sprinkled throughout, as well as a good amount of humor. The cinematography and score are both pretty good and there are some excellent songs on the soundtrack, as well. Most impressive of all is all this was made for just 6 thousand dollars and it's a more ambitious and a better-quality film than numerous movies with multi-million dollars budgets. Flaws and all, it shows lots of genuine promise and anyone working in the horror genre who shows promise is someone worthy of championing since there are so many talentless hacks already working on these types of films.

And finally, a little warning: This is NOT an action film and if you're expecting something like RESIDENT EVIL going in, you may be disappointed with what you see here. This plays out more like a comedy-drama than anything else and the zombie scenes themselves are secondary. A nice counterbalance if you want it both ways is THE DEAD (2010), which has the same 'male bonding over a zombie epidemic' theme with more action and gore.

You may like it more than I did

[itrevorallen · 4/10 · 13 March 2020]

Forewarning *WITHOUT SPOILERS* this movie is very slow burning, the plot seems to aimlessly drift off into nowhere throughout the film and lead nowhere.

Yet, the film wasn't terrible. To tackle the zombie genre, which has been milked for every penny you could possible get out of it, and still produce a decent film takes talent. The main characters are also very relatable and lovable, while not breaking from a character you enjoy watching on a big screen. I would not watch this title again, though I do acknowledge it is very unique in its approach.

I could've watched this movie in 5 minutes

[comblitz · 4/10 · 3 August 2013]

I think it was 1:40 and I watched it in about 25 minutes, fast forwarding through most of the boring nonsense and just fished for scenes where someone was talking. This could have been a half hour TV show except it was stretched and filled with a bunch of nothing.

I didn't give it a 1 though. I gave it a 4 because it was slightly entertaining but only about 10 minutes worth.

Maybe I was just impatient, but I just can't invest that much time while a writer/director was plugging music and filming pretty landscape for a film that could've been an episode of Walking Dead.

Minimum review is 10 lines and I have nothing more to say. zzzzzzz