"The Battery" 9/10
It has been said often enough to almost become cliche that the best zombie movies aren't about the zombies themselves, but the people. The reason it is so oft repeated is that, by & large, it is true. Dealing with the characters reactions to the zombpocalypse, how they deal with it, their struggles with each other. Their struggles with themselves.
That is exactly the type of movie "The Battery" is. We are given the story of two minor league baseball players, a pitcher & a catcher or "a Battery" in baseball slang, & their travels & struggles across New England during the aforementioned zombpocalypse, & their struggles to survive this end of the world, each other, & themselves.
From its opening credits, accompanied by a cover of the gospel standard "Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down", you know that you're in for something special.
The move is very measured & methodical in its pacing. This is not an action or a gore film. It is, at its heart, & drama with horror elements. It starts off slowly enough, & seems that it's going to be little more than average at first, but slowly builds as it goes along. It's a movie that doesn't reveal its greatness up front. You have to go along on the ride with it & be patient before it carefully reveals its secrets to you.
Ultimately, The movie succeeds or fails based on if your attention can be kept by the performance of the two leads & the narrative of their journey. Mine was, & it succeeded splendidly for me.
It is very rare these days for me to see a movie that I think about beyond the viewing experience itself, or that makes me want to give more than a couple of sentence summary, or that actually makes me look forward to discussing the film with others. This one does all of that & more.
Made for a reported budget of just $6000 is is a very small movie, & is the very definition of "indie", both in its look, feel, tone, & sensibilities, right down to its excellent, but off beat soundtrack.
I had avoided this movie because of the disservice someone did of summing up the movie by a condensed summary of the 3rd act as the basis of the entire movie itself. I regret now it took me so long to give "The Battery" a shot, as it delivered a solid home run.
I don't think it would be too much hyperbole to call "The Battery" one of the better entries in to the genre in the last 5-10 years. I would certainly put it right up there with the Ford brothers "The Dead", but from a TOTALLY different end of the spectrum in terms of size & scope, but right there with it in terms of human drama & emotional journey, if not even more so.
It is a relief to know that the zombie sub-genre still has life in it. It is a belief I've held over all these years, even with all the sub-par offerings that make it feel like there is nothing much left to be said or done. Then someone comes along with a new take, a new perspective, or just a new way of telling the same very basic stories about human beings that makes it feel fresh & alive again.
Anyone who doubts this, or is looking for that infusion of freshness, or is a fan of some of the core elements that make the zombie sub-genre what it is, or even that just loves a good indie dramatic story told simply, owes it to themselves to see this film.
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 Originally Posted by shootemindehead
I've seen it under the Ben and Gerrys title.
It's decent enough, but the central characters are wankers, to say the least. Not that suvivors of a zombie apoc have to sound lads or anything. But, I think I'd end up walking away!
There's some really decent low budget indie flicks being made in the last few years that have been worth seeking out (which BTW shows up the lie about illegal downloading killing the business) and I got a good old kick out of this one. In addition, for such a low budget, it really has put some other much higher budgeted films to shame. It used every single dollar perfectly IMHO.
Mmm. Maybe. I started off that way, but as the movie progressed I liked them both, though they were both obviously "sub par" characters. That was what made them so great IMO is that they were both so flawed & "less than ideal" characters, which was refreshing.
I think a telling comment was made by the writer/director/star ("Ben") of the pic in the making of: when asked which character he was most like he said BOTH of them, that each were aspects of his personality that he found it interesting to explore as two separate characters.
So really, you could really kind of view these guys as each being an incomplete person(ality) who complement, & in some ways, need each other.
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