The Battery

There is very little I can say that already hasn't been said about in other reviews. It truly is a masterpiece of cinema and for a budget of only $6k, it delivers much more than many of the studio blockbusters. As a zombie fan, it was a great take on the genre, focusing on the characters and their plight, rather than the gore and scares that most other films of it's ilk tend to. I also think that the lower budget went in it's favour, it wasn't ruined by an over-abundance of special effects and I strongly believe that the essence of the movie would have been ruined if it had been produced by a big studio. Having seen many low budget badly acted zombie films, I was expecting much the same from this. Needless to say, I was surprised at how good it was and would recommend it to any fan of the genre. It's superb.

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...

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.