#9 - The Battery (2012)

The Battery (2012)

(dir. Jeremy Gardner)

This film has received a lot of hype amongst the horror community recently - it won several awards on the festival circuit, and was picked up for distribution by Scream Factory and given an excellent home video release (Scream Factory is sort of the Criterion Collection of horror films, so this is a big deal).  It's an extremely low budget zombie film about two former baseball players traveling together through a post-zombie apocalypse New England.  They only really stick together out of necessity, and they don't get along very well - Ben is crude, but practical and a realist, and Mickey is an uptight romantic who refuses to kill zombies.  During their travels, they accidentally pick up radio chatter from what sounds like a compound of other survivors, but are told very plainly that they are not welcome.  Ben is happy to comply, but Mickey just can't let it go.

I thought this was a really good movie, and definitely one of the most original zombie films in a long while.  Despite the tiny budget, the production values are mostly through the roof.  The soundtrack and score in particular stand out - folksy, bluesy acoustic stuff with a dark edge to it; fans of Mumford and Sons will find a lot to like here.  In terms of story, it manages to avoid most zombie cliches, and the third act (which takes place entirely inside a car) is quite unlike anything I've seen in a film like this before.

I only had one real complaint - the guy who plays Mickey is a pretty weak actor.  He's certainly not the worst I've seen by any stretch, but there are plenty of moments in the film where his awkward and stiff line delivery made me cringe.  In a film with essentially only two characters, this is a pretty big flaw.  Luckily, Jeremy Gardner (who also wrote and directed) is pretty good as Ben, and he carries a lot of the scenes.

I definitely recommend this one very highly.  It is a fresh take on the zombie genre, and has an interesting visual and musical style that I think works well for it.  It isn't perfect, but even with some flaws I think it ranks amongst the best zombie films in recent memory.