The Battery: Review

The Film:

The Battery is the story of two ex-baseball playing friends that are trying to survive and live in a world that is overrun with zombies. The movie pays special attention to the friendship of the two and their conflicting ideas on how their life in this new zombie landscape should work. One is focused on just surviving and appreciating that they are alive. The other wants to find a way to make things the way they used to be before the zombie attack. This leads to an interesting conflict between the two individuals because they know that in order to survive they need each other but for as long as they are together they will continue to bang heads. This conflict becomes even more interesting and heated when they hear other survivors on the radio and they both have differing opinions on what they should do.

For me The Battery is a really peculiar movie. It is classified as a zombie horror film but features only a couple a zombies and very few horrific moments. I feel that this is the reason the movie is such a hit or miss with audiences. I think for this movie it is best to go in without any expectations. I find that the movie tries very hard to be something special but just falls short. As the director says in the special features, he was trying to make an artsy indie horror movie. These intentions are very noticeable throughout the movie. For example, the director uses overly long takes in some instances, numerous scenes were nothing really happens, and weird character motivations. While these characteristics can be successful done in movies, this movie doesn't quite get it right.

The Battery is an interesting movie to judge because it is rather unique, especially for the genre it is in, and as a result it is hard to get a grip on whether it is a good movie or not. Is it a good zombie horror movie? No. Is it a interesting character study of two completely different individuals thrusted together because of circumstances out of their control? For the most part, yes. As a result, this is one of those movies where I don't really like it but I can see why others would really like it. It is not a bad movie overall and is very well made, especially considering the budget. Therefore I suggest that everyone watches the movie at least once to judge it for themselves and determine if it matches up to their own sensibilities.

2.5/5

The Extras:

The backbone of the special features for this release is the full length making-of documentary. The documentary offers a complete behind the scenes history of the process of making the film. it is a very good piece that is definitely worth seeing. The other features included on this release are an audio commentary with the director, the main actors, and the cinematographer. Outtakes and the music of The Battery round out the bonus features of the release.

4/5

The Battery is available for order Here: The Battery [Blu-ray]