User Reviews

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.

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.

What's this? Yet another zombie flick? Haven't we had a enough already? It's probably true but don't dismiss The Battery before you give it a try. This is an interesting character driven movie that is surprisingly impressive in a see of sameness.

Lets just start right off by saying that if you are expecting a run of the mill intense gore fest with guts all over the place, you are going to be disappointed. The Battery is a buddy road movie with zombies as a background element.

The story revolves around two minor league baseball players who find themselves drawn together after a zombie outbreak. The two men travel around New England scourging for food and shelter and trying to stay out of the way of the biters. Both men have very different personalities. Ben (Jeremey Gardner) is a former catcher and seems to have acclimated to his new environment well. He is a survivor and is willing to do whatever it takes to get by. Mickey (Adam Cronheim) however, is still clinging to his old way of life. He refuses to kill zombies, pines after his ex-girlfriends and mopes around listening to his headphones.

To check out the rest of our review head on over to 3guys1movie.com

It was slow and Mickey should have built a shrine for Ben. Mickey was nothing but a leech. Ben must have really disliked being alone to drag that leech around. Can't say it was because they were best friends since they said they barely knew each other before the zombie break out. Since Ben was the one that did the killing and kept an eye out Mickey was useless. Mickey could have not existed and Ben would have been better off since the benefit of having a second person is to help with defense and keep an eye out. Neither of which Mickey did. All he did was whine and keep his headset on.

Ben could have done far better on his own but for some reason dragged the leech around. I would have stopped it before the end but I was only hanging on hoping that Mickey finally got bitten and Ben would be on his own. In hindsight I wish I would have stopped it at the halfway mark. The acting was fine but it was kind of an aimless story with some mysterious "Orchard" camp mentioned. That really could have been left out and not made much of a difference to the story except for getting Ben shot.

Believe the negative reviews on this one, not the positive, which many have posited had to have been written by friends/ family or paid. This is 100% a vanity project by the director, so if you are interested in watching him sing along with his friend's bands that make up the hipster sound track, or making vapid, cliche speeches, or playing catch over and over and over, or literally smoking an entire cigarette in silence in what, I have to say, was the most excruciatingly pointless scene in a film I've ever watched in my life- go for it!

The zombie makeup was slapped together by amateurs with supplies from Party City. The acting, haha, it was just so bad- like watching a college improv class. And yah, as many others have said, there is a constant barrage of cringey indie folk rock interrupting the flow of this movie that will drive you crazy.

I don't write many reviews, but I hope I can be one of the ones trying to steer you away from this piece of trash.

A minor league pitcher and catcher (a battery) mosey across rural New England during a zombie apocalypse we know nothing about. Benjamin (Jeremy Gardner) is the dominate catcher and Mickey (Adam Cronheim) is the wimp pitcher. You would think they would get along better, but they don't. Mickey is hoping things will return to normal as he keeps his winning scratch-off ticket. Benjamin wants to move on and adapt.

The film is "The Road" boring. There is a scene 35 minutes into the film, I admit I haven't seen in a zombie film and hopefully won't see again. The film is more about character relations with zombies as a distraction. Yawn.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex. Nudity (Jeremy Gardner)

This seems to be one of those horror movies that really polarizes the audience. I guess, in many ways, you could say that's true of most of the horror genre, but some movies seem to really push the divide among the audience.

On one hand, I've read many really positive reviews of this movie, not just from places like HORRORHOUND and FANGORIA, but on the boards and reviews as well. Then, check out a site like NETFL*X and skim the reviews and it's full of one stars proclaiming this to be the most boring zombie movie ever. After watching this movie, I think that my opinion is that both sides are probably exaggerating their view a little too much. Those who love this movie would have you believe that it's some indie horror triumph, a classic of character study. I think, at times, it just becomes hip to praise a movie because others said it was good. Yes, I think that the two actors in this movie did an excellent job for a low-budget chiller. I did think that the director (and one of the stars) did an admirable job of building the relationship of these characters through the course of the film. That doesn't, though, excuse the fact that vast patches of this movie contain nothingness.

That is not to say that I'm totally on board with those who would have you believe this is a boring failure. There are always going to be fringe zombie fans who hear "good zombie movie" and expect THE WALKING DEAD. This is not a movie that the average blood and guts fan is going to enjoy. There is little zombie interaction, almost no gore and little action. The viewer has to appreciate a movie with a little more of an artistic leaning, but with all of that said, the movie spends far too much time dwelling in its' characters that little ever happens to make this movie memorable. A huge chunk of the run-time feels like someone's home movie of their vacation to the zombie apocalypse. It's just two guys wandering around, listening to headphones and playing baseball. I can appreciate a movie that wants to take time to develop, but I need certain beats along the way. I need to be propelled into feeling like something is truly developing. Instead, I found myself checking my Twitter account now and then because all I was missing was another shot of one of the characters munching on an apple or staring into space while bad indie rock plays.

I'm giving it a 6 because my rating system says that 5 is average, and I believe that this is slightly above that mark. I give it a lot of credit for trying something and I think that the director has a future. Like most young directors, though, he needs to learn that being an intelligent movie is not always enough because, in the end, we all watch movies to be entertained foremost and this most didn't do that enough for me.