Let’s go steal some of your dead girlfriend’s blankets.
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The Battery is a zombie movie from 2012 about two lone baseball players trying to survive the apocalypse.
In baseball parlance, a battery refers to the pitcher/catcher duo working in a game. In this case, instead of trying to survive the heart of a lineup without giving up a run, they’re trying to survive the end of the world without dying.
It’s really impressive what writer-director-star Jeremy Gardner was able to do with a $6000 budget. Yes, you read that correctly, they made this movie for $6000!
I didn’t love the movie, but there’s plenty to appreciate — especially as it’s the product of such a small production. Gardner gave a solid performance as Ben, the catcher. He’s the guy who actually got his hands dirty and kept them alive, but he’d definitely gone a bit insane by the time the film’s narrative begins. Gardner’s performance carried the moments that landed with me. But his directorial style was the highlight of the film. It didn’t always work, but when it did it, it did to great effect. He used long takes of the two leads, shot with a fixed camera. It captured them doing normal shit or sitting around in silence. It reminded me just how fucking boring the zombie apocalypse would be — in-between zombie attacks of course. It’d be like Covid-19 times a billion. You’re not stuck at home video-chatting with your friends, because they’re all dead. Not to mention the fact that there’d be no internet or cell phones.
Is The Battery going to be added to my film canon to watch over and over? No. But I’m still glad to have checked it out. And I wouldn’t have known it existed without the research I did for this series.
Up next: Speaking of the baseball film canon, next up is The Natural. It’s available on Netflix.
