I am a huge Jeremy Gardner fan. Gardner stunned with his role in The Leech, was an incredible supporting actor to Dezzy (Dora Madison) in Bliss (one of my Letterboxd top 4 movies), directed (and starred) the hell out of After Midnight, and seems like an all-around good dude. I had seen The Battery years ago and enjoyed it, but I never put the pieces together that Gardner wrote, directed, and starred in it. Gardner’s Chainsaw Award-winning directorial debut shows how to make a compelling, large-scale-in-feeling zombie film on an incredibly small budget.
The Battery: A Unique Zombie Film with Heart
The Battery follows Ben (Jeremy Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim), two pre-apocalypse baseball players, who travel around scavenging and looking for some semblance of life. Only, these two men have two different ideas of what life means. Mickey gains hope after hearing two survivors, Annie (Alana O’Brien) and Frank (Larry Fessenden), over their walkie-talkies, but Ben doesn’t really care to entertain the idea of finding more survivors. The two men continue their travels and scavenging until they finally meet another survivor… but that survivor might just mark the end of the road for them.
Not Your Typical Zombie Action Flick
If you’re going into The Battery expecting non-stop zombie-slaying action with buckets of blood, then this film might not be for you. This film is a methodical, well-paced, emotionally intense, claustrophobic masterpiece. It’s a character exploration of fight or flight. Ben is a realist. He is pragmatic and forward-thinking. Mickey is a romantic. He longs for connections and relationships (aside from his relationship with Ben). Gardner and Cronheim expertly portray their characters in ways this subgenre doesn’t always get to see. Their characters are excellent on their own, but they’re even more intriguing when they play off of each other.
A Joyful Respite in a Bleak World
One of my favorite tropes in zombie films is when the characters take a slight reprieve from the horrors of the world and partake in a montage of joy. That scene exists in the sweetest way in The Battery. Ben and Mickey come across an apple orchard after Ben forces Mickey to kill his first zombie. They buffet on dozens of apples, play baseball with the rotten ones, and, for a few moments… forget their troubles. It’s a welcome moment of happiness from the overwhelming dread Gardner builds throughout the film thus far.
The Ending: A Claustrophobic Climax (Spoiler Warning)
It’s important to talk about the ending and how everything leads up to this moment, so be warned of spoilers.
After some time, Ben and Mickey come across a survivor named Jerry (Niels Bolle). Jerry tries to steal their car, but they get the upper hand and dispatch Jerry. Annie eventually shows up, shoots Ben in the leg, and ultimately spares the two. She leaves them, but not before throwing their car keys in the high grass. They’re unable to find their keys and end up staying the night in their vehicle as a group of zombies surround their car. From this moment on, the rest of the film (roughly 20/ish minutes) takes place with them in their vehicle.
Ben vs. Mickey: A Character Showdown
This is a pivotal character moment for both of the men. Mickey wants to spend his days in a house or commune with other survivors, while Ben wants to live out of the car and spend his days scavenging. Throughout the majority of the film, Ben gets his way. His levelheadedness is what has kept them alive to this point. It’s not until Mickey gets his way, they stay in a house, he kills a zombie, and they spend the day at the apple orchard that things finally go awry for them. This feels like Gardner’s way of saying there is room in this world for a romanticized view of life, but it’s important to remain focused and even-keeled, to remain optimistically nihilistic.
Why The Battery Stands Out in the Zombie Genre
The Battery explores the human condition, packaged into a beautiful, well-shot, low-budget chef-d’oeuvre. Jeremy Gardner has proven time and time again just how impressive he is as an actor and filmmaker, and rewatching The Battery a little over a decade after its release solidifies that. In a subgenre full of Warm Bodies, World War Z, and Resident Evil, it’s important to remember that films like The Battery exist.
