A DOSE OF TERROR: The Battery
A DOSE OF TERROR: The Battery
By Steve Wood
If you’re caught up in the zombie apocalypse, would you rather stick to cities or venture out into the woods and take your chances there? Ben and Mickey decide on the latter, which would make sense considering not many people would be in the woods even when things are normal. What we have is a very interesting take on the tradition zombie movie, where the zombies themselves become the secondary threat. Ben and Mickey were not friends, they hardly even knew each other, both played local baseball, while Ben was a catcher and Mickey was a pitcher. The outbreak started (which was never explained) during a game, and we pick up a least a few months after that.
They are complete opposites from one other, at least that’s how things start out, they need each other, and work well together, and Ben even describes their teamwork as a “battery”. Ben is the hunter/gatherer type, while Mickey’s duties aren’t really shown, all we see of him is that he doesn’t like to kill zombies, and only kills one during the whole movie, but doesn’t do so by choice.
One thing that really makes this movie unique within the genre is how light-hearted it seems for the first 3/4. I wouldn’t call this a comedy, while there is some sharp dialogue, it’s more so to the fact of how blasé the guys are towards their environment. If we didn’t know any better, what we’re watching could be two vagrants living out their life camping in the woods and scavenging for scraps whenever they’re able. Once the guys pick up a pair of radios, they stumble across a mysterious transmission involving a place called The Orchard. They are told to not look for this place, and stop transmitting on the channel, this will eventually come back at them in a very devastating way.
There are definitely moments of severe tension, though, and the contrast in the last 1/4 is very stark, yet awesome. The Battery is yet another example where the lead actor is also the writer/director; I’ll easily put this in the same league as Primer, Bellflower and more recently Resolution. I was pretty satisfied with this, the only complaint would be that there are more questions still to be asked when the credits roll.
Check this out if you’re a fan of ultra-low budget, yet strongly acted and filmed nicely.
GRADE
Violence – B
Realism – B
Suspense – A
Nudity – F