Welcome to the Scream Factory Crypt! In this binge series I will be watching all my Scream Factory titles I own alphabetically! Scream Factory is my favorite imprint of Blu-Ray’s because they take movies that studios and the public might not adore but have fans and deserve to be given respect. This will take a long time as I have over 120(!) titles and counting, I know I will have more before I finish, so stay tuned!  Not only will I talk about them on the podcast but I will review them here as well so you can see how I feel about aspects of each release. Part 7 is The Battery!

I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the well-made indie film, The Battery. We were on hand for its premiere at The Telluride Horror Show, when we covered it in 2012. We had a chance to interview the filmmakers on this micro-budgeted zombie flick and we came away impressed with the film and respect for what they accomplished on a $6,000 budget.

The Battery tells the story of Mickey and Ben, former baseball players, (hence the title The Battery) who are scrapping by in the zombie apocalypse. The two are friends, at least it seems that way during the film, but both have some deep underlying psychological problems. Mickey is weak and afraid of the zombies, Ben is reckless and fearless. The Battery has some truly disturbing scenes with not very much gore. Director/Writer/Actor Jeremy Gardner pushes the limits with his pacing and the way he stages scenes. I won’t spoil the more intense scenes in the film, but there are two that truly stand out. One involves Mickey masturbating to an attractive zombie girl. The other is the climax that is truly one of the most intense and interesting scenes in a zombie film ever, and I’ve watched a lot of them. While some zombie film fans may be put off by the lack of gore, The Battery makes up for it in an interesting human study character piece.

For such a small budget, DP Christian Stella gets the most out of the locations. Being shot so well serves the video well on this blu-ray. The colors are sharp and the color palette is spot on. The video looks really good.

On the audio side, The Battery is also solid. Again this isn’t the most bombastic zombie film, but the soundtrack is particularly strong making The Battery stand out amongst the other small budget films. The mix won’t overwhelm you, it will however set the mood properly.

The extras have a truly standout feature and that’s Tools of Ignorance: The Making of The Battery. The interviews are great. The charisma of crew really shines here. The interviews are awesome. The commentary is also spot on. A nice assortment of Outtakes, trailers, and a fun little feature about the music in the film.

The Battery deserved to be seen by horror fans. Scream Factory did such a great job finding this gem and getting out to the masses. Do yourself a favor and pick up this horror movie gem.

Film: B+

Video: B

Audio: B

Extras: A-

Overall: B+

Bonus!-Here’s our interview with Director/Writer/Actor Jeremy Gardner, Actor Adam Cronhiem and Director of Photography Christian Stella!

https://pdcn.co/e/reelnerdspodcast.com/2012/10/31/october-31-2012-telluride-horror-show-interview/