The Horror Show
The Bad Batch
by Ana Lily Amirpour
The Bad Batch has been on my radar for quite some time. It came out last year and despite being a dystopian film containing cannibals and a great cast, it just didn’t scream “watch me, now!”
Now that I’ve finally gotten around to watching it, a big part of me is glad that I didn’t dive right into this film with super high expectations and instead decided to pop it on to pass some time on a lazy, rainy day. Right off the bat I want to say that this wasn’t a bad film, not by a long shot, but again I have to stress that I’m glad I didn’t have high expectations. Readers beware, there will be spoilers ahead.
The Bad Batch starts off strong, following our main character, Arlen (Suki Waterhouse), on her journey through the desert wastes after being cast out from society. She is one of many outcasts, a group the people in this dystopian world refer to as Bad Batch. While taking a moment to rest in an abandoned vehicle, some cannibals from a nearby community stumble upon her and capture her. This is where the movie picked up some steam. Right off the bat we’re treated to some savagery as the creeps in the community hacked off some of Arlen’s limbs and then kept her chained up so they could come back for seconds later on. But our leading lady is no chump and she quickly comes up with a plan to escape, despite only having one arm and one leg. She’s found soon after, half-dead in the desert, by some friendly folks from another community called Comfort. The film flashes forward several months and we see that Arlen now has a prosthetic leg and is living as comfortable as can be in this outcast society. We also see some interesting scenes from back at the cannibal community and are introduced to Miami Man (Jason Momoa).
Unfortunately, shortly after this is where the movie begins to slow down and turn into something entirely different. The Bad Batch starts off as a promising, dystopian horror flick with bleak undertones and slowly transforms into a film that desperately wants to be thought provoking and different. There’s a super long, drawn out acid trip scene that I could have done without as well as under-utilized acting talent like Diego Luna and Jim Carey who are both in the film for under five minutes.
Keanu Reeves and Giovanni Ribisi are also in the film and while both of these guys have more lines than Jason Momoa, their characters felt like they just sort of… existed. To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot of dialogue in this film aside from Arlen, and that’s fine in some cases. If there had been more horror and action, then yes, cut the talking, but this was not one of those cases where the absence of dialogue did much good.
On iMDB the film is categorized as a horror, drama, romance. I can understand the first act being horror, and I definitely get the dramatic elements throughout, but I’m not even a fan of romance and was left wondering where it was. If a longing look and a holding of hands counts as romance in a two-hour film then I suppose we’ve all watched more romance than we thought possible.
Despite my criticisms, I didn’t dislike the film. While I found myself bored often, I did also enjoy it. The ending was a bit silly and made me roll my eyes, but I still can’t say it’s a bad film. I’d definitely recommend The Bad Batch to help you pass some time on a lazy, rainy day.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
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