'The Bad Batch' Trailer: Post-Apocalyptic Wastelands, Cannibals, And Cult Leader Keanu Reeves

After A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, I’m game for anything Ana Lily Amirpour does. And if that happens to be a visit to a tense, moody, post-apocalyptic dystopia where Keanu Reeves goes deep-dive mustachioed cult leader, even better. Check out the first trailer for The Bad Batch below.

The Bad Batch came off the fall festival circuit with mixed reviews, but from the couple clips we’ve seen, and now thistrailer, there are very good reasons why this is one of my most anticipated movies of 2017. It looks like a twee, indie Mad Max that some folks described as almost being a silent movie.

It’s got amputations, a throwback synth score, shirtless Jason Momoa painting portraits, post-apocalyptic sign flippers, and again, Keanu Reeves as what appears to be a kind of doomsday lounge guru. (Seriously, if I would totally be his minion.) I am so, so in.

Here’s a synopsis:

THE BAD BATCH follows Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) as she is unceremoniously dumped in a Texas wasteland fenced off from civilized society. While trying to orient her unforgiving environment, she is captured by a savage band of cannibals and quickly realizes she’ll have to fight her way through her new reality. As Arlen adjusts to life in ‘the bad batch’ she discovers that being good or bad mostly depends on who you’re standing next to.

Oh yeah, there are also cannibals. How did I forget the cannibals?

And a weirdly awesome cast. The Bad Batch stars Suki Waterhouse and Jason Momoa, with Keanu Reeves, but it also features Giovanni Ribisi, Diego Luna, and Jim Carrey (?). So basically it sounds bizarre and awesome.

Produced by Annapurna and Vice, Neon, the newly minted venture from Alamo Drafthouse’s Tim League and RADiUS’ Tom Quinn—the same folks bringing Nacho Vigalondo’s Colossal to screens—is set to distribute The Bad Batch. The street date is apparently now June 23. 

I have my fingers crossed this will land at the Seattle International Film Festival before that and I’ll have the chance to check it out, but we’ll have to wait and see about that. Anyway, that would only be a few weeks ahead of time.