In the parched desert, with vultures circling overhead, a young woman (Suki Waterhouse, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”) uses her remaining two limbs — one arm, one leg — to push herself along on a skateboard. Her heavy, strained breathing is the only thing we hear from her in the official trailer for Ana Lily Amirpour’s “The Bad Batch.”
The trailer is just as atmospheric and light on plot details as the teaser for the film. We do discover that Waterhouse’s character, Arlen, suffered a huge loss when she first encountered a band of cannibals led by the mysteriously-named The Dream (Keanu Reeves).
“It costs a lot to be here,” The Dream tells Arlen. “It cost you an arm and a leg.”
Besides that ominous exchange, we also get glimpses of Arlen’s experimentation with drugs and prosthetic limbs, Jason Momoa (“Game of Thrones”) expertly throwing a cleaver, a lot of neon lights, and Reeves’ ’70s-era mustache.
The trailer definitely positions The Dream as the villain, but “The Bad Batch’s” synopsis suggests that the film is more interested in gray areas. It states: “While trying to orient her unforgiving environment, [Arlen] 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. “
Amirpour made her feature directorial debut with 2014’s “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” a critically acclaimed Iranian-set fantasy/horror film about vampires. The film won her a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature.
“The Bad Batch” hits theaters June 23.
