In the host of Christmas movies coming out during the holiday season, the zombie musical is sadly, an untapped well. Thankfully, a group of young Scots, let by sweet adorable Anna (Ella Hunt) are here to tap that keg. Anna and the Apocalypse’s only revolutionary element is the merging of 3 genres, but it’s still a really fun time and could very well end up in the Christmas movie rotation appealing to…I’m not sure exactly. But definitely someone!
Anna, our hero, is from a small Scottish town, desperate to get out and see the world before she goes to Uni. The people closest to her are NOT happy about this: her father Tony (Mark Benton) is scared she will leave forever, and her best friend John (Malcolm Cumming), you’ll be shocked to hear, harbors unrequited feelings for Anna and hopes to requite them. Anna’s not the only high schooler feeling trapped: Steph (Sarah Swire) has a big heart and desire for justice, being the school journalist and philanthropist. However, Principal Savage (Paul Kaye) thwarts her at every turn, favoring order and status quo behavior out of the rebellious teen. These little misgivings about the future completely get shattered one night, when the TV reports of infection and outbreak hit their town.
I count at least 4 genres Anna and the Apocalypse is playing around in simultaneously: zombie movies, musicals, high school dramas, and Christmas movies. By simply inserting one genre into another, the movie keeps the story interesting and engaging. Singing about your brand new day is cute for a musical, but it’s WAY funnier if you’re oblivious to zombies eating your neighbors. A high school boy crucially misses a performance of his girlfriends big Christmas play number filled with at least a dozen Santa sexual entendres. And Anna’s weapon of choice to fight off these would be zombies is a candy cane lawn ornament. These levels of silliness force the filmmakers to keep the story light and pretty generically understandable, so as to distract us with the funny genre based gags. As such, it is the horror afficionados who will potentially be most disappointed, because there’s only one scary scene or two, of which there are better versions in other films. Occasionally, the filmmakers stumble upon something truly great, like how a principal of a school would operate in the apocalypse. But most allegories they go for (phones make us all ZOMBIES!!!) are too surface level to contain a hefty bite. The musical and high school movie fans will be most happy: all the songs are hella catchy and the kids good looking enough and decent actors to pull off all the genre switching and sell the story arcs, in particular Paul Kaye’s Principal Savage and Ella Hunt’s beautiful badass Anna.
Like most movies built off of their pitch, if you want to see a zombie Christmas musical, Anna and the Apocalypse will deliver for you. It’s breezy, fun, and will give you some new songs to sing other than Shallow. It will also give you a new mission like it gave me: figure out of Ella Hunt is related to Anne Hathaway. They’re DEAD Ringers for each other. Check it out!