Christmas-Themed Zombie-Musical ‘Anna & The Apocalypse’ Tackles Multiple Genres But Not Very Well [Review]

A zombie horror-comedy-musical set at Christmastime. It sounds like it was written by an A.I. using a hipster algorithm. To avoid sounding reductive, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Look at something like “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” (Anime! Retro Video Games! Nerdy Girls!), which on paper could sound cloying but completely makes up for it with a sense of wit and universally-relatable themes. That last part about being relatable applies to “Anna and the Apocalypse,” but the other is sorely missing.

‘Anna’ gets started off on the wrong foot by introducing too many characters upfront, all of them completely stock and hot off the John Hughes assembly line. Anna (Ella Hunt) is planning to travel for a year before college much to her father’s (Mark Benton) dismay. Her best friend John (Malcolm Cumming) clearly has feelings for her, and she is reconciling with a bad breakup with jock Nick (Ben Wiggins). Then there’s American student Steph (Sarah Swire), the editor of the school paper, who enlists cameraman Chris (Christopher Leveaux) — who she has feelings for but is dating Lisa (Marli Siu) — to investigate a story that the school headmaster (Paul Kaye) won’t let her run. And then just when you think these character’s have enough on their plates, the zombie apocalypse occurs. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

It’s difficult to make a “good” zombie movie, let alone a “good” genre-bender such as this. You have to care about the struggles of the characters, and the metaphor that the zombies represent has to be sound. The logic is there, as all the character’s biggest fears are the things left unsaid, and the zombie outbreak forces them to say those things in the face of certain doom. But, it’s difficult to care about what’s being said, and why, because the characters are so archetypal and lacking agency. “Anna and the Apocalypse” does not attempt to detour from the tropes of high school dramedies or zombie films. Instead of the “two negatives make a positive” rule, the clichés simply pile on top of each other in what could only be described as a tonal disaster. One minute the film is quirky to unbearable heights, and the next it becomes a full-fledged zombie film where characters actually bite the dust, but again, we don’t care about them.

Then there are the musical numbers. The most banal and unmemorable musical numbers to ever be featured in a film classified as a musical. The actual compositions are shockingly generic, and the vocals sound auto-tuned to the point where it doesn’t even feel like those lyrics are coming out of those actors’ mouths. The numbers in and of themselves are nothing to write home about, but there are at least two memorable sequences. The first has Lisa performing a sexually-suggestive number at the winter play. The other — and hands-down the most striking — is where Anna walks out the door singing about it being a fresh new day — with headphones on — while the zombie apocalypse starts happening in the background unbeknownst to her. It’s the film’s sole sequence where it manages to execute all the genres at once to make something unique. It’s unfortunate that it only lasts a couple minutes. It also nearly drops the musical act entirely when the third act teeters into full-blown zombie movie (Shhh. If you listen closely, you can hear the “La La Land” haters who knocked that film similarly sharpening their pitchforks).

It brings absolutely zero joy to say that “Anna and the Apocalypse” has almost zero joy in it, especially when it was such a labor of love for all involved. The film is dedicated to the late Ryan McHenry, who made the short “Zombie Musical” which this film is based on. It’s very clear that director John McPhail and the rest of the cast and crew had a blast making the film and are proud for getting McHenry’s short adapted into a feature, as they should be. Unfortunately, as an adaptation, it still feels strictly all concept than something of flesh and blood. And while their ambition is high on the budget they had, the film’s flat digital cinematography with seemingly no color correction doesn’t do the film any favors by making it look extremely cheap. However, the cast — while not given much to work with — do their absolute best to convince us to take the events unfolding on-screen seriously.

“Anna and the Apocalypse” — which is already every Hot Topic customer’s favorite movie of all-time — certainly has aspirations of being the next “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” At least that seems to be the hope, that someday it will play to sold-out crowds at midnight showings around Christmastime. Maybe it will, but the success of something like ‘Rocky Horror’ is beyond just merely being an open love letter to the B-movies that it riffs and references. That film has catchy, well-produced songs, a show-stopping lead performance, and a terrific ensemble overall. ‘Anna’ too is a labor of love, but that love only gets it so far, and the uninspired direction, unmemorable songs, and performances that try their best to find substance in the rubble will tarnish the film’s memory. It doesn’t do any one of its genres particularly well, and instead of one great musical, or one great zombie movie, we have three mediocre-to-bad movies rolled into one. Even though it’s not a “break-out-into-song” musical moment (and because you can’t talk zombie-comedy films without mentioning Edgar Wright) the entirety of “Anna and the Apocalypse” isn’t even worth the single “Don’t Stop Me Now” scene from “Shaun of the Dead.” [C-]