It takes a lot of ingenuity and screenwriting brilliance to come up with an idea for a zombie film or Christmas film that has not been done before. Throw in the catchy elements of what makes a memorable musical and surely they will work together to make a new, seasonal classic. Unfortunately, that is not the case with Anna and the Apocalypse. John McPhail's attempt at combining these three genres is honestly quite the letdown for me. I had heard lots of solid praise for this film and since it is almost Christmas, I decided that this would be an appropriate watch and would hopefully be one worth revisiting every year. While the performances from the mostly unknown cast are great and the music will definitely stick with me, McPhail's direction is incredibly weak and this story dragged on for so long that I felt like a zombie myself. This premise is one much better suited for a short film, as I feel that a concept such as this is better in a smaller dose. However, there are things to enjoy about this film and enough to make me appreciate the filmmakers' effort.
Anna Shepherd (Ella Hunt), a secondary student living in the humble town of Little Haven, is surprised around Christmastime to find that her home has been overrun by the undead. In order to make it out alive, she has to survive the onslaught of zombies with her friends John (Malcolm Cumming), Steph (Sarah Swire), Nick (Ben Wiggins), and Lisa (Marli Siu) and make it back to her school to see if their families are even still alive. Compared by many to the likes of Shaun of the Dead and La La Land, I really could not see any comparable traits to those previous works. The only thing that this film has in common with those quoted movies is the fact that there are zombies and it's a musical. I could not ever feel as much comedic influence and game-changing horror fusion like in Wright's 2004 masterpiece or as much tender love put into the lyrics and music as Chazelle's 2016 hit. I personally think these are very lazy comparisons because this film was only trying to accomplish a feat of its own by combining so many different genres. Which this film, unfortunately, also did not accomplish very well. My main issue with this movie is how lazy it becomes after a fantastic first act. This story is set up extremely well and there are some hilarious and memorable songs in the very beginning that set up the eventual zombie invasion incredibly well. All of the characters are developed decently and the setup of the horror aspect seems to be executed flawlessly. However, once the zombie element is actually introduced, this film reverts back to any other typical zombie movie. The writing becomes very cliché and this makes so many of the characters unbearable. This movie also dragged on for far too long and even though McPhail seemed to make decent use of the set pieces, I became bored very quickly. Anna and the Apocalypse should have either stuck with being a zombie musical or a zombie Christmas story, but the combination of all three led to its complete lack of focus.
Despite my issues with how this film was presented, it is practically harmless. There is nothing about this movie that is prominently mishandled but I rather wish it could have been given more time to develop. That being said, the technical elements and performances are phenomenal. The special effects of the zombies and the action sequences during the musical parts were great. There is a lot of amazing choreography that went into singing, dancing, and killing zombies that were mesmerizing to watch. A lot of the music was written very well too and even though it might not have been too specific to the situation in which Anna found herself, the lyrics and accompanying music were undoubtedly catchy. These scenes are where I found myself enjoying this film the most and I wish that there would have been a stronger balance of the musical scenes with the rest of the story. This film would not have been as fun to watch, however, if not for the performances from Hunt, Cumming, and the rest of the cast. All of these young performers are relatively new to the acting scene and I thought that they did an excellent job with what they were given. They might not be the funniest or most dramatic actors and actresses but they made their characters work extremely well and the chemistry from the whole cast is undeniable. I also thought that McPhail did a decent job with the setting of this story and how he handled the direction from scene to scene. This film might follow a typical kind of survivor story arc but setting it in a school with the principal as the main antagonist is fantastic. Anna and the Apocalypse might not be the best zombie movie, Christmas movie, or musical ever made, but it sure tries its hardest to combine them all and that willingness to take those risks is a bold decision that I will always respect.
Anna and the Apocalypse is a fairly light watch when looking for something new to watch this holiday season but this film just did not work for me. I can always appreciate when filmmakers try to fuse genres or make something new by combining previous works but it has to be executed well too, which this film was not able to do. Regardless of my lack of care about this story, however, the cast and music are fantastic and I am glad that this movie has potentially opened up the doors to these talented artists finding more work.
My Rating: ★★½
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