Anna
and the Apocalypse is a high school comedy musical zombie Christmas movie. It’s probably the best one in existence. Just because something is the only one of its
type doesn’t mean it works.
Anna (Ella Hunt) is a teenage girl who gets into a tiff with her dad because she doesn’t want to go to college. While she’s trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life, zombies attack. She then has to band together with her schoolmates to stay one step ahead of the zombie horde, singing and dancing all the while.
The movie wants to be a half-assed combination of La La Land and Shaun of the Dead. I’ll be the first to admit that musicals (especially modern-day ones) aren’t really my thing. There are one or two catchy tunes here, but not nearly enough to make the musical sequences work. Still, it’s better than your average episode of Glee, I suppose.
A
big problem is that the cast spend the first half-hour of the movie singing and
dancing before the zombies even show up. Once they do, things improve slightly. The zombie scenes are better than the typical
gut-muncher (characters battle the undead with seesaws, toilet lids, and bowling
balls), which only makes you wish the filmmakers favored the horror genre over all
the musical shit.
Hunt
has a winning screen presence. She’d
probably fare well in a straight zombie movie (or heck, even a musical). She really keeps your attention, even when
the movie itself starts to dawdle. The rest
of the cast, not so much.
I
wanted to like Anna and the Apocalypse more than I ultimately did. It plays all its cards too soon and runs out
of gas way before it crosses the finish line. Sure, there are a few clever moments here, but
being clever alone isn’t quite enough to get the job done.
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