In Little Haven, Scotland, high school is almost over for Anna Shepherd (Ella Hunt) and she plans to take a gap year before university despite her widower father Tony's (Mark Benton) disapproval. Her friends also have problems: best friend John (Malcolm Cumming) secretly loves her, budding director Chris (Christopher Leveaux) is behind on an assignment and American exchange student Steph (Sarah Swire) is butting heads, thanks to her social justice reportage, with the dictatorial principal Mr. Savage (Paul Kaye). Anna's one-night stand Nick (Ben Wiggins) is also giving her grief. On the night of the school's Christmas show, in which one of the performers is Chris' girlfriend Lisa (Marli Siu), a zombie infections breaks out around town, before the next morning when Anna and John discover it's gone all over town except in the school, where they must take shelter and fight the zombie hordes off - all to numerous song-and-dance numbers in true musical form.
Anna and the Apocalypse has been likened to Shaun of the Dead meets La La Land, and that's a fairly accurate comparison. Based on a 2010 short by Ryan McHenry, who died in 2015 of osteosarcoma at age 27, director John McPhail and co-writer Alan McDonald make this festive horror musical gel, although it took me some time to really see what it was seeking to do. I initially had the feeling, after about 30 minutes, that the songs were too poppy and corny for the horror aspect (although I knew beforehand it was also a musical) and so that then make me very briefly disconnect from it. But then I realised its aims were to satirise both the musical genre for how wholesome and conservative it often is, and the horror/slasher genres for how cliched and stuffy they can be. McPhail and his cast and crew balance the combination through consistent pacing, natural choreography and visuals that are in between being grainy and extravagant.
The songs are catchy and engaging, the cast all demonstrate strong chops with both acting and singing, and the violence gradually builds to a very gruesome climax. It's maybe not as brutally honest or subversive a depiction of adolescence as I would've liked it to have been but regardless, I had fun with Anna and the Apocalypse. 8/10.
The songs are catchy and engaging, the cast all demonstrate strong chops with both acting and singing, and the violence gradually builds to a very gruesome climax. It's maybe not as brutally honest or subversive a depiction of adolescence as I would've liked it to have been but regardless, I had fun with Anna and the Apocalypse. 8/10.
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