Anna and the Apocalypse

        Anna and her group of friends suffer from inner turmoil as they navigate the end of their secondary schooling. Anna struggles to decide whether or not taking a gap year is the best thing for her, John is unable to deal with his feelings for Anna who is his best friend, Steph thinks the school headmaster is bullying her whilst her parents are living it up in Mexico thinking that they don't like her, and Chris struggles to find a deeper and more human side of himself in order to better his filmmaking. They all have each other for support, but that support is needed even more when the world is turned inside out as a virus spreads and turns everyone into zombies. They slash, dice, and sing their way through the town of Little Haven as they attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse.

        I'm sure you're wiping your eyes thinking that you read that last sentence incorrectly, but let me reassure you that you didn't. Yes, this film, whilst being a zombie movie, is also a musical. It's an odd pairing of genres that sounds too hard to pull off on paper. The movie starts out as a sort of British High School Musical with PG-13 high school tropes. They all sing about their problems and it starts to seem like the movie is going to be too cringey to handle, but then the number "Turning My Life Around" starts and that's when it starts to get more fun. In fact, that number was by far my favorite number in the film. It was incredibly humorous to watch two people sing about their future when the apocalypse is literally happening right behind them. 

        The best aspects of this movie are the multi-genre narrative and the over-the-top, comic execution. One of the characters uses a giant candy cane to kill zombies so if that doesn't scream over-the-top then I don't know what to tell you. Every character is molded after the caricatures of their personalities. The hot one is a prick, the film guy is a nerd, and so on. The dynamic between these personalities is entertaining. It decently blends zombie killing action with the corny heart of any adolescent set musical. Never once did I feel weirded out by the two genres co-existing. Most of the praiseworthy aspects come from this, but unfortunately, this concept is what carries most of the film.

        Despite all the corny sweetness this movie offers, it still suffers from a number of things. This movie has a case of "why are they just standing there?" syndrome. It's annoying that movies still think it's a good idea to have a character just stand in place instead of running for their lives when they're in danger. If you're having a hard time understanding what I'm trying to get at then think about how frustrating it is to watch a person in a scary movie follow the source of a noise or make themselves unnecessarily vulnerable. It's almost the same thing. On the topic of frustrating, I found the character of the headmaster to be pointless and offer almost nothing for the plot. His arc involves a descent into a state of insanity and, although it gives the movie a second villain aside from the undead, it adds nothing and takes away from the film's engagement. In fact, this is the biggest problem the movie has: it's lack of engagement. The concept of a zombie musical is great and is decently executed, but I feel as though the idea never reaches its full potential. This stems from the movie's cliche high school setup. This setup introduces our characters, but it never bothers to venture outside of that mold. All the characters have their hardships pre-zombie, but the film never gives us more to these characters than those hardships. Sure, it's easy to want John, the secretly-in-love boy, to be with Anna, but it would be easier to root for his survival if he wasn't presented as just that in the beginning. It would be easier to want Steph's parents to like her if she was fleshed with more likable qualities other than just being a rebel. All the characters have some depth, but it's hard to like any of them. It's a high school setting, but the characters never venture outside of the high school tropes. It does offer something new when it puts those cliches in the zombie setting, but it doesn't translate that much since it doesn't do more with those.

        Anna and the Apocalypse is entertaining and fits snuggly into the Christmas movie filmography, but it never quite reaches its full potential. Having that High School Musical setup is fine, it's just that it holds the movie back. You also won't find yourself humming any of the songs since none of them are all that memorable, but you'll still find enjoyment from watching someone kill zombies and sing about their desire to truly live their best lives. You know, all that corny stuff. 6.8/10