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| Scene from Anna and the Apocalypse |
The idea that anything can be "subverted" if you put music to it has become a tired cliche by now. Horror movies especially have had a hard time managing to compose memorable music while presenting contradicting frights. So, what makes director John McPhail's Anna and the Apocalypse, a film that combines zombies with musicals AND Christmas? As a musical, not a whole lot. However, it's still one of those rare executions that may benefit from having stronger ambitions, managing to make clever zombie kills as a group of teenagers try find ways to escape the small town of Little Haven. Like the best of holiday horror, it's a nice blend of melancholy and Christmas cheer in a way that never loses sight of its characters. Even as it embraces the sadness, there's still enough fun for genre fans to take in and make this a worthwhile addition to the blood-soaked canon.
For Anna (Ella Hunt), the choice to miss the annual Christmas talent show proves to be a pivotal moment of her life. She's on the verge of graduating and escaping Scotland for a trip to Australia. The idea of escape is implanted in the film from the beginning as an optimistic dream, especially when pitted against her parents' wishes that she attend university first. Without any horror, before the first musical number kicks into gear, there's already a sense of divide for the residents of Little Haven. To stay near home would result in this rotting fantasy that doesn't appeal to Anna or her friends. There's a need to escape... and that's before the outbreak mysteriously kicks down the door one fateful night.
The film is based on a BAFTA-winning short called Zombie Musical, so it's only right that the film would dive head first into showmanship. Despite a title card for the film that would suggest otherwise, there's no sense of danger when Anna breaks out into song in a school cafeteria as she leads the show's recurring motif "Hollywood Ending." The choreography is intrigued by the idea of Hollywood musicals like High School Musical, having several characters introduced through song though lacking in deeper motivation. Still, it's enough to establish that the film wants to be different, to explore a narrative that is unconventional. It's a fair enough goal for a film that will mix violence with music and Christmas imagery. Despite all of its charms, it maybe doesn't fully become unconventional enough to make the song more than hokum. By the end, the film follows a path familiar to zombie film fans and the Christmas setting feels superfluous. What does shine through isn't any piece of the gimmick, but Anna herself.
Anna by every sense is the protagonist, wielding a giant candy cane as a mallet for protection. The comical imagery alludes to one of the film's stronger suits: clever zombie kills. Considering that her friends work at a bowling alley, there are fun moments that feature scenes reminiscent of There Will Be Blood and it is a delight to watch teenagers use their wits (sometimes poorly) to stave off the apocalypse. For everything familiar about the film, Anna is a compelling moral center to her friends who would rather bicker about which celebrity is now a zombie. She not only gets one of the film's better song numbers ("Turning My Life Around"), but she conveys the most compassion of anyone, adding a bitterness to the whole experience. You want to see everyone survive because of how empathetic Anna is towards her friends, notably the funny John (Malcolm Cumming) and Steph (Sarah Swire). It's why any peril that occurs takes on something deeper than shock. There are some genuinely heartfelt moments scattered throughout the film, and what generally elevates this to something more than schlock.
If the film has any fault, it's that its antagonist is easily one of the worst written of 2018. Paul Kaye plays school headmaster Arthur Savage, who is about as mustache twirling as they come. Without strong motivation, he's a campy figure who is eccentric and evil for no reason. There is no other mode for the character beyond his desire to see his students suffer, and it adds an insufferable subtext to the whole show. While Savage could be read as a metaphor for Anna's hellish vision of school, it's still terribly obnoxious. He is a character out of time, making his big music number ("Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now") sound like it's being done by a caricature of a 1930's mad scientist. Again, this would be tolerable if the writing thought to give him more motivation besides "students are evil." There's no deeper explanation, which feels accidental when placed alongside the nuance given to Anna, John, and Steph, as limited as it actually is.
For what it lacks in being a great movie, it's still a delightful experience. It may not feel tonally enough like a Christmas movie to make the holiday horror feel like more than an excuse to bash zombies with large candy canes (which is very fun), but it does embrace the sadness that comes with these type of movies. Much like Phoebe Cates in Gremlins, it explores a type of fear that these films do so well. It's a sense of desperation and loss, the antithetical nature to Christmas movies. In that way, Anna and the Apocalypse is a phenomenal film in that it takes time to revel in the feeling of loss and the need to carry on against uncertainty. There's power that grounds it and suddenly the entire package makes sense. Where this could have been cheap horror with witty quips and disposable teens, it at least tries to be something greater.
Anna and the Apocalypse may be a bit uneven in some places, but it is a film that rises above the gimmicks it uses. With a solid supporting cast and a compelling lead performance by Ella Hunt, the film simultaneously adds charm to the zombie genre and sadness to the Christmas one. It may not reinvent the musical despite occasionally having inspired choreography, but it does enough to stand out as a film with a lot to say. It's a film destined to become a cult favorite, especially once people realize that this isn't just High School Musical with zombies. It actually has a lot more on its mind, and some of it is cleverly lopped off in very fun ways. It's an esoteric piece of fiction for sure, but there's a lot to like here. By trying to be different, it finds something familiar in the human condition, proving that the Venn diagram between zombies, musicals, and Christmas intersects at places we didn't think possible. It's a film with enough invention to seek out, especially if you too are tired of being in school
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