Anna and the Apocalypse is the Christmas-themed, zombie-infested musical Broadway is sleeping on to make the vacation season vibrant.
When most individuals consider Christmas, they envision sentient snowmen, homes with elaborate gentle setups synced to songs carried out by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and elves on cabinets in varied compromising positions. In my home, it’s all about cozy film marathons main as much as the large day. Whereas movies like Die Exhausting, Scrooged, and The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas all the time make the rotation, it’s John McPhail’s 2017 musical zombie horror Anna and the Apocalypse that turns essentially the most heads. McPhail’s delightfully deranged, snow-sprinkled symphony of vacation cheer and coming-of-age angst shambles onto screens like Excessive Faculty Musical blended with Shaun of the Lifeless, giving audiences the present of an off-the-wall Christmas-themed comedy with rhythm, gore, and grim tidings.
Anna and the Apocalypse focuses on a bunch of scholars from the sleepy city of Little Haven. What begins as a clumsy begin to a vacation break earlier than commencement rapidly escalates right into a life-altering zombie invasion with characters unfold throughout faculty grounds and the native bowling alley. As college students race to reunite with family members, civilization falls into destroy, derailing post-graduation plans alongside any hope of residing an on a regular basis life. It’s the tip of the world, in any case.
Earlier than my forties, I all the time discovered musical theater awkward and unappealing. Nonetheless, as I’ve aged, I’ve realized to increase my horizons, and with a push from my buddy Joey, a theater director, I’ve realized to understand the expressive artwork type. Anna and the Apocalypse is an ideal mix of younger grownup drama, cartoonish gore, and earworm-worthy bangers that bolster the characters and plot. I genuinely love all of the songs in Anna and the Apocalypse. Many tracks provide intelligent lyrical wordplay, a sweeping vary of feelings, and a window into the forged’s dilemmas within the face of a world-ending disaster.
One among my favourite features of Anna and the Apocalypse is its imperfections. The choreography generally stumbles, and inaugural notes for a number of songs can sound off-key. These “subtle flaws” are a part of the movie’s attraction, and I imply that genuinely. These fleeting moments of imperfection give Anna a “real” really feel, like I’m watching individuals creating one thing out of ardour as an alternative of for a paycheck. All of the star gamers are extremely gifted, with Ella Hunt, Ben Wiggins, Marli Siu, Sarah Swire, and Paul Kaye amongst my favourite performers.
There’s additionally a good quantity of depth to the movie, with characters present process drastic change, from Anna’s longing to discover the world earlier than faculty to Savage’s obsession with ruling the one factor his black coronary heart needs and Nick overcoming his deeply-rooted poisonous masculinity. The characters are greater than singing zombie killers and victims. They’re advanced, with hopes and goals shattered by the apocalypse.
If enjoyable, artistic gore is your factor, Anna and the Apocalypse has received you lined. Let me put it this fashion: the primary two deaths are dying by see-saw and dying by bathroom. That’s a chef’s kiss in my ebook. Anna can be a film wherein no person is protected. There’s no such factor as a Hollywood ending. Get your self a mug of scorching chocolate, give your self room to rock out, and revel in the perfect Christmas film with Rocky Horror Image Present vibes.
