If you have been waiting some time for a horror-musical-teen-comedy-Christmas-movie, then it has to be said the wait is over. Anna and the Apocalypse boldly goes there. It centres on a group of teens who find themselves in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Why is there a zombie apocalypse? Not important. But it is a good excuse for some serious genre mash-up action. I am not necessarily a natural audience for this kind of thing but I would say you would need to be being a bit overly harsh not coming away from this one with some positive feelings. It is a very likable film with some ambition to do something new.
The star of the show here for me was certainly the very beautiful Ella Hunt, who plays the title character. Clearly a performer with some definite star quality and versatility and one for the future hopefully. The rest of the cast are good too it has to be said, and it was nice seeing old Dennis Pennis himself, Paul Kaye, appear as an unhinged headmaster. It has to be said that the comedy is a bit uneven to say the least, although there are some good jokes sprinkled throughout about evacuation selfies, Justin Bieber and all the rest of it but I found it only sporadically funny if I am honest. The horror side of the fence is covered with the usual zombie violence which is visceral and creative enough to keep us interested. The songs were actually quite a welcome injection, as it was with those that the film was at its most distinctive. And also, quite pleasingly, things are not rounded off with a Hollywood ending either, which I thought was the right way to go for this kind of thing.
On the whole, while this is definitely a bit hit and miss, I commend it for its ambition and fun-factor. When a film has the good grace to at least try something new, it deserves a chance and I wish it the very best.
