Anna and the Apocalypse

Pre-dating Disney's "Zombies" musical by a year, "Anna and the Apocalypse" is the decidedly un-family friendly R-rated teen angsty holiday zombie musical you didn't realize you needed. Set at Christmastime, the teens of a small Scottish village contend with both the undead and still having to go to high school. Our heroine, Anna, is having problems with her ex-boyfriend, while her platonic guy friend secretly pines for her, not to mention her dad, who's the school custodian is on her case about her wanting to take a gap year before starting college. Throw in a mean-girl competition over who will star in the school holiday pageant and this film is positively "High School Musical" meets George A. Romero (in a super fun way, that is). Ella Hunt is charming as Anna, as well as pretty badass, wielding a deadly prop oversized candy cane as a weapon. However, although Anna is an endearing protagonist, most of the supporting characters are mostly paper-thin high school movie archetypes and the teen drama elements are all pretty familiar. Overall, the film's mash-up premise and Hunt in the lead as Anna goes a long way to make "Anna and the Apocalypse" enjoyable escapist nonsense.