Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

Directed by: John McPhail | 93 minutes | comedy, horror | Actors: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Marli Siu, Ben Wiggins, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye, Sean Connor, John Winchester, Euan Bennet, Ella Jarvis

It’s Christmastime in the sleepy English town of Little Haven. 18-year-old Anna is looking forward to the coming year when she finishes school and takes a gap year in Australia. The Christmas cabaret at school is coming up, the songs have been rehearsed and somewhere on the radio a newscaster tells about a pandemic that seems to be raging across the world at full speed. When Anna steps outside on the morning of the Christmas cabaret, the world seems to have changed. Only Anna doesn’t know that yet.

We viewers know that. While Anna happily sings to us on her way to school, zombies loom behind her back. sings on? zombies? Yes! ‘Anna and the Apocalypse’ is nothing less than a postmodern, comedic high school zombie musical. The postmodern is in the many meta-comments of the protagonists, the comic is mainly in the way our heroes (Anna and her friends) attack the zombies. And a musical because songs are always sung, poppy but not too much.

It results in a film that scores mainly in volatility. The acting is sometimes mediocre (leading actress Ella Hunt , known for ‘Cold Feet’), sometimes quite good (Sarah Swire, Marli Siu). The humor is sometimes really funny, sometimes very bland. Sometimes the film tries in vain to move, such as when Anna has a problem with her father. But sometimes the film really moves, like in those few minutes when a bitten character realizes that he or she is about to lose his humanity and he or she loses himself for a while in bittersweet memories. The music also varies in quality, sometimes opting for a nice tune, sometimes for a faint melody.

‘Anna and the Apocalypse’ is a nice mix of ‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Sex Education’ and ‘God Help the Girl’. The cheerful take on zombies comes from ‘Shaun of the Dead’, the jaunty high school woes of ‘Sex Education’ and the cheerful tunes of ‘God Help the Girl’. Within the genre of the postmodern, comic high school zombie musical ‘Anna and the Apocalypse’ is undoubtedly a topper, but that is due to the lack of competition.