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| Ella Hunt in Anna and the Apocalypse. Image courtesy Orion Pictures. |
On a visceral level, the
chaos-laden Anna and the Apocalypse delivers exactly as it
promises. It takes place in the days leading up to Christmas, so
there is ample holiday decorations and holiday weaponry. The musical
numbers are plentiful with a few rather catchy tunes to replay on
Spotify. There are a ton of zombies to demolish with creative flair,
particularly a rather eventful bowling alley scene that showcases the
filmmakers' ingenuity in blood spattering. And it has a sense of
humor that ranges from silly teen jokes to some wicked gallows humor.
The movie is fun and infectious, a nice little holiday flick that
veers off the beaten path. And it could have been a whole lot more
than that.
Ella
Hunt stars as the eponymous Anna, a high school girl who dreams of
exploring the world before college, much to the consternation of her
father (Mark Benton). Alongside her best friend/wannabe romantic
interest John (Malcolm Cumming), Anna navigates the rigors of high
school, intersecting with ambitious student reporter Steph, (Sarah
Swire), aspiring chanteuse Lisa (Marli Siu), her boyfriend Chris
(Christopher Leveaux), handsome jerk Nick (Ben Wiggins), and intense
headmaster Savage (Paul Kaye). Their dreary high school life ends
when an infestation of zombies invades their small town, forcing Anna
and her friends to fend for survival against an army of the living
dead.
The
movie certainly has a spark to it, a joy for dismembering zombies and
big, bold musical numbers. But Anna
and the Apocalypse
still feels like a missed opportunity. The combination of horror,
comedy, musical, and holiday occasionally conflict to undermine one
another, undermining the premise's selling point. Some of the
filmmakers' push for comedy lightens the horror elements, resulting
in a movie that is more gory than scary. The songs are a little too
hit or miss, coming in to either lessen the horror or stall the
movie's momentum and character progression.
The
latter is an overarching issue, as Anna
and the Apocalypse
doesn't give itself enough time to develop either it's world or it's
universe. Blending the zombie film with the musical short changes the
character development needed to make their fates matter. Musical
numbers are often shortcuts to building characters, revealing
motivations openly and effectively. Yet the songs don't cover enough
of the space, leaving folks like Nick and Lisa to fulfill their arcs
through awkward exposition. The filmmakers using a lot of throwaway
lines to compensate for missing potential visual indicators or
elaboration from characters. Considering how important these little
details are – most notably the existence of a military base never
mentioned in act one – skipping over those details muddles the
story. And it's especially confusing given how religiously Anna
and the Apocalypsefollows Chekhov's Gun, with little things like confiscated car keys
or a prop falling apart introduced in act one become very important
in act three. It's a weird to introduce some elements and bring them
back while trying to patch plot holes with exposition, making some of the plot points a little too obvious and blunt at time
Then
again, considering Anna
and the Apocalypse's
horror and musical roots, subtlety is less important than it would be
otherwise. And the filmmakers throw in a couple of surprising deaths
to avoid having an apocalypse go easily for a collection of mostly
untrained teenagers wandering around a land of doom. The deaths would
have hit harder had the film invested more time in character
development, but the deaths fit the film's melancholy soul.
Like
many a great musical, many an excellent horror flick, and several
pretty good holiday movies, happiness is hard to find in Anna
and the Apocalypse.
The characters' circumstances are consistently riddled with
disappointment and hopes for a better tomorrow. Anna is very close to
making it out, but the end of the world quashes her dreams of
exploration. She does not end the movie in a better place than she
started it. The reasons she may have stuck around town are gone, but
in the cruelest twist of all she has nowhere else she can go. All
that's left is to drive headfirst into the miasma, with neither
direction nor clarity to guide her.
Review: Four out of Five Stars
Click here to see the trailer.
Rating: R
Run time: 97 minutes
Genre: Horror
tl;dr
What
Worked: Premise,
Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming
What
Fell Short: Character
development
What
To Watch As Well:
Shaun
of the Dead, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
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