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Anna and the Apocalypse
Horror, Musical comedy
A zombie comedy set at Christmastime—and it’s a musical? Awesome! Except it isn’t very good: not scary, not funny and pretty amateurish. High-schooler Anna (Ella Hunt) is coping with an array of the usual teen angst—nobody understands her, etc.—amidst an outbreak of the walking undead in her small British town. Her adventures are clearly meant to evoke Shaun of the Dead, but there’s no greater metaphor for human existence at play in this brains-eating end-of-the-world, and no entertaining irony to be found. The characters are one-note, and there’s barely even a story, just a lot of stuff happening one after another. The whole shebang, including the mostly blah songs, trundles along on one flat emotional level, with no rise and fall to whatever feeling it’s trying to arouse; it never earns any of its would-be sentiment. Worst of all, Anna is pure cipher, a feminine “mystery” created by male filmmakers. Why is she attracted to absolute asshole Nick (Ben Wiggins) while her best friend, “nice guy” John (Malcolm Cumming), must wallow in unappreciated worship of her? Just: No.
Official Site: www.annaandtheapocalypse.com
Director: John McPhail
Producer: Naysun Alae-Carew, Tracy Brimm, Stephen Jarvis, Orion Lee and James Norrie
Cast: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins, Marli Siu, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye, Ella Jarvis and Calum Cormack
Director: John McPhail
Producer: Naysun Alae-Carew, Tracy Brimm, Stephen Jarvis, Orion Lee and James Norrie
Cast: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins, Marli Siu, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye, Ella Jarvis and Calum Cormack
