Welcome to Knockout Horror and to another entry into our Festive Frights season of Christmas themed horror movie reviews. If you are looking for tons of Xmas horror scares, check out our Awful Advent category for lots more. Today we are taking a look at musical zombie horror movie Anna and the Apocalypse.
Wait… What?
Yes, musical zombie horror movie. What a weird mix of genres, right? I mean, musical horrors are not exactly unheard of. Sweeney Todd definitely counts as one and I can think of a few others off the top of my head but it is a fairly uncommon approach to the genre. That’s probably with good reason, though. It’s tough for a movie to actually stay scary when people are belting out into song every five minutes.
Anna and the Apocalypse follows the story of high school student Anna (Ella Hunt). Who is forced, along with her friends, into a fight for survival after her home town falls victim to a zombie apocalypse. Turning all of the residents into bloodthirsty, undead, freaks.
Anna and the Apocalypse makes its intentions clear almost immediately. Anna breaks out into song in the middle of the high school corridors with fellow students joining in to form a chorus of horror weirdness. If I am being perfectly honest, it is a little bit jarring and that is why I didn’t review this movie for my Awful Advent feature in 2022.
Not My Thing At All
Full disclosure, my fiancée and I started watching this one back in 2022 with full intention of adding it to the 25 Days of Christmas Horror list. We got about ten minutes in before Anna cracked out into song and we turned it off. I find musicals a bit of a tough ask, especially this style, in particular. Anna and the Apocalypse feels more like something you would find on Disney channel rather than on Broadway. Compounding the issue is the fact that I don’t really like zombie movies. There was no way I could have seen myself enjoying Anna and the Apocalypse at all which is, in all honesty, not a fair way to judge a movie.
When it came time to pick titles for this year’s Festive Frights feature, it was obvious we would have to tackle this one again. Instead of going in raw, we came up with a cunning plan. Grab some drinks, get a little bit buzzed, and then whack it on to see whether it would click. Drastic? I suppose. Did it work? Kind of. I say kind of because we made it through the musical parts just fine but Anna and the Apocalypse, as it stands, is simply a fairly uneven movie.
Fairly Catchy
As far as the songs go, some of them are catchy but none stand out. I am not sure whether it was the whisky I consumed or whether they were all just a little bit forgettable. I can barely remember a single one. Dance routines feel pretty average and the whole thing has a distinct sense of the amateur about it. None of the vocalists stand out, there are a bunch of dubbing inconsistencies, and it all just seems a little bit high school production as far as the musical aspect is concerned.
Still, it’s upbeat and feels quite different compared to the usual slew of zombie movies doing the rounds. It’s when the horror stuff kicks in that the movie starts to feel very confused. That’s not to say these parts of Anna and the Apocalypse don’t work. They do have some merit. The horror elements are okay, if not a little overly familiar and formulaic. The tongue in cheek approach to the genre allows for some comedy which keeps things light and there are a few laughs along the way.
The typical “survivor group teams up to escape” thing works pretty well and it almost feels like a Goonies style movie for awhile there, albeit with zombies and no Chunk. Whereas there is plenty of gore and some decent practical effects, there is so much levity that it really doesn’t feel at all serious. It stays light and bouncy with the action and horror punctuated by the occasional song. That is, until it doesn’t and it completely flips on its head.
Until it Loses Direction
Somewhere around the middle part of the movie, Anna and the Apocalypse completely loses direction. It frequently engages in repetitive zombie movie tropes and feels like it starts to go around in circles. As the final third rolls in, the light, bouncy, fun filled, zombie killing action, horror, musical, mishmash suddenly becomes very serious. Gone is the levity and, in its place, we have a ridiculous evil headmaster subplot and a whole bunch of characters being bitten for no reason.
I am not sure why the writers felt the need to flip things so drastically. It adds nothing and acts as a severe tonal shift. Making the fact that this was ever a musical, in the first place, feel completely ridiculous. The two things don’t mesh together all that well in the first place so when the movie attempts to tap into some deep emotion, drama, and sadness it feels utterly forced and completely unsatisfying.
Anna and the Apocalypse had a chance to really subvert expectation but it is so bound to its boring zombie movie tropes that it sinks into predictability. It doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be and it is hard not to see it as anything other than a very middle of the road zombie movie with a tacked on, subpar, musical element that adds little. If every other scene wasn’t punctuated by songs, I doubt anyone would remember this movie in the slightest.
Strong Performances
On the plus side, acting is fairly solid. I am not sure if the actors performed their own songs. I am sure at least one or two were dubbed, but everyone seems to do a nice job. Ella Hunt is a very stiff dancer but she does good with the acting segments. People got a bit ahead of themselves after this movie, anointing her as the next big thing. That never really happened and I am not surprised. She is fine but doesn’t seem particularly special. I enjoyed Malcolm Cumming’s performance as John and thought Ben Wiggins was great fun as Nick. Marli Siu did a great job, as well.
I hated every single, solitary, part of Paul Kaye’s performance as Arthur Savage. I have liked him from back when he was Dennis Pennis, years ago, but he stinks, here. Kaye hams things up so much and his vocal delivery on both lines and songs is hideous. He feels so at odds with how seriously everyone else takes themselves. He reminded me of an over the top pantomime villain but, somehow, even more obnoxious. It’s made all the worse by how ridiculous his character is and how dumb his motivations are.
A little side note that bears mention; this movie markets itself as a Christmas horror and it is, sort of. As it stands, however, it could be set at any time of year. It’s a factor that barely plays in to the film outside of a few visual gags and to fit the movie into a very specific niche because, apparently, the zombie musical horror genre wasn’t niche enough. Don’t watch this expecting it to feel all that festive.
Should You Watch Anna and the Apocalypse
I think Anna and the Apocalypse is worth watching but the movie struggles to live up to a strong opening. It’s just a very generic zombie movie with songs for additional dressing. It’s very confused, at times, and leans so heavily into its zombie horror trappings that it actually becomes a full on, depressing, zombie movie by the final 20 minutes. It all just feels a bit uneven and a bit confused. I will add, however, that this is not a movie made for me. I don’t enjoy musicals or zombie films so this was facing an uphill battle from the get go.