Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our temporary breakdown-style evaluations of pageant films, VR previews, and different special occasion releases. This evaluation comes from Incredible Fest in Austin, Texas.
There are two sorts of individuals on the earth: individuals who hear the words “Scottish Christmas zombie musical comedy” and start scouring the web for showtimes, and individuals who hear these phrases, roll their eyes, and mutter concerning the ridiculous extremes of mash-up culture. The latter group will need to skip Anna and the Apocalypse, which is strictly as advertised: a low-budget, high-energy unbiased musical comedy made in Scotland, and centering on how a gaggle of angsty high-schoolers on the cusp of graduation cope with a sudden outbreak of living-deadism.
The Grinch group is missing out, although. The film in all probability gained’t win over anybody who’s uninterested in zombie films, the rash of musical entertainment that followed Glee’s breakout TV success, or seniors-facing-the-future tales usually. But for anyone who’s predisposed to like this stuff, however is ready to see them in a brand new mixture, Anna and the Apocalypse is an entertaining blast of recent air that simply occurs to incorporate a high quality spray of blood.
What’s the genre?
Scottish. Christmas. Zombie. Musical. Comedy.
What’s it about?
Scottish high-school senior Anna (Ella Hunt) has decided to postpone school for a yr while she travels round Australia, however when her father Tony (Mark Benton) finds out, he’s furious at what he sees as her try and sabotage her future. Meanwhile, her good friend John (Malcolm Cumming) has an unrequited crush on her, and her profoundly obnoxious ex Nick (Ben Wiggins) is taking each opportunity to let her know he’d be prepared to bang her once more. Scholar journalist Steph (Sara Swire, additionally the movie’s choreographer) needs individuals to take her stories about poverty and the homeless significantly, and faculty audiovisual nerd Chris (Christopher Leveaux) is being informed his video work isn’t private enough. Also: it’s Christmas, all the time a time for heightened emotions on each the constructive and unfavorable ends of the size.
All these points are normal high-school struggles, barely a tick on most individuals’s angst-o-meter. But like most teenagers, the protagonists are all processing their problems as questions on their own identities and their place on the planet. In contrast to most teenagers, though, they additionally process their emotions by busting out huge unique pop numbers about their disappointment and frustration, full with Swire’s High Faculty Musical-style choreography, which turns the lunchroom, the varsity hallways, and an area graveyard into small-scale Broadway levels.
After which, all of the sudden: zombies. Things disintegrate shortly throughout a delirious sequence the place Anna and John, rallying after a tough day, every run singing by way of their neighborhoods, utterly oblivious to the murder and mayhem all around them. It’s a sequence acquainted from Shaun of the Lifeless, besides on this case, the youngsters aren’t working in their own zombieish workaday haze — they both have their headphones in, and are tuned into their own internal worlds. Which may appear somewhat like a pointed criticism of juvenile narcissism, except that director John McPhail is unfailingly on these youngsters’ aspect. He and Swire make the film about massive, joyous gestures and large painful moments, but above all, they make it huge. The film’s successes largely come from their ambition and willingness to play the protagonists’ feelings straight and acknowledge why they’d really feel real and essential, even when the complete state of affairs across the characters is pointedly ridiculous, ironic, and over-the-top.
What’s it actually about?
There are definitely some minor threads operating by means of the film concerning the significance of friends and family, about appreciating the second you’re in, and about not giving up on humanity, even when it looks like individuals are appearing fairly shitty. But this isn’t a movie about deep symbolism and heartfelt themes. It’s a film about smashing zombie’s heads in with watermelons, bowling balls, and no matter else comes readily handy.
Is it good?
Above all the things, actor Paul Kaye (acquainted from his position as Thoros of Myr on Recreation of Thrones) gets a callout for throwing himself completely into his position as brittle, tyrannical faculty administrator Arthur Savage. It’s rare for a zombie movie to have a human villain who isn’t a soulless army determine, a wealthy out-of-touch elitist. However Savage is something a lot better: a petty tyrant who sees all the zombie apocalypse as a challenge to his authority, until he lastly cracks and turns into a chortling, expansive nihilist. The late-in-the-game villain quantity where he belts out his philosophy on dying whereas dancing wildly around the cafeteria kitchen are gloriously demented.
And the forged is robust generally, with Hunt projecting a wounded-but-irrepressible Anne Hathaway vibe, Swire coming across like an underage Gwendoline Christie still discovering her badass groove, and Wiggins stopping the show with a number about how nicely the zombie apocalypse treats people who find damaging mayhem fun. As slight and silly because the story is, and as acquainted as the zombie beats are, the performers give all of it a number of coronary heart.
Anna and the Apocalypse isn’t a specific memorable movie — that giggleworthy tagline, “Scottish Christmas zombie musical comedy,” lingers longer than just about anything else. A few of the individual characters’ storylines drag or squib out into nothing, and as with so many zombie films, the try and make each kill messier and more surprising than the final begins to uninteresting after a while.
But watching it is a cheer-along experience. McPhail and writers Ryan McHenry and Alan McDonald depart the standard anti-zombie weapons (weapons, axes, chainsaws) out of the equation, make their zombies preposterously fragile, and give the characters room to dispatch them with completely anything that comes handy, including a seesaw and a spatula. Roddy Hart and Tommy Reilly’s pop songs are integral, truly shifting the story alongside in addition to expressing and heightening the feelings. Genre followers will see plenty of Glee combined with Shaun of the Lifeless in this movie, nevertheless it additionally recollects Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s musical episode, with more polished pop.
What ought to it's rated?
That is a particularly bloody film, filled with eviscerations, decapitations, and mutilations. It’s additionally all pretty goofy and humorous. The MPAA would name it an R, however actually it might get by with a PG-13 and a reminder for the squeamish that this can be a full-contact zombie film.
How can I truly watch it?
Anna and the Apocalypse is at present on the lookout for American distribution.
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