Anna and the Apocalypse (2018) DVD Review

Plot: A zombie apocalypse threatens the sleepy town of Little Haven – at Christmas – forcing Anna and her friends to fight, slash and sing their way to survival.

Review: Scottish teen Anna (Ella Hunt) is preparing to graduate high school, but first she has to survive the Christmas holiday season and what appears to be a global zombie viral outbreak that reaches even into her small town in Scotland. From one day to the next, she and her best friend John (Malcolm Cumming) are on the verge of falling in love, and what seems a split second later, they’re using candy cane decorations and easy-to-grab household objects to fend off a growing zombie horde that is building momentum all around them and their high school. Anna’s father is trapped in the school auditorium where the new headmaster is using his newfound power as an overlord over some frightened students and faculty, and Anna’s ex-boyfriend has turned into a thuggish brute in the blink of an eye. Christmas wasn’t supposed to go like this, but Anna is resilient and will somehow find the will to survive the day.

A somewhat baffling smash-up of a zombie apocalypse movie with a holiday musical with full-on musical and dance numbers, Anna and the Apocalypse promises to be the ultimate cult film, but whittles down to a bare-bones apocalyptic experiment with only a few catchy songs to really recommend it. What might have been a really zany experiment that might’ve gone over well with the midnight crowd quickly turns into a depressing slog with more or less unlikable characters and a story that boils down to a tough rubber shoe without a sole. Why on earth did they set it at Christmastime? It adds nothing to the flavor of the movie. From director John McPhail.

The new DVD release for this title comes with a single bonus feature: “Anna and the Apocalypse: Behind the Scenes.” This is out now.