ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE (2017)

ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE (2017)

Tagline: She'll Slash. She'll Stab. She'll Sing.

(Musical, Zombies, And Anna...Let's Not Forget Her) [R]

Oh no. We can't hang out anymore. You're too sad. You've hit like, peak sad.

In this one, there is a zombie outbreak (which is never fully explained) and it’s just about time for the Christmas show at school in the quiet town of Little Haven. Anna (played by Ella Hunt) is basically planning a trip to Australia rather than starting at the University the following year, which has her best friend John (played by Malcolm Cumming) kinda freaking out on the inside. Meanwhile, we also meet big-time jerk Nick (played by Ben Wiggins), the head over heals and rebellious Lisa (played by Marli Siu) and her boyfriend Chris Wise (played by Christopher Leveaux) then finally Steph North (played by Sarah Swire) who is mainly there to keep everyone alive. Yeah - you would think it would have been Anna, wouldn’t you?

The first 45 minutes of this thing are absolutely fantastic, and once you realize it’s a musical and adjust to that it’s even better. The songs through the first half are pretty great, even the somber number at the bowling alley. However sadly after the first 45 minutes, the movie takes a very serious and depressing turn, almost completely nullifying all the fun it was to start with. I won’t give away what happens, but it’s a massive downer, given that some reviewers actually had the guts to try and compare this movie with SHAUN OF THE DEAD. While both films have serious moments, this one never lets up in its effort to let us down.

In spite of an extremely good cast and decent acting, this movie manages to take an incredibly interesting premise and does a face-plant into the realm of being not very fun at all. I have to give props to Paul Kaye who is genuinely creepy in this one and did his job. Unfortunately, the role was only part of the problems that plague this “could have been great” movie. What I will suggest is that you add as much of the soundtrack to your Spotify playlist as you can, because the soundtrack is actually pretty great whenever Paul Kaye’s character isn’t singing. I don’t say that because of his voice, I say that because those songs are pretty bad.

Overall I give this one a 3 out of 7. At least half the movie was fun. Just a heads up, this movie has Zombieland-level gore, so it’s not for everyone.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF BLAZING GRIFFIN AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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