Review: Anna And The Apocalypse

I have been super excited to finally see this film for some time. After doing the festival circuit for just over a year now, I have managed to check it out.

When you hear what the concept is, you just can't help at least take a peep at if will work. For those who are still reading and aren't aware, this is a Christmas musical in Scotland.....with zombies.

So with the knowledge of the unique mashing of multiple genres, that shock factor of realising what was happening was gone. However, the instantly catchy songs, engaging characters and very laughable gags put me right atceasecin the first act.
After that, those aspects just got stronger and stronger. I was seeing many scenes paying homage to Shaun Of The Dead, including one that look expertly executed.
I also saw obvious similarities to High School Musical and Nativity along the way, and even a bit of Attack The Block.
While the final act did enhance their noticeable problems, there was still enough content to make it a memorable finale that had myself and everyone in my screening giving it a round of applause.

So many positives to speak of. It's so much fun from start to finish. They commit to the concept, pay homage to the films it's taking inspiration from and really played around with it in many memorable set-pieces whilst the cast are singing songs that I would happily listen back to.

Also, the performances weren't too bad either. Ella Hunt was a solid and capable lead, Malcolm Cumming had a nice charm about him to make him easily rootable, I like the bas-ass nature of Sarah Swire's character, the relationship between Christopher Keveaux and Marli Siu was fun to watch and Ben Wiggins made great use of his character including one scene-stealing moment.

Having the experience of Mark Benton and Paul Jaye was a great choicecof casting as well. While I enjoyed Benton's moments with Hunt's character, Kaye stole the show for me and I could tell was having great fun with his over-the-top antagonist role.

Despite having so much fun with its strengths, I still noticed a few notable weaknesses. The story structure and it's themes is very predictable and falls under my clichés that we've seen before and are executed in a very satisfactory way.
Also, the level of depth in the story and character development is very much on a surface level.

So while my rating does get notched due to those problems, the fun factor, strong re-watchability, catchy song and well well executed gags still makes this a viewing experience that is well-worn your time.

Rating 7/10