ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE (2017)

There’s No Such Thing As A Hollywood Ending…

Something I see often on ye olde social media is this phrase “I just don’t like musicals. People bursting into song is just too unrealistic for me.” I’ve never quite understood this complaint. One of the reasons we love music is because it helps us convey emotions when mere words let us down. Just because it’s surrounded by a narrative doesn’t lessen the impact. We listen to breakup songs and sing along with them because it’s the only way we know how to express our heartbreak. So why would it be any different for characters in a movie?

A musical is just the ultimate example of using music to express yourself, both for the characters and us, the audience. Joy, anger, sadness, all of these emotions are felt harder in a musical.

The other wonderful thing about musicals is that the musical is the medium, not the genre. Any genre can be adapted to the musical format, so even if you don’t like a classic musical like OKLAHOMA!, I guarantee there’s one out there for you somewhere.

Even horror has its place in musicals, whether it’s classy Broadway productions like PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, or decidedly schlockier fare like my beloved EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL. But no musical has as deftly balanced multiple genres the way 2017’s ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE does. Do you like teen drama and romance? Of course you do! How about zombies? Yeah, them too. Mix them together and make the whole thing funny and you have one of the best musicals of the 21st Century, if not of all time.

Directed by John McPhail, and written by Alan McDonald and Ryan McHenry (of “Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal” fame), and based on McHenry’s short film ZOMBIE MUSICAL, ANNA stars a pre-Dickinson Ella Hunt, as the titular heroine. A high school senior, Anna is feeling constrained by her over-protective father (Mark Benton) and fawning best friend John (Malcolm Cumming). She yearns to travel and live, and break away from what she feels is the restrictions of her home life. And then all hell breaks loose when zombies attack, all backed by killer musical numbers.

Hunt’s Anna is the perfect combination of strong and wounded.  Her transformation into a badass zombie killer feels like a logical and believable journey for her. Anna isn’t the chosen one, but she is driven and determined to protect those she loves. Hunt also handles herself well on the singing front, having to do most of the heavy lifting. Hunt isn’t the best singer in the cast (that would be Sarah Swire and Marli Siu, who play two of Anna’s friends) but her vocal skills are strong enough, and the songs wisely play to her strengths. She’s ably supported by the rest of the cast, in particular Cumming, whose John conveys the heartbreak of teenage unrequited love while never veering into creepy “nice guy” territory.

It’s easy when talking about the heartbreak and serious turns in the film to forget to illustrate that the movie is absolutely hilarious. Characters take the time to debate which celebrities might have been turned into zombies (don’t worry, the consensus is that Taylor Swift is fine), Anna is consistently mocked for refusing to believe in zombies, despite copious amounts of evidence, and Siu’s character performs one of lewdest Christmas numbers ever for a talent show.

ANNA has big things on its mind but it never ligers too long before we get a one liner or musical number to lighten things up. McPhail never loses sight of the fact he wants to entertain us more than anything.  Genre mashups are nothing new, but McPhail has such a sure and steady hand, that rather than feeling tonally inconsistent, the film feels like a cohesive whole.

Despite the turns, ANNA is ultimately a joyful celebration of a film. McPhail wants you to leave the theater feeling good, not sad or depressed.

This wouldn’t be much of a celebration of all things ANNA if I didn’t talk about the music.

There’s not really a misfire on the entire soundtrack, whether it’s teen angst yearning of “Break Away” or the tragic downbeat of “Human Voice,” the songs propel the narrative forward the way the best musicals do. Every song feels narratively essential to the story ANNA is trying to tell.

While all the songs are varying degrees of good, particular praise has to be given to “Hollywood Ending” the second major musical number. In addition to perfectly setting up the relationships amongst our leads, the song also cleverly tells you exactly what’s going to happen in the movie, but you don’t realize it until the film is over. If you want to sample the soundtrack before watching the movie, this is the track to check out. You will be singing it for days after.

It also has to be said, there’s an extra layer of poignancy to ANNA. As I said earlier, the film was based on Ryan McHenry’s short film ZOMBIE MUSICAL.

The short garnered McHenry some acclaim and led to the development of ANNA as a full feature.

Unfortunately, McHenry passed away from cancer in 2015 at the age of 27, and never got to see the project come to fruition. The film is dedicated to his memory and it’s hard to imagine he would have been anything but delighted with the love and care the cast and crew gave to his baby.

ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE has had a pretty checkered and spotty release. First premiering at Fantastic Fest in 2017 (where the cast performed a karaoke version of “Hollywood Ending”), it failed to find immediate distribution, ultimately landing small theatrical release and on digital VOD more than a year after its premiere.

Further adding insult, this release was significantly cut from the Fantastic Fest version.

That being said, the cut version is the first version I fell in love with, and if it’s the only way you can see it you still should. Luckily in 2019 Second Sight released a beautiful blu-ray disc containing both the cut release and the uncut festival version, along with a bevy of special features, including the original ZOMBIE MUSICAL  Seeing ANNA in any format is a treat, but this disc is truly the one to seek out.

Whether you want the zombie action, the teen romance, or the witty dialogue, ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE will give it to you wrapped in a joyous musical package. If you don’t like musicals, try this one and let yourself be won over by Anna and her friends.