Anna and the Apocalypse
Director: John McPhail
Writer: Alan McDonald, Ryan McHenry
Cast: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Marli Siu, Ben Wiggins, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye, Sean Connor, John Winchester, Euan Bennet, Ella Jarvis
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 21.9.2018
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Plot:
Usually nothing much happens in Little Haven. But this Christmas, zombies have found their way into town. As the town becomes quickly chaotic, Anna (Ella Hunt), her best friend John (Malcolm Cumming) and a few other high schoolers have to get across town to their high school where they hope to find safety.
Anna and the Apocalypse reads pretty much like your standard zombie film on paper. But it really isn’t standard at all – starting with the fact that it’s a musical and one of the most fun films I’ve seen in a while. It’s perfectly entertaining.
I know that musicals aren’t for everyone (though really, why would you not like musicals? I can’t understand – they are so different and the music is so different and… anyway), but I can hardly imagine that musicals can be so much Not Your Thing that you wouldn’t get a kick out of Anna and the Apocalypse anyway. It’s just such a fun film – I actually cried from laughter during the film.
We had a bit of a technical glitch during our screening and the image was gone for a while (they rewound the film, so we didn’t actually miss anything). And what could have been just annoying turned brilliant as the moment the image disappeared, one of the characters said “There’s no signal” and a little later, “The government will fix it” – a coincidence that pretty much had the audience doubling over from laughter.
Despite the emphasis of the comedic part (voluntarily and involuntarily), emotionally tough things happen here – and the characters were close enough to my heart that the sad parts also resonated with me. (And thankfully they didn’t go for the “kill your gays” trope for the sad stuff.)
The music is really good as well – I wanted to start singing along immediately, despite not knowing the songs beforehand. It’s just really good pop music that worms its way into your ears and stays there (there’s no such thing as Hollywood eeeeending). The choreographies felt a little simple at times, but I didn’t really mind.
Despite seeing a Christmas movie in September, which can feel a little weird, Anna and the Apocalypse created just the right mood and had me dancing.
Summarizing: great!
kalafudra's Stuff 
This movie keeps getting better and better with every viewing. Yes, it‘s funny, the songs are brilliant, but what really makes the movie shine are the emotional moments in the final act, which hit me harder and harder the more I watch it. An instant modern christmas classic!
You know, I haven’t seen it since, but I think I will take the time this Christmas. Thanks for reminding me! :D
I just found out that there is an extended version (called festival cut, but they only showed the regular version at the /slash filmfestival) included on the UK Blu-Ray. Even though I already own the german release, I’ll definitely have to get that! :-)
I might have to borrow that once you have it. :D
That can be arranged! :-)
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I’m starting to get REALLY obsessed with this movie. There are actually 3 cuts, and given the fact that I recall (and actually wrote in my review) that the one we saw at the festival featured a reprisal of “Hollywood Ending” at the end, I’m certain that we saw the US-cut, which is actually the shortest version. The german Blu-Ray features the international cut (which runs 4 minutes longer). Now, I have to admit, when I watched it last year, I didn’t really notice any changes (apart from the ending, but I thought I misremembered; since you can actually hear a somber instrumental version of “Hollywood Ending” playing, it’s “hust” missing the vocals. Here’s a link to the ending of the US-cut -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEfAV16s9G4. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the ending of the international version on YouTube for comparison), but you can find a detailed description of all the differences on movie-censorship.com. (Strangely enough, the search doesn’t show any results, so ICYI, here are the two comparisons ->
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=290181
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=664876)
Anyway, I guess that means that I’ll also have to get the canadian release, which features the US cut. Especially since a couple of months ago, I finally upgraded to a region free blu-ray-player :-).
Hot damn, down the rabbit hole you went!
Maybe we will have a three-version-comparison-watch-party once you have the other two versions!
Yeah, and once we’re all vaccinated, finally! :-D
[…] Anna and the ApocalypseDirector: John McPhail Writer: Alan McDonald, Ryan McHenry Cast: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Marli Siu, Ben Wiggins, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye, Sean Connor, John Winchester, Euan Bennet, Ella Jarvis Seen on: 27.12.2020[Here’s my first review.] […]