Dec 19, 2019

If you were running from zombies, would you sing about it? The offbeat and catchy "Anna and the Apocalypse" creatively blends Christmas, the zombie apocalypse and high school musicals, winning deserved comparisons to several sing songy cult classics. The film struggles with tone deaf inconsistencies, though. What begins as a rousing horror comedy abruptly changes keys into a mournful elegy that falls flat. Also: Would you rather be stalked by a killer elf on the shelf, or have to face sober karaoke with your coworkers every night for a month?

Motion Picture Terror Scale: 3. Quality: 3. Personal Enjoyment: 3. 

Articles and multimedia mentioned in this episode:

"‘Anna and the Apocalypse’ Director John McPhail Talks Making the Zombie Musical Film (Interview)," by Denise Caputo in FanFest

"Anna And The Apocalypse interview: the director on his zombie musical," by Rosie Fletcher in Den of Geek

"Anna and the Apocalypse: Human Voice," song on YouTube

"Anna and the Apocalypse: Soldier at War," song on YouTube

"Martin Scorsese: I Said Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema. Let Me Explain." by Martin Scorsese in The New York Times.

"Zombies," in NPR's Throughline

We also discuss two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One is "Once More, with Feeling." That's the musical episode and it's Season 6, Episode 7. The other is "Where the Wild Things Are," when Rupert Giles sings "Behind Blue Eyes." That's Season 4, Episode 18. There are a few YouTube versions of those songs; some are genuine and some are pirated, so I figured I'd play it safe and just recommend the whole episodes. I did find a more recent version of "Behind Blue Eyes" by Anthony Head on YouTube, however, that's worth checking out.

"Behind Blue Eyes," by Anthony Head on YouTube