3 Short Paragraphs: Anna and the Apocalypse

2017, John McPhail (Where Do We Go From Here?) -- Netflix

The existence of this movie reminds me of the era of VHS video stores, when you would have seen all the good movies, and you would wander the racks pulling down movies at random, read their description, and meh-ingly return it to the shelf over and over and over, before finally settling on something that touched on three of your points of interest. Some producer finally decided on high school kids, zombies, and musical and figured it would sell just enough. And they are right, it probably did.

As I watched this, I was a little confused. All the songs felt like they were throwbacks to other eras of musicals. Not that I know the current state of musical, so please correct me if I am wrong, but they all felt 80s or 90s. It made me think that the creators were big fans of that one episode of Buffy and that was their inspiration, forgetting the fact that they songs in that episode had all the groundwork laid in previous seasons. Here, we get typical songs about getting away from your teen years, or your home town, or starting a perfect day, as the zombie apocalypse begins in the background, smacking back to Shaun of the Dead. None of the songs were memorable nor really catchy.

In typical zombie movie fashion, Anna (a charming Ella Hunt; if they need a new Faith for the Buffy reboot...) and her group of friends have to go from point A to point B while avoiding, or squashing the zombies of all their schoolmates and towns folk. There is comedy, tragedy and gore but all pretty yawn worthy. In the end, a few with great voices get away and ... well, get away. That's it, opening song fulfilled, as they are ending high school and leaving town. Sploosh, mind blown. Yawn. Nothing like your family, friends and neighbours all dying so you can realize your wishes.