Christmas 2019: December 2nd

Anna and the Apocalypse (2018)

Occasionally, a movie comes along with a combination of premises that is simply irresistible. Last year, I started hearing about a new motion picture that was a Christmas-themed zombie musical. Holiday horror and horror musicals are underappreciated sub-genres on their own, while a combination of the two was practically unheard of. I was really hoping I'd get to “Anna and the Apocalypse” last December. However, the distributors passed over the same day in-theaters/VOD release common for indie horror flicks in favor of a wider theatrical release. A physical media release didn't even happen until earlier this year! So, a year later, I finally have my shot at seeing this cult favorite in-the-making.

Teenager Anna Shepherd has made plans to travel the world after graduation, against her father's wishes. Her Dad is overly protective of Anna, following her late mother's death. Anna's best friend John hides a crush on her, while their mutual friend Steph struggles to write an incisive school project against the wishes of a tyrannical principal. As Christmas approaches, the truly unexpected happens. A zombie outbreak occurs throughout the Scottish countryside. Now Anna and her friends must survive the plague of the undead flesh-munchers as they fight their way back to the school, where their parents are located. Plus, there's singing and dancing.

“Anna and the Apocalypse” clearly wouldn't exist without “Shaun of the Dead.” And not just because it's another zombie-comedy made in the U.K. In both movies, the zombie apocalypse functions as metaphor for the titular character growing and changing. Instead of depicting a man-child coming into maturity, “Anna and the Apocalypse” covers a group of teenagers breaking away from their families and finding their own way. If you didn't catch this, the opening musical number is literally called “Break Away.” Anna and her father come to an agreement, John's feelings are resolved, and Steph forges her own way. I'll admit, framing the zombie premise as a coming-of-age story is something I haven't seen before.

With these multi-hyphenated genre mash-ups, the films prefer one of the styles over the other. And this horror/musical emphasizes the music more than the horror. The New Wave-influenced songs are energetically performed. “Hollywood Ending,” detailing the characters' various dreams, is quite catchy. “Break Away” has a similar point but a more bombastic energy. “Turning My Life Around” is an upbeat number which elevates a sequence clearly paying homage to “Shaun,” where Anna and Josh navigated the post-zombie world totally unaware of what's happened. My favorite number is probably “Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now,” in which the school principal graduates to full-blown villain in a delightfully manic way. “Soldier at War,” a song highlighting a minor supporting character, and the Depache Mode-inspired “Human Voice” are among the film's less memorable numbers.

Perhaps the songs emerge as more memorable simply because there's been such a glut of zombie media in the last decade. It's not that the undead mayhem in “Anna” is uninspired. A sequence inside a bowling alley, in which zombies rampage through a ball pit and one's head insides up in the ball return machine, is pretty funny. Another moment, in which the heroic trio hide under an inflatable raft, escalates in some nicely ridiculous way. However, the gore effects aren't very inspired, the head-smashings and limb ripping coming off as rubbery. The zombie never feel like much of a threat, existing more as a neutral force on the sidelines, save for the few scenes where they are pushed to the forefront. John McPhail's direction is colorful but he doesn't show much competence for generating scares or tension.

I also wish “Anna and the Apocalypse” was a little heavier on the Christmas atmosphere. Yes, there are Santa and Snowman zombies and a weaponzied candy cane. However, aside from a few holiday-flavored songs (among the film's weakest), the December setting doesn't factor into the proceeding much. The cast is extremely likable, with Ella Hunt as Anna and Sarah Swire clearly having bright futures ahead of them. The film has already collected its share of fans. I imagine it'll become a regular presence in many horror and/or musical fans' yearly December watch-lists. I definitely enjoyed the movie but wish it balanced its zombie mayhem and pop star aspirations a little more evenly. [7/10]

X-Men: The Animated Series: Have Yourself a Morlock Little Christmas

As a kid, I found “X-Men: The Animated Series” to be pretty damn sophisticated. The show drew its character designs, and most of its story lines, directly from the comics. To my childhood brain, that certainly made the show seem darker, more nuanced, and serialized than most of the contemporary superhero cartoons. (The show kicked off a whole block of '90s Marvel cartoon, many of which I have found memories of.) Even though I remember “X-Men” being a pretty serious show, I recently discovered it still had a Christmas episode. Naturally, I had to include this in 2019's Christmas marathon.

“Have Yourself a Morlock Little Christmas” depicts Christmas Eve at the X-Mansion. Jubilee is excited to celebrate her first holiday with her new family, while Wolverine is eager to escape the festive cheer. He ends up going to the mall with Storm, where the Morlocks – mutants too ugly to live anywhere but underground – are caught robbing an ambulance. It turns out Leech, the youngest of the Morlocks, have fallen ill. His mutation made it impossible for him to be seen at a regular hospital, forcing the Morlocks to resort to stealing. Amid interpersonal drama, the X-Men decide to help Leech out.

Despite my childhood recollections, “X-Men: The Animated Series” doesn't exactly hold up. The animation is pretty damn choppy at times, the characters moving awkwardly through flatly colored backgrounds. There are lots of weird close-ups on faces and the various superpowers – such as one shape-shifting Morlock turning into an operating table – look very goofy. The writing, meanwhile, is as overheated as the animation is stiff. At some point, Storm won the right to command the Morlocks, much to the consternation of Callisto, the Morlocks' de-facto leader. The rivalry between the two is constantly referenced. Wolverine, meanwhile, agonizes considerably over whether or not he should try and help Leech. There's little action in this episode, so the focus is largely on the melodrama, which might not be what you'd expect from a superhero cartoon. (Or maybe it is, if you've actually ever read an “X-Men” comic.)

Somewhat unsurprisingly, “A Very Morlock Christmas” is more valuable for its camp value than anything else. The contrast between the superhero theatrics and the holly jolly setting is pretty amusing. While the others have their adventure, Jean Gray and Gambit argue in the kitchen about the Christmas dinner, an utterly ridiculous sight not helped by Gambit's odd tendency to refer to himself in the third person. Wolverine's intolerance for Christmas cheer is both in-character and fairly amusing. The episode's inevitable moral – where Jubilee learns to appreciate the season of giving with the Morlock's humble celebration – is about as maudlin as you can get. I suspect this episode is not highly regarded among “X-Men” fans but it made me laugh a couple times so that gives it value. [7/10]