Anna and the Apocalypse held its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in 2017, and it immediately made its mark as a rather unique piece of entertainment.
A Scottish horror/comedy – a zom-com, to be more specific – that’s also a musical and a coming-of-age tale? A difficult combination in the wrong hands, but the filmmakers were able to shape it into something special that holds up years later and after numerous rewatches.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)
Commentators: John McPhail (director), Alan McDonald (co-writer), Roddy Hart (co-composer), Tommy Reilly (co-composer)
1. The opening song over the credits is “Christmas Means Nothing Without You,” and while it’s meant to be a recognizable hit, the song was actually written and recorded for the film. They couldn’t afford to snag an existing song.
2. The film was originally meant to open with a musical number featuring all the extras who we otherwise first meet after they’ve become zombies. It was going to follow them through town, singing and dancing, but they weren’t able to do it due to increasingly terrible weather. The song would have been “What a Time to Be Alive.”
3. McDonald was a school teacher before being able to write full-time, and he was thrilled with the look of the building they used for the school here as it reminded him of the one he previously taught at.
4. Co-writer Ryan McHenry is credited with conceiving the story for the film – he reportedly was watching High School Musical with his girlfriend and recalled wishing that Zac Efron would start eating someone’s brains – and even made a short film of the idea that eventually became this movie. He tragically passed away from cancer before the film was made.
5. Chris’ (Christopher Leveaux) showreel ends with a wicker man ablaze at 6:43, and it’s a nod to Leveaux’s grandfather, Robin Hardy, the director of 1973’s cult horror classic, The Wicker Man.
6. Sarah Swire, who plays Steph, also choreographed all the dance numbers for the film. Part of her process was to film herself doing each of the moves and then editing them together for a better sense of how it would all look.
7. “Hollywood Ending” is their big song and dance sequence, all shot in two days, but one of their favorite moments is at the very end. The bell rings, and everyone leaves, but one of the extras goes the wrong way to a non-exit at 17:17 and has to hide behind the wall.
8. The male dancers’ Christmas costumes at 21:06 are modeled on a look from 1983’s Sleepaway Camp.
9. Musical artists they mention as inspirations for the score and song styles include Taylor Swift, Hall & Oates, Bon Jovi, Poison, Queen, ABBA, Sex Pistols, Danny Elfman, and John Carpenter.
10. Anna (Ella Hunt) walks out into her neighborhood at 27:18, and the Christmas decorations all belong to the folks who actually live there. It wasn’t shot in December, but they all volunteered to put them out for the sequence.
11. “Human Voice,” the song sung while the teens are stuck in the bowling alley, wasn’t actually written for the film, although it was written by the duo around the same time. Someone let producer Naysun Alae-Carew hear it, and they immediately insisted it be added to the movie. McDonald agreed and rewrote the scene in question to make its inclusion feel more in sync with what the characters are trying to do.
12. That’s an Evil Dead reference in the ball pit at 47:13 as Sarah’s arm bursts up through the balls.
13. That’s a Toy Story 3 traffic cone reference at 48:36 as the characters walk outside under the empty ball pit.
14. They’ve caught flack and hashtags (#justice4john) over killing off John (Malcolm Cumming) when he gets bitten outside the Christmas tree warehouse, but it had to happen. “This is not a story about two friends, and then the girl comes around to the boy and realizes he’s what makes her happy, and they walk off together in the end. This is about Anna… it isn’t about a man making her life better.”
15. The sequence with Savage (Paul Kaye) singing “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Me Now” almost featured zombies singing backup. It was intended to complement Savage’s clear descent into madness, but they ultimately decided not to do it as they had a general rule about no singing zombies.
Quotes Without Context
“Every single time he’s onscreen, he just makes your skin crawl.”
“These penguins were dancing to something completely different on the day that they shot it.”
“You don’t get into songwriting unless you can write a song about fish.”
“Nobody ever brings up the fact that we eat a baby.”
Anna and the Apocalypse remains a delightful holiday treat for fans of mayhem and musicals. It’s just a fun movie that marries silliness, horror, heart, and loss into an unlikely gem, and the filmmakers’ commentary shows how all four of those attributes got there. From the tragic death of the film’s co-writer to the struggles with Scottish weather, it’s an indie production that succeeded despite the odds with hugely satisfying and entertaining results. Great film, very good commentary.