Fantastic Fest 2017 Interview: Anna and the Apocalypse Cast and Crew On the Crowd Favorite Zombie Musical
Jonathan Barkan
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One of the biggest hits of this year’s Fantastic Fest is undoubtedly the Christmas zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse (review), which has charmed and delighted audiences thanks to its mix of High School Musical, Shaun of the Dead, and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. I think it’s very safe to say that the film, whenever it gets released, will be one of the most exciting and original releases the horror world will have had in a long, long time.
Myself and Brad McHargue got the chance to sit with director John McPhail as well as stars Ella Hunt, Sarah Swire, Malcolm Cumming and Christopher Leveaux to talk about the festival darling, their inspirations, honoring original creator Ryan McHenry (who was the man behind Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal), and more.
You can not only see our interview below but also see the cast performing their song “Hollywood Ending” from the movie at the Highball’s karaoke!
Directed by John McPhail, Anna and the Apocalypse stars Ella Hunt (Our Robot Overlords) as Anna with Mark Benton (The Halcyon) as her father, Tony, and Paul Kaye (“Game of Thrones”) as the wicked Savage. The cast also includes up-and-comers Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Ben Wiggins, and Marli Siu.
Synopsis:
Teenage Anna’s life is typical enough. Chafing against the narrow horizons of her small town, she dreams of bigger things. It’s not so much that she doesn’t love her friends and family — she does — it’s just that they’re all so… familiar. So typical. So predictable. Her childhood best friend aches for a romance that she has no interest in, no matter how close they might be. The school jock that she had a fling with is proving to be disappointingly predictable in his behavior. And it’s becoming progressively harder for Anna to conceal her disappointment with just how satisfied her widower-father is with the blue collar simplicity of his never-changing existence. And then it all goes to shit.
The night of the high school Christmas concert marks the arrival of the undead in Anna’s small town. And so begins a struggle to band together and survive. Future dreams are forced aside by the overwhelming need to survive the present in this winning Scottish musical-horror-comedy.
https://youtu.be/gEvHHUMx3Qs
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