Anna sits nicely on festive fringe
Christmas films are a notoriously tricky beast to negotiate – they are a syrupy sentimental mix or only loosely connected to the season and a major miss.
Anna and The Apocalypse (in selected cinemas) is one of those that negotiates a great deal of genres with charm.
Mixing horror, High School Musical, Shaun of the Dead with Christmas edges, this coming-ofage story has the usual highschool tropes (friend-zoned mate who wants more, the bad-boy ex, the desire to leave home, and an over-protective father who doesn’t want to lose his daughter) but wraps them all up in a package that’s worth diving headlong into.
Anna and The Apocalypse isa fun, light and fluffy genre rejoinder to horror and the musical.
The film’s clearly hellbent on being a Buffy-style musical via John Hughes’ sensibilities, meshing poppy power ballads, some impressive choreography and pop culture references early on.
There are more than a few elements of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Once More With Feeling episode throughout, and it’s a joy to behold.
But, believe it or not,Anna and The Apocalypse works, with no sign of the cheese or overindulgence usually associated with Christmas fare.
It helps greatly that lead Ellie Hunt is engaging and affable, giving a heart and relatability to her performance that’s hard to deny. Hunt was recently seen in the series of UK drama Cold Feet, and is winning plaudits already in this new role – and rightly so.
Occasionally it lapses close to parody and silliness, but it’s a welcome departure from what’s expected at this time of year.
A perennial favourite of mine for this time of year is Joe Dante’s Gremlins from 1984 (you really should own this on DVD). It’s the story of Billy and Gizmo, the small critter who goes bad thanks to his owner. It’s as much a Christmas classic as Home Alone.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix) mixes the festive and creepy with reasonable aplomb, though its Gothic horror edges provide some nasty, unexpected bumps.