Zom-com hobbled by rating

Anna and the Apocalypse (R16, 108 mins) Directed by John McPhail Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★★★1⁄2

Just when you think you’ve seen all the Scottish zombie high-school musical comedies you’ll ever need to, along comes Anna and the Apocalypse, a late entry in this recent golden age of the zombie movie.

In 1985, with the release of George Romero’s Day of the Dead,

Dan O’Bannon’s The Return of the Living Dead and Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, it might have seemed the era of the big-screen massappeal zombie movie had reached an apex from which the only way was down.

The movies kept coming, but it wasn’t until Danny Boyle’s hellaciously good 28 Days Later in 2002 that the genre began to regularly beat on the doors of the multiplex again.

In 2004, Edgar Wright and friends released Shaun of the Dead.

The zom-com had existed for a long time, but Shaun was such a ridiculously accessible and enjoyable mainstream smash-hit that it inspired a generation of student film-makers to try to imitate it.

All you needed – apparently – was a bunch of friends, a few barrels of fake blood and maybe some offal for special effects, and you too could have the next global sensation on your hands.

Except, it was never that easy. Dozens of zombie movies have been released in the years since Shaun and 28 Days and thousands have been made, but only a very few have been worth watching. For every Train to Busan, Zombieland, Warm Bodies, Dead Snow or

George Romero’s own sequels, there are a hundred stinkers.

And then along comes Anna, just to prove that the zombie genre truly is the hardest to kill.

Listen, there’s only so much I can say about Anna and the Apocalypse. If the words ‘‘Scottish Zombie Christmas musical’’ have you rummaging through the Google to find out where it’s screening, then have at it. I can pretty much guarantee you’ll have a good time, because you know what you’re signing up for.

For the doubters, I will say that lead Ella Hunt will quite possibly be a huge star very soon and that the songs, staging and choreography are all slightly better than they really needed to be. Director John McPhail (Where Do We Go From Here?) keeps the story cracking along at a decent pace.

But, hobbled by that daft R16 classification, I doubt Anna and the Apocalypse will ever find the Kiwi audience it deserves.

Seriously, if someone in the licensing office wants to explain to me why this good-natured, cartoonish nonsense gets that rating, when Shaun of the Dead –a far gorier picture – only attracted an R13 in 2004, please drop me a line.

Anna proves that the zombie genre truly is the hardest to kill.