Anna and the Apocalypse             3 ½ stars

Just in time for Christmas comes the Christmas musical comedy from England, Anna and the Apocalypse.  The movie starts out with us meeting Anna, a high school senior in England who is dealing with life choices following graduation and her father after the loss of her mother.  She also has her friends at school including John, Steph and Chris.  There is also her former boyfriend, Nick who is something of a jerk.  Since it is a musical some of the story is told by the main characters doing some excellently choreographed musical numbers.  And since it is Christmas time, there is the night of the school musical put on by many of the students.  All seems very conventional until about a half hour into the movie when the zombies come.  It seems a worldwide viral outbreak has occurred and most of the population has transformed into flesh eating zombies.  So it is now up to our small band of high school heroes to do hand to hand combat with the zombies and get Anna back with her father who is a janitor at the school.  All this is done to song and dance while they find inventive ways to kill off the zombies and keep from getting bitten.  Will they make it through the day and find Anna’s father?  The film is strictly for laughs and is fun to watch for its short hour and a half length.  Don’t compare this to such master zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later or The Girl with all the Gifts, but for a pleasant change and a break from holiday stress, it hits the spot.