When most people think of Christmas, they envision sentient snowmen, houses with elaborate light setups synced to songs performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and elves on shelves in various compromising positions. In my house, it’s all about cozy movie marathons leading up to the big day. While films like Die Hard, Scrooged, and The Nightmare Before Christmas always make the rotation, it’s John McPhail’s 2017 musical zombie horror Anna and the Apocalypse that turns the most heads. McPhail’s delightfully deranged, snow-sprinkled symphony of holiday cheer and coming-of-age angst shambles onto screens like High School Musical mixed with Shaun of the Dead, giving audiences the gift of an off-the-wall Christmas-themed comedy with rhythm, gore, and grim tidings.

Anna and the Apocalypse focuses on a group of students from the sleepy town of Little Haven. What begins as an awkward start to a holiday break before graduation quickly escalates into a life-altering zombie invasion with characters spread across school grounds and the local bowling alley. As students race to reunite with loved ones, civilization falls into ruin, derailing post-graduation plans alongside any hope of living an everyday life. It’s the end of the world, after all.

Before my forties, I always found musical theater awkward and unappealing. However, as I’ve aged, I’ve learned to expand my horizons, and with a push from my friend Joey, a theater director, I’ve learned to appreciate the expressive art form. Anna and the Apocalypse is a perfect blend of young adult drama, cartoonish gore, and earworm-worthy bangers that bolster the characters and plot. I genuinely love all the songs in Anna and the Apocalypse. Many tracks offer clever lyrical wordplay, a sweeping range of emotions, and a window into the cast’s dilemmas in the face of a world-ending catastrophe.

One of my favorite aspects of Anna and the Apocalypse is its imperfections. The choreography sometimes stumbles, and inaugural notes for a few songs can sound off-key. These “subtle flaws” are part of the film’s appeal, and I mean that genuinely. These fleeting moments of imperfection give Anna a “real” feel, like I’m watching people creating something out of passion instead of for a paycheck. All the star players are incredibly talented, with Ella Hunt, Ben Wiggins, Marli Siu, Sarah Swire, and Paul Kaye among my favorite performers.

There’s also a fair amount of depth to the film, with characters undergoing drastic change, from Anna’s longing to explore the world before college to Savage’s obsession with ruling the one thing his black heart desires and Nick overcoming his deeply-rooted toxic masculinity. The characters are more than singing zombie killers and victims. They’re complex, with hopes and dreams shattered by the apocalypse.

If fun, creative gore is your thing, Anna and the Apocalypse has got you covered. Let me put it this way: the first two deaths are death by see-saw and death by toilet. That’s a chef’s kiss in my book. Anna is also a movie in which nobody is safe. There’s no such thing as a Hollywood ending. Get yourself a mug of hot chocolate, give yourself room to rock out, and enjoy the best Christmas movie with Rocky Horror Picture Show vibes.

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