Anna and the Apocalypse is a 2017 British Christmas zombie musical film[7][8] directed by John McPhail from a screenplay by Alan McDonald and Ryan McHenry, based on McHenry's 2010 BAFTA nominated short Zombie Musical.

It stars an ensemble cast of largely unknown young talent, including Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Marli Siu and Ben Wiggins with Mark Benton and Paul Kaye.

Her friends are dealing with their own issues: her best friend John, an artist, is secretly in love with her, budding filmmaker Chris is struggling with a class assignment and transfer student Steph is trying to get her social justice reporting past the tyrannical vice principal Mr. Savage.

At the school, a group of adults, including Chris's grandmother, Mr. Savage, Tony and Lisa, are taking refuge.

Figuring it will be too dangerous to go home or to school, Anna and John go to the bowling alley, where they meet Steph and Chris, who have taken shelter there.

The next morning, Anna, Steph, John and Chris wake up to find that the army has been zombified and no evacuation is coming.

Nick - immensely enjoying the carnage - and his friends rescue the group from a horde of zombies and join them on their way to the school.

[13] In 2010, McHenry wrote and directed the short film in Dumfries High School, with his friends Naysun Alae-Carew as producer and Ryan Clachrie as production designer.

[14] In 2011, the short film titled Zombie Musical won Best Producer (Short Form) for Alaw-Carew at the British Academy Scotland New Talent Awards and received two additional nominations, including Best Director (McHenry) and Best Original Music (Toby Mottershead).

[15] Black Camel, a Glasgow-based production company, expressed interest in developing a feature-length film based on the short, with McHenry directing and Alae-Carew producing.

By 2016, John McPhail had taken over as director with McDonald as sole screenwriter, though McHenry received credit as co-writer.

[20][21] Production was primarily based at the former building of St. Stephen's High School at Southfield Avenue, Port Glasgow.

Director John McPhail said that Anna and the Apocalypse was influenced by the films West Side Story (1961), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and The Breakfast Club (1985), as well as the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode "Once More, with Feeling".

[27] In the United States, the film received a limited theatrical release on 30 November 2018, with a nationwide expansion on 7 December.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Anna and the Apocalypse finds fresh brains and a lot of heart in the crowded zombie genre—not to mention a fun genre mashup populated by rootable characters.

"[29] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".