Holiday Horror: Anna and the Apocalypse (2018)

In Little Haven, Anna and her friends are seniors in high school and poised on embarking their adult lives. As they agonize about the effect they have on the world, what they will do next year, and if their love is returned, zombies take over their town on Christmas. Anna and her friends must hack, slash, sing, and dance their way to the school to rescue their friends and families.

Anna and the Apocalypse is a breath of fresh air in the current state of horror. Most films take themselves deadly serious and it's nice to have a horror comedy that provides gore, some drama, a little bit of sadness, and a lot of humor. Our protagonist Anna is bored with her small town and wants more for her life than what her friends and father want for her. Her friends want everything to stay the same so they hang out and have fun while her dad wants her to immediately go to college and embark on a career. She wants to explore the world and find her place in it before she settles down to adult life. This is met with incredulity and eye rolls from everyone around her. It's a horrible feeling at any age to not be supported by those around you.

The other teens have different goals in mind. John is Anna's best friend and completely in love with her. He has conventional dreams to go to college. Their friends Chris and Lisa are rather wrapped up in each other. Steph is more of an outcast, but wants to truly make a difference in her community while being thwarted by classmates and authority figures at every turn. This varied view of teens feels refreshing. They aren't all bored or consumed by technology or monolithic in any way. Everyone wants something different and wishes others would see and support them. The one outlier is Anna's ex Nick, a bully who spread rumors about Anna. Even his character is fleshed out and sympathetic by the end of the film.

The songs prove to be much better than I expected. In the trailers, the tune and words seemed fairly basic. However, each song shows how a character feels and is fun to listen to. Break Away and Hollywood Ending establish the characters and what makes them tic with relatable themes of fitting in, the unknown of the future, frustration, and dreams. It's That Time of Year is ridiculously laden with double entendres, a more vulgar Santa Baby. Soldier at War is my favorite zombie fighting song with sass and energy. My favorite visually is Turning My Life around because Anna and John obliviously sing this upbeat, inspirational song as zombies destroy their town.  Even seemingly throwaway songs are a delight like Christmas Means Nothing Without You and The Fish Wrap. The former could have been any Christmas song, but it gave a specific flavor at the start of the film. The latter is so silly and punny that I wish it were longer. The songwriting is good on every song even if the production and orchestration aren't the best. The use of non-autotuned voices is not only refreshing, but makes the characters and the film have a sense of realism and vulnerability.

The actual plot is pretty basic with Anna and her friends gathering weapons (the best being the giant candy cane lawn ornament) and saving their friends and family. Tonally, the vast majority of the film is lighthearted and fun, which I love. Some scenes are more comedic like Headmaster Savage's whole character and his songs. He desperately wants to control everyone in the school and becomes hilariously unhinged when zombies attack. When people start dying, it just doesn't have the emotional resonance needed. It seems out of character compared to the rest of it and simply doesn't fit. It's the only real flaw in an otherwise fun, enjoyable film. The ending has a dose of realism that felt more in line with everything else.

I knew Anna and the Apocalypse was my kind of movie just from the trailers. This Christmas zombie romantic comedy musical combines the gore and horror of zombie films, the wonder of Christmas, and the warm fuzzies of a romantic comedy with some surprisingly well written songs. The main characters feel real with their own view of the world and how they fit in it. The film's biggest strength is taking its teen characters seriously and portraying them as varied. I had so much fun watching Anna and the Apocalypse and I'm eager to own it to put into my yearly Christmas viewing rotation.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Horror Movie Mini-Reviews: Alice Sweet Alice (1976) and Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

* Alice Sweet Alice (1976)

In 1961, sisters Alice and Karen attend a Catholic school where Alice will be getting the sacrament of her first Holy Communion. Karen is incredibly jealous of Alice and misbehaved overall. So, when Alice is found strangled and her body hidden, Karen is suspected of the murder. As the bodies pile up, more and more blame her, but is a little girl capable of murder?

Alice Sweet Alice is an underappreciated slasher that has relevant themes and weird story lines. Karen is an insufferable child prone to tantrums, whining, and histrionics. However, she is mistreated by almost everyone in the film and is constantly compared to her well behaved, angelic older sister who gets everything that she doesn't. She is even denied the sacrament of communion because she was born out of wedlock, something that she had no control over. Every adult in the film is awful in some way, from the lecherous and filthy Mr. Alphonse (who tries to molest her) to her aunt (who isn't shy about displaying her dislike of the little girl) to her own parents (who hold her at arms length even when she's punished for their actions). Watching the film, Karen is annoying, but she understandably acts this way because everyone in her life failed her.

The slasher wears a distinctive outfit of a yellow rain coat and an eerie clear mask, both things that Karen are seen wearing throughout the film. The murderer is a mundane person with twisted, religious motivations that do align with Catholic Church teachings (without the murder). It shows how toxic these judgmental teachings can be when applied to the real world as well as inside the church. The murders are well done, but not especially graphic. Alice Sweet Alice touches on a lot of sensitive subjects and handles them fairly well. I hope this film is eventually restored because the version on Amazon Prime is very sepia toned. The film is unique in the slasher genre and has more to do with Hitchcock murder mysteries than Friday the 13th.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

* Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Winslow Leach dreams of making it big in the music industry and thinks he did when record producer Swan uses his songs for the nostalgia band The Juicy Fruits. However, Winslow goes back to Death Records to follow up and is thrown out. He breaks in and Swan frames him for drug dealing, where he goes to jail and has his teeth extracted for metal dentures. Winslow breaks out again and again breaks into Death Records to destroy the records and presses, but he falls face first into a press, scarring his face and destroying his vocal cords. He steals a costume and vows to destroy the company and its productions and performances until he hears a woman sing named Phoenix, whose voice entrances him. He agrees to writer music for Swan and stop his reign of terror if Phoenix sings his music.

Phantom of the Paradise has a much more complicated story than above that I didn't realize until I tried to write it out. Despite what the title implies, the story is more of a retelling of Faust with a small dash of The Phantom of the Opera and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Everything is just kind of thrown together with over the top 70's rock opera with equally cartoonish characters. Winslow is sympathetic in every tragedy he experiences and ends up with a robotic voice and metal teeth masked in a metallic bird outfit. Phoenix, his muse, is a beautiful performer and initially balks at trading sexual favors for fame, but eventually takes up a relationship with Swan. I particularly enjoyed this departure because Winslow felt betrayed that his idealized mental picture of her (since he never even met her) didn't match with the reality. Everything is overwrought and dramatic within the glitzy backdrop of the hedonistic and enticing music scene.

Swan is the cackling villain of the piece who doesn't care for his performers or songwriters, opting to literally kill them when he no longer has use for them and they want their pay. It's a not very subtle jab at real life music producers who exploit their talent, coerce them into binding contracts that don't benefit them, and drop them when they are no longer successful. One of my favorite characters is Beef, a talented diva who has deeper layers. This character is coded as queer and unfortunately played for laughs, but shows the person underneath the facade. Phantom of the Paradise is rightfully a cult classic that I wish more people would watch and talk about. If you like over the top musical theater and horror films, I would highly recommend this one.

My rating: 3.5/5 fishmuffins

The Lure

Mermaid sisters Golden and Silver decide to join human society in the 1980's, using a seedy nightclub as their gateway. They start off as strippers and backup vocals until the crowd is so ravenous for their performances and transformations that they become the main event. The mermaids have a good time at first making new friends and experience all the human world has to offer, but their desires start to diverge. Golden's hunger for human flesh grows while Silver falls hopelessly in love with guitarist Mietek.

The Lure is a unique film that merges a dark retelling of The Little Mermaid with an 80's setting and a musical. These mermaids aren't like Disney creations. Their tails are impossibly long and powerful and their teeth are razor sharp. They lure humans with their beautiful voices, which seem to have a magical element that compels their prey, in order to eat their throats and hearts. The difference compared to to most lore is in their ability to appear human with legs, but with no sex organs. Too long without water makes them weak and sick, but they adapt comfortably to living on land. After so many years of boring mermaids, these ones are a refreshing change.

The mermaids are one hand beautiful, impressionable teenage girls and on the other hand inhuman monsters. Golden and Silver are exploited as sex workers by the band and the nightclub management despite the acknowledgement of their young age. They don't seem to mind as they earn their keep and receive the increasing adoration of a growing group of fans. Through their experiences, they are torn in different directions. Golden embraces her true nature by eating people and seeking creative outlets with other groups where she can write her own lyrics and sing with others of her own kind. She also has love affairs with humans, but it seems more like experimentation and fun rather than anything lasting.

Silver, on the other hand, is the more innocent and emotional one. She tries to deny her true nature because of Mietek, who makes it clear that he likes her but will always view her as an animal. Her voice seems to make him forget it for a while as they build a romantic relationship that stops short of sex because of her mermaid body. She opts to surgically trade lower bodies (from just above the navel down) with a human woman in a delightfully surreal scene. Afterwards, she's a shade of herself as her voice is completely gone and her body is weak from the surgery. Mietek deigns to have sex with her, but recoils, disgusted when she bleeds on him. Her humanity repels him just as much as her inhumanity and he quickly rebounds with a beautiful singer. Through all of this, Golden supports her sister even if she doesn't agree with her decisions, which was an especially beautiful aspect of the film.

Some aspects of the film fell flat for me. Most of the songs were good, but either the translations of the lyrics were bad or the lyrics are just bad in some of them. Other aspects of the film are scattered and don't make sense. For instance, the band was pretty clearly dead in their aparment and then suddenly come to life with some drugs in their system. The drummer punches out the mermaids and then dumps their bodies in the ocean as if they are dead. Golden and Silver return with a minimum of vengeance and still perform and live with them. A few random events like this don't add anything to the story and serve to make the plot more convoluted than it needs to be. Also, all of the human men are terrible, either being physically or mentally abusive and using women for their own ends. I wish these characters had more nuance, but I get that the focus was on the mermaids and their journey.

The Lure is definitely an experience. It's much different than any other film I've seen this year. The plot meandered a lot before it got to anything resembling The Little Mermaid and then the fairy tale ended up being the main story. It's definitely more good than bad, but the messiness takes away from the unique tale.

My rating: 2.5/5

Les Miserables

The plot for Les Miserables is a complex one, so I will only summarize a little bit. Jean Valjean served 19 years in jail and then sheds his identity to escape his criminal past during during the aftermath of the French Revolution. There is so much more that the film is about, but that's the gist of it. I was extremely excited to see this film. I have been listening to the original cast soundtrack since forever with my family and I've seen the stage play about 5 times. I know every lyric and every musical line. I really didn't expect to see or feel anything different because I am so familiar with the source material. I was proven wonderfully wrong. This film made the music and story fresh and new to me.

The look of the film is realistic and shows what the musical tends to gloss over: the poor, the dirt, the awful living conditions, and the reality of living in France after the French Revolution. The entire story is put into harsh perspective and put me on the edge of tears right from the beginning because of the realistic pain and suffering of the characters. The way Jean Valjean is treated after serving his time in jail and the conditions Fantine is subjected to after losing her job. The whole film has a raw quality that puts it in stark contrast to the stage play. Despite the lyrics and the makeup on stage, the audience doesn't feel the depression and plight of the poor being portrayed. Everything is put into perspective. The barricade is rather slap dash and small because that's what poor people in France would have been able to spare for it as opposed to the huge construct in the play. The lovely ladies look much more dirty and tired with grotesquely painted faces that inspire more pity than desire. Valjean lived in a constant state of paranoia, ready to flee at any moment and unable to make any lasting ties. I loved that the film took the familiar setting and costumes of the play and brought them into reality.

The rawness of the film also extends to the singing, which is probably the most controversial issue. I personally loved the singing and acting. The focus isn't to just sound like a great singer or even to perform the songs flawlessly, but to convey the emotions of the character. These unpolished performances are oftentimes my favorite renditions of the songs over studio versions. The broadway versions are well sung, but don't have the right emotional impact and seem to be too concerned with hitting everything perfectly. Anne Hathaway as Fantine in particular performed phenomenally. Her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream moved me to tears when I never thought much of the song before. This portrayal of raw emotion suddenly made this song one of my favorites. Eddie Redmayne as Marius also greatly impressed me, possessing the most wonderful voice out of the whole cast. I had always dismissed him as the annoying, flat Romeo of the play that just mooned over Juliet/Cosette. The film fleshed out some of his backstory and made him a real, likable character with more aspirations and motivations than just his instalove relationship. His performance of Empty Chairs at Empty Tables is among my favorites and I don't think the emotion of that scene has ever been translated that well before. The other actors are good as well, but these two really stood out to me as talented actors that changed my perspective on their characters and songs.

As with any adaptation, the plot and order of events is slightly changed and, for the most part, are improvements to the story. With the play, I was confused as to the logistics of how Valjean escaped with little Cosette and evaded Javert for so long. The film clarifies this and fills in the gaps that were previously left out. Some of the songs were shuffled around a little bit, but the changed order makes more sense to me. Having Lovely Ladies before I Dreamed a Dream makes more sense plotwise and provides the second song with much more emotional impact because Fantine had already hit rock bottom. I appreciated the expansion of Marius' backstory and how he turned his back on his wealthy family to fight for what he felt was right. It showed much more strength and dedication than just the superficial relationship between him and Cosette.

The problems I have with the movie are pretty minor. I hate that a lot of the cinematography during the singing portions is super close up on the actors' faces. I can see a few shots like this for emotional impact, but in every single song is a little excessive. The other annoyance is the shortening or omission of important songs. A Little Fall of Rain is a very important and I was shocked to see that it was shortened. The song Turning was practically taken out altogether save for the very beginning of it. The new song Suddenly didn't really have any impact on the film and I thought it was unneeded when other, better songs were cut short. These are relatively small problems and I felt the film was very successful and effective.

Les Miserables is the best film adaptation of the play I could have asked for. The performances are nothing short of amazing. (Yes, even Russell Crowe was good in his restrained version of Javert.) I have only seen the film once on Christmas and I plan to see it again soon. I would highly recommend it to fans of musicals that don't mind stripped down, imperfect renditions of these songs.

My rating: 9.5/10 fishmuffins

Women in Horror: Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Benjamin Barker and his beautiful wife Lucy have a daughter named Joanna and a wonderful life together. Judge Turpin is enticed by Lucy and falsely imprisons Barker to allow him to fully persue her. Benjamin returns after fifteen years only to find that his entire life is gone. His wife is dead and his daughter is in the clutches of the very man who imprisoned him. Revenge is the only thing on his mind after Mrs. Lovett, the owner of the place he used to live, filled him in on all the details of the events that transpired after he was gone. He assumes an new identity as Sweeney Todd and opens up a barber shop to lie in wait for the judge. In the meantime, before the Judge shows up, he practices on unsuspecting customers while Mrs. Lovett makes the most delicious meat pies with a very special ingredient...

The first experience I ever had with Sweeney Todd was watching the version with Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett and George Hern as Sweeney Todd. I was incredibly bored and shocked at how such a disturbing, interesting story could be turned into such a bore. As disappointing as this one was, I was looking forward to Tim Burton's new endeavor because he's one of my favorite directors of all time. I'm so happy that he gave the musical new life on the screen with his collaboration with the great Stephen Sondheim.

The music is wonderful throughout the film. I've heard a lot of people say there aren't any memorable songs, but I think this is more due to the fact that it sounds much more modern, syncopated, and dissonant than the typical Broadway musical. The songs have a great range from the dark and stormy Epiphany to the delightfully comical A Little Priest to the beautiful, melancholy Green Finch and Linnet Bird. My favorite song is My Friends because of the wonderful interweaving of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett's voices. It's deceptively quiet and understated, but really reveals the truth in their relationship: Todd is completely consumed by his need for revenge and Mrs. Lovett, although forgotten by Todd, simply wants to be loved by him. I was relieved that Sondheim didn't choose to have operatic voices featured in the film because I think that's part of why I didn't like the previous rendition. I both love Johnny Depp's rough, rock influenced rendition and Helena Bonham Carter's wispy, fragile voice. They are by no means professional singers, but they embody their characters so well that their voices just fit. I really couldn't see anyone else as these characters. The two best singers in the film are easily young Ed Sanders as Toby and Jayne Wisener as Johanna. These two young people blew me away with their singing voices and I hope to see more from them.

The visuals of the film are striking, portraying the gritty and dark underbelly of London. The color scheme is mostly in black and white with the only real color being the blood that spills in copious amounts across the screen. The only really vibrant, saturated colors come from the songBy the Sea, which shows Mrs. Lovett's dream of a life with Todd and Toby as her family. The absence of color in the real world shows that there is really no hope for anyone in this story. The makeup used on the main characters is reminiscent of silent films and classic horror movies. It both sets them apart from the other characters and enhances the dark ambiance that encompasses the film. One of the things I most enjoy about the film is the cinematography during songs. This is no boring musical with one angle for an entire song. The visuals are just as striking as the music with the changes in camera angle, playing with reflective and transparent surfaces, and the use of wide shots as well as close-ups. This made the film dynamic and as interesting to watch as it is to listen to.

The two most compelling characters in the film are both women: Mrs. Lovett and Johanna. Mrs. Lovett is much more than a conniving woman that wants to use Todd to her own ends. Although it would be easy to simply portray her as an evil villain that cooks people into meat pies, she's really so much more than that. Everything that she does in the film is really fueled by love. She loves Sweeney Todd so much that she is willing to help him kill people so that he will be with her. Her efforts throughout the film are to protect and manipulate Todd to stay with her as long as possible. Her nurturing side is definitely featured in the film, shown through her taking Toby under her wing and treating him like a son. She also expresses sympathy for Johanna who never really had a mother or a loving family to take care of her. This different side of her really endeared her to me and made hopeful that she would get the family she wanted even though she wasn't a completely good person.

Johanna is an interesting character. Because she has been isolated and ogled by Judge Turpin her whole life, one would assume that she would be naive and probably warped in some way. This isn't true at all. She is melancholy obviously because her guardian is abusive, but she sees the world in a practical way. Anthony has seen locations all over the world as a sailor, but he remains convinced that they will run away and live happily ever after together. Johanna knows that all their problems won't be solved and reveals herself to be more realistic than him. Her strength and resilience are truly impressive. It was easy to portray her as a wilting flower of a girl who was weak and bland. Jayne Wisener takes a small role and makes it truly memorable with her quiet confidence and beautiful singing voice.

Sweeney Todd is one of the best musicals made in recent years. I love how Tim Burton combined silent movie horror with the more bloody, gory horror of the present. I am still impressed with all of the acting, no matter how small the role. It is a film I will be watching again and again for many years to come.

My rating: 10/10 fishmuffins