Development {{Quote box|salign=right|width=33%|align=right|quote=We were all up and coming, and we’d all essentially made these careers ourselves. So there was a hunger amongst all of us before Ryan got sick that this was a project we were all just really in love with. And after he got sick and we lost him, there was a feeling of unfinished business. We wanted closure from it, but really what we had to do was work out a way of acknowledging what Ryan had brought to it, his original idea and the concept we’d all wanted to bring to fruition, but also find a way forward. In 2009, whilst attending
Edinburgh College of Art, Ryan McHenry came up with the idea for a 'zombie musical' short film, taking inspiration from
High School Musical. 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. 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). 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. McHenry was also hired to co-write the screenplay with Alan McDonald. In 2013, development was halted when McHenry was diagnosed with
osteosarcoma. After entering remission, he returned to work on the project with McDonald, now titled
Anna and the Apocalypse. In May 2015, McHenry died from cancer, though Alae-Carew and McDonald continued to develop the project. The film was dedicated to McHenry, who died two years before the film's release.
Writing By 2016, John McPhail had taken over as director with McDonald as sole
screenwriter, though McHenry received credit as co-writer. McPhail was at first concerned about joining as director before production. In an interview with
Entertainment Weekly, he said, "They’d all been doing this together and all of a sudden here I come in. I was nervous about it, but they welcomed me with open arms, they really, really did and that made everything nice and easy". Following McHenry's death, the initial draft of the film's script had a darker, cynical tone, which McDonald believed was due to McHenry's death. "The reason that draft was so dark was because I missed my friend... I guess, in the story that we were always telling and what ultimately became Ryan's story. Finding a way for us all to rediscover the joy of it was what I think kept us on target and ultimately created the movie that we’ve made now." Production was primarily based at the former building of St. Stephen's High School at Southfield Avenue,
Port Glasgow. The film was produced by Blazing Griffin Pictures,
Black Camel Pictures, Parkhouse Pictures and
Creative Scotland.
Inspirations 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". The
crop tops and short shorts seen in the film were inspired by the costume design in the
slasher film Sleepaway Camp (1983).
Soundtrack A soundtrack consisting of 13 songs from the film was released on 23 November 2018. The deleted song, "Which Side Are You On?", is featured only on the vinyl release and director's cut. Another deleted song, "Some Things Will Never Change", is present in the bonus features of the Blu-ray release. ==Release==