New trailer for Anna and the Apocalypse promises undead slaying for holidays

Enlarge / Anna and her fellow high school students battle zombies while singing a jaunty tune in Anna and the Apocalypse. (credit: Orion Pictures / MGM)

Part Zombieland, part High School Musical, the much-anticipated horror-musical-comedy Anna and the Apocalypse has a new trailer filled with merry undead mayhem. The movie lands in select theaters November 30 before expanding nationwide on December 7, just in time to bring a taste of cheeky carnage to the holiday season.

Anna (Ella Hunt, Our Robot Overlords) is a typical high school senior in a town called Little Haven. She's working part-time in a bowling alley, fretting about college, and rehearsing for the school Christmas pageant with her friends-except cast members are falling victim to a mysterious illness at an alarming rate. When Anna wakes up the next morning, the zombie apocalypse is in full force, and senior year becomes one long, bloody battle for survival. (We learn from the trailer that Justin Bieber is definitely a zombie. As for Ryan Gosling, "Alive or dead, he's still cool.")

The late videographer Ryan McHenry-best known as the creator of the "Ryan Gosling won't eat his cereal" meme-first came up with the genre-busting idea and made a short film a few years ago. Cancer claimed him before he could produce the full-length version; that task fell to director John McPhail. The film made its world premiere last fall at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and quickly gained a devoted fan base charmed by its wacky pop-culture-mashup hijinks. Orion Pictures picked up the distribution rights earlier this year.

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