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Anna and her misfit high school friends defend themselves against zombie hordes. We’ve seen zombie comedies, the Citizen Kane being Shaun of the Dead. And we’ve seen high schoolers versus zombies. But this colourful, eager to please trifle has three original cards up its sleeve: it’s Scottish, it’s set at Christmas… and it’s a musical. A true, honest-to-goodness musical, where the cast break out into original songs that further the thematic concerns or comment on their emotional states. Good songs, too. It’s a yuletide delight.
The jokes are often very clever, but the film doesn’t strain for them. The characters are warm and appealing enough to engage us in their travails, even as we all know the whole thing is a gas and a giggle. There’s gore a-plenty, but it’s all for fun too, and often part of the excellent choreography: dance and decapitation go sweetly hand in hand.
The Christmas setting adds effectively to the cheer, as do the buoyant performances. There’s no denying it: this is the best Scottish Christmas zombie high school musical comedy I’ve ever seen.