So this is a tough movie to talk about. I rented One Cut of the Dead from iTunes and it’s also available on Amazon Prime rental and it originated (free) on the Chiller cable network (which I don’t have). It’s a Japanese horror film that I’ve heard three oblique references to over the past month, each one saying “just watch it”… don’t watch a trailer, certainly don’t look for spoilers, just watch it and you’ll see why this is a special movie. Which is honestly the best way to watch it, which will make this a tough movie to discuss.
So this is a low budget Japanese horror film about a film crew making a zombie movie when a zombie outbreak occurs. The stars of the movie-in-a-movie freak out but the director is loving it because he’s getting more natural horror “acting” from his cast than he was getting before.
That’s the basics of the film and before you can say “another zombie movie. Next!”, give this one a chance. It does start rough – this is clearly low budget, amateur film making except it’s also legitimately (I think) all done in one shot. One cut. There’s a certain novice feel to the movie but it sure looks like they are doing everything without cuts which includes what appears to be a few mistakes. And there’s a certain charm to the meta commentary too… the movie-in-a-movie director is pissed that his lead actress has caused him to 40+ takes of a scene but that is being relayed in a one-shot sequence that lasts thirty+ minutes.
But then the movie pulls a fast one on you and I won’t go into what it is, but it’s clever. The second act of the movie is pretty good… you can see what hey are doing and its reasonably entertaining. But the third act is brilliant… just a hell of a lot of fun and bravura film making that goes from meta to double meta to maybe even triple meta. I won’t say what it is but if you at all like film making and the can-do spirit, this is worth a watch. In fact, I’d say it has a dab of what Dolemite is My Name did a few weeks ago on Netflix.
I wish I could go into more detail about this one. But the fun is experiencing it and then maybe re-watching it since the whole movie kind of re-contextualizing itself by the end. It’s a genuine surprise and if you are turned off by the opening zombie outbreak thing and if you are tired of the genre, stick with it. I had to… but I knew there was some kind of turn coming and it was worth it.
Score: 86