Year: 2018
Rating: NR
Running Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
A crew shooting a low-budget zombie flick must run for their lives when they are seemingly attacked by real zombies.
"One Cut of the Dead" is a micro-budget movie that cost under ~$25,000 to make. The first act resembles a student film. The makeup work is dismally cheap looking, and the story is absurd and full of holes. It becomes clear about a third of the way into it that these flaws are intentional, which makes it all the more genius and amusing. As time passes, we get to revisit these mistakes and see how they happened as the behind-the-scenes goings-on are slowly revealed and reinvented over time. What you may initially write off as stupid starts to look brilliant by the end of the film. The acting, of course, isn't great, but we are more than willing to overlook some of its more minor flaws because, in the end, none of our qualms hurt our enjoyment of the movie. In fact, its amateur nature adds to its charm, of which there is plenty. No matter how confused you are at the beginning, stick with it. It will all make sense in the end, and when it's over, you'll be rewarded with one hell of a zombie movie.
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| "Give me real fear!" (Image Source) |
"One Cut of the Dead" may leave you scratching your head after the first 30 minutes, but as time passes, everything beings to come together and becomes more clear. Just wait it out, and we promise it'll be worth the wait. This movie is written and directed by Shin'ichirô Ueda and serves as his feature film debut. Just as the movie starts, it appears as if a small group of actors and filmmakers are making a low-budget zombie flick in a creepy old abandoned warehouse...that is until they are apparently attacked by actual zombies. The first portion of the film looks really, really low-budget and is loaded with "so bad, they are good" moments. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, I laughed my ass off at the first part of this movie, like genuine laughter from deep within the stomach, not just small chuckles. The dialogue is absurd, the effects are silly and terribly done, but the entire thing is shot in one continuous take, which is super cool. We both thought to ourselves, "is this the movie? Is it trying to be "The Room" or "Troll 2"?" With each passing moment, the story unfolds little by little, and we begin to see what's actually going on and get a real idea as to why this little zombie flick looks the way it does.
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| "Nobody will come to our rescue here" (Image Source) |
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| "This is filmmaking! True filmmaking!" (Image Source) |
We implore you to take a chance on the cleverness that is "One Cut of the Dead." It is genuinely one of the funniest movies of the year. We had a blast watching the antics of this unpolished film crew come together in spectacular, bloody, uproarious fashion.
**We were allowed to screen this movie as part of our coverage for the San Diego Asian Film Festival. To get tickets to see this film in San Diego, please visit the SD Asian Film Festival website!**
BigJ's Rating: 7/10
IMDB's Rating: 8.2/10
RT Rating: 100%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!
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