Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself that wasn’t bad but I don’t think I’d watch it again. Then a few days go by and you start thinking about that movie. You find yourself laughing at funny items, finding scary items now more frightening and dramas more dramatic than when you first watched the movie. Then you realize maybe I need to watch that one more time. I found myself that way with ONE CUT OF THE DEAD.
The movie is actually three movies in one, though the first
is incredibly short. We open with a zombie attacking a young woman, clearly
terrified but sad because the zombie was apparently her boyfriend. As he moves
in to bite her and the scene ends it actually, well ends. It turns out what
we’re watching is a zombie movie being made with actors in the roles. End movie
one.
The director is a bit of a megalomaniac, a man who suffers for his art, demanding certain things from his cast and crew. They stop for a break and while sitting together they discuss the location. It turns out the director chose it because it is supposed to be haunted. It’s little surprise then when screams are heard and an arm is tossed into the building. Thinking it’s a prank that turns to terror when the arm’s owner enters bleeding profusely. Yes the zombies are an actual thing here.
As the cast and crew members untouched and uneaten try to
survive they run around the building being chased by flesh eaters. They run
around outside the building. They discover weapons out of the blue on the
property. Dead members rise up again clearly not undead yet. You watch and
think to yourself while laughing is this the worst zombie movie ever made? And
then the credits roll. Only 30-40 minutes into a movie clocked at 96 minutes.
What in the world? End movie two.
The reason is that we go back in time and find out what brought this movie about to begin with. It was planned as a live zombie presentation to be on par with the original WAR OF THE WORLDS. The director they hire is the director we saw earlier. He’s a lot more humble though. This is because the actor meant to play the part didn’t show. Some of the cast members are missing too. To replace them he uses his wife as an actor since she did that in the past and his daughter on the crew.
We watch as the entire team is assembled and the cast is
chosen. We see rehearsals take place. We get to watch the interaction among
everyone. And we begin to see that this film isn’t so much a tutorial about how
to make a zombie flick so much as a comedy of errors that gets funnier the
further in it goes.
SPOILER ALERT
All of the mistakes and funny things we found in the movie
itself turn out to be the result of creative off the top of their head
decisions made as the film move forward. This is where much of the humor stems
from, watching as the director attempts to keep this live movie going while
dealing with everything from lost actors to drunk actors to having to take on a
screen roll himself. But there are more surprises as well.
The movie was made in Japan in 2017 but is making its way to disc now. RLJ Entertainment has released it with collectors in mind in a steel box edition. The extras are minimal but that’s okay, it is the movie that makes this worth watching and perhaps picking up for horror or comedy fans. And while the title may make many think that this is a horror film it’s actually more of a spoof about the making of movies.
As I said at the start I wasn’t overly impressed on my first
viewing. But the more I found myself thinking about the film the funnier it
got. It’s a bit twisted humor at times and near slapstick at others but it
really is better than I realized. So much that I may have to watch it again
this week.
The odds are you won’t find this for rental at any nearby locations but that doesn’t mean you can’t watch it. SHUDDER streaming service is featuring the film right now. It can also be rented on streaming services like amazon prime. And if you want you can also order your own copy if you choose.
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