Sometimes a spoiler warning just isn’t enough. Some movies (or shows, or books, or what-have-you) are best experienced totally blind. If you know anything at all about what you’re about to watch, aside from the basics of its genre, then you lose something in the process.
2017’s One Cut of the Dead falls into that category. It’s a zombie comedy, one of the biggest sleeper hits of the 2010s, and one of the only found-footage horror films to hit a 100% critical score at Rotten Tomatoes. That’s really all you should know before you watch it. Don’t try to learn anything else.
One Cut of the Dead‘s first English trailer, made back when it was exclusively streaming on Shudder, begins with a text crawl that advises the viewer to just buy a ticket without watching the rest of the trailer. It’s good advice. If you like the idea of watching a zombie comedy at all, then you need to watch One Cut of the Dead, which is now streaming on Prime Video. Knowing anything else about it runs the risk of weakening the experience. In fact, be careful about reading this article any further.
When One Cut of the Dead opens, a crew of independent filmmakers are at an abandoned water filtration plant in rural Japan, where they’re shooting scenes for their low-budget zombie film True Fear. Due to budgetary concerns, the entire film is planned to be shot in a single take, which is the “One Cut” of the title: no reshoots, no second chances. True Fear’s director is desperate, the actors are inexperienced, and the crew fully expects disaster.
The director, Higurashi, decides that the best way for their production to succeed is to get some real zombies in the mix via black magic. Soon, the lead actress Chinatsu is fighting for her life against the undead husks of the crew, all while an insane Higurashi absolutely refuses to either die or stop filming.
It might sound like One Cut of the Dead is a black comedy about obsessive indie filmmakers. It does sort of work on that level, but that’s also not an entirely accurate description. If you aren’t into the movie right away, try to stick it out until the halfway point and see if your opinion changes.
That’s when One Cut of the Dead switches from a simple indie horror movie into one of the more elaborate and careful comedies of its era. Everything that might seem weird to you about the first half of the film, from plot contrivances to obvious clichés to continuity issues, is explained and deliberate. True Fear was a mess even before the zombies showed up, and the second half of One Cut of the Dead is about explaining how and why.
One Cut of the Dead was a generational success in Japan, and made well over 1,000 times its original budget (3 million yen, or roughly $25,000). That naturally led to two sequels. One is a COVID-19 “screenlife” project called Mission: Remote that’s currently up for free on YouTube, while the other, In Hollywood, only seems to be available at time of writing as an extra on One Cut of the Dead‘s 2023 Blu-ray release.
You can also watch the French remake, Final Cut, which was released in 2022, and is available via Prime Video, Apple TV, Kanopy, and Hoopla.
It’s difficult to recommend One Cut of the Dead without accidentally giving away the big twist that elevates it into something much smarter — and more entertaining — than it seems at first. You won’t get as much out of it if you have a hint about what happens. If you’re one of those horror fans who refuses to watch a movie without spoiling its plot for yourself via Wikipedia first, One Cut of the Dead was almost custom-made to destroy you.
For now, it’s enough to say that One Cut of the Dead is a unique, funny spin on the overall zombie formula, particularly in the post-Walking Dead media landscape. Just don’t turn it off early, or you’ll miss most of its best jokes.
One Cut of the Dead is now streaming on Prime Video.