One Cut of the Dead is a truly special film that sneaks up on you with its creativity. The extremely low budget zombie comedy was originally released in Japan in 2017 in only a few theaters until festival screenings ignited a huge cult following for it. When it was re-released there, the movie exploded in popularity and made box office history for earning over one thousand times its budget. After a long delay, it has finally received a domestic release through RLJ Entertainment. In all honesty, this is a film that is best experienced without knowing nearly anything about it. Because of this, this review will try to reveal the bare minimum about the film to preserve that enjoyment. What can be said is that the film is an extremely inventive and hilarious film that has fun with the genre in ways that deserves to be seen by the largest audience possible.
One Cut of the Dead is the story of film crew attempting to shoot a zombie movie when things start to get a little too real. Director Takayuki Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu) is shooting his film in an abandoned water treatment facility when he starts to get fed up by the lack of genuine emotion from his lead actress, Aika Matsumoto (Yuzuki Akiyama). After chastising her for not being believable with her performance during her final encounter with the main zombie (Kazuaki Nagaya), the Director storms off in a fit of a rage. While the two actors take a break with the animated and intense Harumi (Harumi Shuhama), things start to hit the fan as actual zombies start to invade the set, much to the insane delight of Director Takayuki. The film devolves into a mixture of a survival story for the actors to a mockumentary on the filmmaking process. Everything is over the top fun with camp dialed up to eleven until the last blood soaked shot.
There is even more to the film that is revealed throughout its runtime that answers questions you did not even think to ask. The film is a love letter to the process of filmmaking with no safety net. In a particularly impressive bit of cinematography magic, the project known as One Cut of the Dead is actually shot in one take with expert-level choreography from the entire cast and crew. It is mind blowing to know that if one person screwed up royally right in the middle of this, the whole thing would have had to be reset. The actors are all great and seem to be having a blast with the material. There are many layers here for each character to play, and, by the end of the film, everything crescendos into this perfect swirl of low budget effects and camp.
One thing horror fans going into this should know is that the film is not actually scary. It is not intended to be scary, but it is a hell of a ride, nonetheless. You will find yourself cracking up at some of the surprises this movie has in store. This is a high concept labor of love that pushes the boundaries of what we know a zombie movie to be. You may find yourself underwhelmed by the production at first, but when you reach the end you will understand that it was all a part of the journey. It is tiring trying to dance around the plot of this film. Just trust that this film is a fun “meta” journey and seek it out if you want an inventive laugh in your life.
Video Quality
The quality of the video sources varies wildly depending on what part of the film you are watching, but RLJ Entertainment provides a 1080p transfer that beautifully represents how the film was intended to look. When it is supposed to look crystal clear and professionally shot, there is a fantastic amount of detail on the faces and skin tones all look natural. At the same time, when it is supposed to look low budget and erratically shot, the transfer conveys as much. This is a film where you will appreciate the aesthetic choices even more when you watch it again. The disc is authored well with no unintentional transfer issues present to make things look worse than they are meant to look.
Audio Quality
To go along with the low-budget nature of the film, the Blu-Ray disc comes with DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that gets the job done. The sound is intentionally shoddy at times with echoes and mic crackles from the film being shot. As with the video, when it is time to be professional the track sounds excellent. The execution of the audio track does an excellent job of drawing you in creatively and putting you in the mindset that the film is trying to accomplish. Optional English (SDH), Spanish, and French subtitles have been included during the main feature and select extras. The subtitles are formatted well and there are no issues with keep pacing with the film. There is a lossless 2.0 English dub that should be avoided, as it would ruin a lot of the fun of the film.
Special Features
This combo pack arrives in Steelbook packaging with a glossy, reflective finish that features cover art based on the poster and a fun interior print, as well. Photos of this can be found at the end of the review.
- Outtakes: Nearly five-minutes of deleted and extended moments from the movie are included here. It is cool to see some of these small moments, but it is easy to see that trimming them helped with the momentum of the film.
- GoPro Version of One Cut of the Dead: A completely raw version of the full 38-minute One Cut of the Dead production that you get glimpses of during the credits. The sound quality is not up to movie quality since the mics were not meant to be picking up officially, but it is fascinating to watch how they pulled off the one-cut filming.
- Photo Gallery: A collection of stills from the movie is included here. Interesting to look at once, but not very substantial.
- POM! Instructional Video: The full minute-long self-defense video from the film is presented here. This is a quick, fun addition.
Final Thoughts
One Cut of the Dead is a film that is already well on its way to becoming a cult classic. This is the type of film that you want to start watching again right after your first viewing so you can catch all the fun details that make more sense in retrospect. RLJ Entertainment has delivered an excellent A/V presentation in a gorgeous Steelbook packaging. This is one you are going to want to pull of the shelf to show to all of your friends when they come over. Do yourself a favor a pick this one up! Recommended
One Cut of the Dead is currently available to purchase on DVD on Blu-Ray/DVD Steelbook.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: RLJ Entertainment Films has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
