Shin'ichirô Ueda’s masterful, low-budget zombie comedy hits select UK cinemas on January 4th 2019.

Known in Japan as Kamera o Tomeru na! (Don't Stop the Camera!) One Cut of the Dead opens with an ingenious, yet slightly-befuddling 36 minute single take as a film crew, helmed by a hack director, film a zombie movie to then be themselves attacked by real-life zombies. The credits roll.

What follows next is how this project came to be and we’re introduced to director Higurashi, known for producing “fast, cheap and average” films. Higurashi is tasked with producing a single shot, 36 minute, live broadcast for the opening of the zombie channel. We learn more about the characters involved and how the concept is created. It’s also here, in what could be argued as the languid part of the film that director Shin'ichirô Ueda reverse-engineers some of the films finest gags. The innocuous set-ups don’t pay off for another 30 minutes but when they do, they land – like a hammer to the head.

The final act is where the film crescendos into genius-territory. We follow a behind-the-scenes camera retrace the entirety of the first act and it is here where laughs really start, and don’t stop. Explaining the baffling scenes, the stilted dialogue and awkward silences, this meta-finale propels One Cut of The Dead to the very top, becoming one of the smartest, most refreshing takes on the shuffling, stale Zom-Com genre. Not since Shaun of The Dead or Pontypool has a film breathed so much life into a genre so desperate for resuscitation.

A hit with festival audiences around the world, including 3 sold-out screenings at FrightFest in London - This micro-budget wonder, made for just $27,000 (￥3 million) and shot in 8 days has already seen over 2 million admissions in its native Japan - earning a colossal box office of $28.5 million (￥3 billion) in the process.

Third Window Films release the film in the UK and recently, a bootleg copy of the film wound up on Amazon Prime in the UK & US and was thankfully taken down 24 hours later. It’s imperative that the film gets as much love and support from the horror community, here and abroad, so that we can continue to enjoy unique experiences like this.

You absolutely need to check out this biting guerrilla-filmmaking comedy masterclass that has real BRAAAAAINNNNNSSSS.

By Brad Hanson



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