One Cut Of The Dead's amazing opening sequence was all captured in one take with no hidden cuts. Following the success of George A. Romero's low-budget horror classic Night Of The Living Dead in 1968, the modern-day zombie movie was born. Outside of Romero's subsequent sequels, prominent examples include Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, The Return Of The Living Dead and Peter Jackson's Braindead. The genre itself suffered a decline in popularity around the late 1980s, leading to a quiet period.
The success of video games like Resident Evil led to a comeback, with the resulting film adaptation and films like 28 Days Later bringing the genre back to life in the early 2000s. Just like a zombie horde the genre proved relentless and unstoppable, from the success of both The Walking Dead comics and TV show to the first true undead blockbuster World War Z. They've invaded just about every subgenre and medium, though following such an intense glut, audience interest has waned once again.
Every once in a while a really great zombie movie will come along, however, such as South Korea's fantastic Train To Busan. Another surprise gem is 2017's Japanese comedy One Cut Of The Dead, which features a slightly complex premise. The film opens with the crew of a zombie movie having to deal with the sudden arrival of real zombies, but the film's second act then reframes the entire movie.
One Cut Of The Dead seems like a dodgy horror movie at first with hammy acting and odd pacing issues, but this is all by design and it blossoms into a fresh and surprisingly touching little movie. The last decade or so has seen a rise in films employing one-take action scenes or shots, which can either be extremely impressive and immersive - or in some cases feel like a gimmick. Something to note about these scenes is that they often employ hidden cuts, and are comprised of several shots seamlessly, or sometimes obviously, stitched together. Technically impressive as Sam Mendes' war drama 1917 is, for example, some of its "hidden" edits are pretty clear.
One Cut Of The Dead's opening runs for almost 40 minutes with absolutely no cuts or hidden edits. The movie was shot for around $25,000 by a small cast and crew, with the opening itself taking around two days to nail the perfect take. The fact this sequence is supposed to be the work of an amateur crew disguises many of the imperfections of the single take too, with all the mistakes being part of the fun.
It would spoil some of the surprises of One Cut Of The Dead to go into how this sequence plays into the rest of the movie, but the film is recommended for film fans whether they love zombies or not. The single-take sequence is also a credit to the endless inventiveness of low-budget filmmakers.
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