Wednesday, April 10

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – ONE CUT OF THE DEAD

2019 PFF & IHSFF Festival Recap – ONE CUT OF THE DEAD

Coda’s ongoing coverage of the 2019 Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival. I'll be using these posts to recap the films I've experienced as part of these festivals.




By Emery Snyder @leeroy711
Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda
Starring: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama & Harumi Shuhama

A self-professed "fast, cheap and average" commercial director gets a job directing a live, one-shot zombie film. Things go horribly wrong during the shoot but his dedication to his art shines through. "DON'T STOP SHOOTING"... 

I'm not really sure how much I should say about this film. I was very appreciative of the fact that I went into this knowing very little. The trailer, mercifully gives you very little information and is at least a little bit misleading. In my opinion, this is typically the best way to come into a film. (Yes, I realize the weird dichotomy of a film reviewer telling to watch a film blind.) This is even more true of this one. 

This conundrum of course gives me very little to write about. But I emphatically loved this movie so I have so much to say about it. But if the zombie angle doesn't sound appealing to you, go for the fact that it is a uproarious comedic romp of a dark humor. If a meta 'inside film-making' flick doesn't float your boat, see it for it's heart warming father/daughter story. And if the gimmick and technical mastery of a 40 minute long uncut shot doesn't get you to sit for this, well there's just no pleasing you...

And I think it's this last aspect mentioned that will get me to rewatch this one many times in the coming years. Again, without giving too much away, the long shot is only the beginning of the ingenuity and genius necessary to pull this off in such a widely successful way. I'm not entirely sure how they had enough capacity left over to fit in the amount of gags. 

Luckily, this isn't one of those doomed to be lost in the folds films. AMC's Shudder announced yesterday that they have acquired all of the rights to this film. It will be available to stream later this year. 

ACTION!!!

Emery’s Rating
4.75 out of 5 Stars
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