Underplayed Gems

One Cut of the Dead (2017)

One Cut of the Dead poster
Original title
カメラを止めるな!
Directed by
Shinichiro Ueda
Genre
comedy film, horror film, comedy horror, zombie comedy, zombie film
Country
Japan
Runtime
1h 36m
Rated
16
Rating
7.6 of 10 from 996 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A film crew shoots a low-budget zombie movie live in one single take. Things go wrong on set in unexpected ways. Then the story shows what happened behind the scenes to make that happen.

funnyinventivelightheartedmetasurprisingchaoticfeel-good

What happens

One Cut of the Dead (カメラを止めるな!, Kamera o Tomeru na!; transl. Don't Stop the Camera!) is a 2017 Japanese independent satirical zombie comedy film written and directed by Shin'ichirō Ueda. Based primarily on the stage play Ghost in the Box! by Ryoichi Wada, it follows a film crew who are tasked with making One Cut of the Dead, a zombie horror film for live television that must be shot in a single take; the film initially depicts One Cut of the Dead as a film within the film, then goes back in time to show the origins and production of the project from the perspective of the cast and crew. Made with a low budget of ¥3 million ($25,000) with a cast of unknown actors, One Cut of the Dead opened in a small cinema in Japan for a six-day run. Following its international success upon its screening at the Udine Film Festival, the film received a wide release, including a re-release in Japan. The film grossed $27.93 million (¥3.12 billion) in Japan and $30.5 million worldwide, making box office history by earning over 1,000 times its budget. It received acclaim from critics, who praised its originality, writing, and humor. It was ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the best found footage film ever made, and is the only found footage film to have received a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes as of July 2025. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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