Shudder acquires surprise horror hit One Cut Of The Dead

By Sam Barsanti | April 9, 2019 | 10:24pm

Aux Features Film

Shudder acquires surprise horror hit One Cut Of The Dead

Some unrelated zombies Photo: Ethan Miller

According to a press release from Shudder, the horror-focused streaming service has acquired the rights to ridiculously successful Japanese horror-comedy One Cut Of The Dead. Also, we’re not exaggerating when we say “ridiculously successful,” because this indie zombie movie was made with a $27,000 budget and went on to gross nearly $30 million at the Japanese box office over last summer. A premiere date for Shudder hasn’t been announced, but this will be the first time the film is widely available in the North America—as well as Australia and New Zealand, where Shudder is set to launch later this year.

The movie, directed by Shinichiro Ueda, is about a film crew making a zombie movie that’s all done in one, unbroken 37-minute take. After that, it zooms out to show the making of that film and the events that set up why that 37-minute take happens the way it does, with our own Katie Rife (who saw it at Fantastic Fest last year) saying it’s “essentially putting punchline ahead of setup.” She also noted that it “reinvents the zombie movie,” which is an exciting thing to say about a genre that has already been reinvented a bunch of times.