One Cut of the Dead

I am confused about how this has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. This “horror” “comedy” is neither. The movie is split into thirds. The first third is about a film crew making a zombie movie, when actual zombies attack them. It’s done in one massive take, found-footage-style, and there are so many instances where the spell of the situation is broken. Why doesn’t any zombie attack the camera operator? What are the rules of these zombies? Why does the main girl run away from the van when she has the keys and the van is RIGHT THERE? And my biggest pet peeve, why does the camera operator keep filming? Why is there background music in a found footage movie? And if this is a found footage movie, why does it end on a crane shot? But then act two kicks in, and reveals this is a show. A movie within a movie within a movie. We jump back a month to see how this all came about, a live action, single take, 30 minute show to anchor the launch of a zombie-themed network, which is just the worst idea. And the third act is the behind-the-scenes stuff of how they pulled off the show. So, anything “horror” is relegated to the first 30 minutes, and the rest of the movie is how a TV show is made. Whoopty fucking doo. There’s nothing scary about the first 30 minutes, as it’s campy and over-acted. There’s nothing interesting about the last 60, because it’s a complete lie compared to what the movie is sold as. It’s a nice technical achievement, but for entertainment purposes, it’s pointless. It’s never funny, and never scary, and because you see the end product first, there’s no “can they pull this off” tension. It’s just a sequence of events, never as interesting as it wants to be, and certainly not some kind of bolt of energy for the zombie genre. Hooptober 2021 movie #21/24