Shudder acquires all rights to One Cut of the Dead

After a successful run in Japan and through the film festival circuit in America, Shudder acquires the rights to the zombie film “One Cut of the Dead.”

There was a Japanese horror-comedy that was traveling the film fest circuit earlier this year that I wanted to see so badly but kept missing my chance. Some of you may know that I’m a fan of zombies, so this zombie film was one that I was super sad to miss.

Well, I need not be disappointed anymore because according to a Shudder press release, they have acquired the rights to the film One Cut of the Dead in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand and that is exciting news.

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One Cut of the Dead is a Japanese zombie film written and directed to Shinichiro Ueda. It stars Takayuko Hamatsu, Yazuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya, Hiroshi Ichihara, and Mao. The story follows a director filming a low budget zombie film in an abandoned WWII bunker. However, things get a little too real when they encounter actual zombies. The coolest thing about this film is that it was shot in a single 37-minute take.

This film has received so much praise and even the coveted 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Shudder had this to say about One Cut of the Dead:

"“Shinichiro Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead starts with a film crew shooting a zombie movie who stumble into an actual zombie outbreak—all shot in a single, 37-minute take. From there, the story widens its focus, transforming into a comedic love letter to the spirit of indie filmmaking that conjures up unstoppable ingenuity in the face of overwhelming odds.”"

Image courtesy of Shudder

I am SO excited to see this. There is something special about Asian horror. As you know, we have a segment called The Great Wall of Horror where we share some of the best horror from across the Asian continent and you better believe when this hits Shudder later this year that we will be popping that up on our Great Wall of Horror.

If you don’t have a Shudder subscription, between the Shudder exclusives like One Cut of the Dead and the return of Joe Bob Briggs in The Last Drive-In, now is as good a time as any to pick yourself up one.

Are you a Shudder subscriber? Excited for this exclusive? Let the rest of the Shudder squad know what you think in the comments!