10 Greatest ‘One Shot’ Scenes In Movie History
2. One Cut Of The Dead
This is a masterpiece.
One Cut of the Dead is, effectively, a zombie movie about the making of a zombie movie, shot in one, 37-minute, uninterrupted take. It's then immediately followed by the making of a zombie movie, about the making of a zombie movie, shot in one, 37-minute, uninterrupted take. Both of them combine into one incredible, inventive achievement.
If that's a bit convoluted for you, our original premise is that of a zombie movie being shot in and around an abandoned factory. It's hokey, it's nonsensical, it veers wildly off-script and even as it condludes you're still not entirely sure what it is you've just watched.
What follows afterwards though, pulls the camera back a bit to reveal that a real zombie outbreak had just happened to coincide with the filmmakers attempting to shoot their movie. Sensing the chance to add some realism (and save on the budget) our director tries to just incorporate them into his film... with bloody results.
This recontextualizes a lot of the scenes, explains its more confusing moments, and turns some of the mild titters from the opening 37-minutes into full-blown belly laughs the second time around. That it's all done in huge unbroken sequences is more impressive still.