10 Horror Movies That Keep Tricking Viewers

One Cut of the Dead tossed convention to the wind the instant it started. When a zombie descends upon a blood-spattered woman within the first frame, this Japanese indie looks like a run-of-the-mill zombie flick. However, it's revealed immediately after that the pair are acting in a movie called True Fear. Furious about the performers lack of talent, the director arranges a blood ritual to awaken the dead, hoping the danger of being eaten for real will elevate the cast's acting skills.

Even though the first third of One Cut of the Dead is entertaining, it's let down by some amateur moments as the actors are hammy and regularly move in a staged manner, and the camera at times doesn't focus on the action, making it hard to follow what's going on.

During the second act, it's revealed all the events up until this point took place within a fictional film, meaning One Cut of the Dead is a film within a film within a film. And that's not all.

For the final act, One Cut of the Dead re-enacts the True Fear movie again, this time from behind the scenes, highlighting that every error was intentional. For example, the reason why the camera didn't focus on pivotal moments was because something went wrong or somebody missed their cue, and the actors move awkwardly to keep the stage crew out of sight or to set up an elaborate special effect.

Seeing how much effort was put into these deliberate mistakes should make viewers feel bad, since they erroneously believed they were unintentional blunders.