Final Cut finally makes zombie movies worth watching again

The zombie movie Final CutIt will have some trouble finding an audience. For one thing, zombies reached such a saturation point in American culture around a decade ago that it’s hard to sell anyone but the most hardcore horror fans on yet another zombie movie. And for another, it’s really hard to convey how clever, intricate, and ultimately joyous Final Cut The plot is usually contained in a movie trailer or summary. This is the first trailer to be released in America for Final Cut gets at the movie’s goofy, over-the-top tone, but can’t really bring across the full scope of why the movie is so much fun.

Final Cut The remake is of the silly, bloody Japanese zombie flick The Dead are Cut One by One, but Michel Hazanavicius — director of the Oscar-winner The Artist, and more pertinently here, the enjoyable OSS 117 French spy spoofs — punches up some of the gags and adds new twists. The two movies have the same basic plot. Noises Off-style “front of house vs. back of house” stories, showing the audience two different perspectives on the same events.

A TV director who is desperate to get a break, and to impress his adult daughter (who has been remarkably unimpressed by him), agrees, in the first part of the movie, to make a zombie film live, broadcasted, with only one take. This stunt was to launch a brand new channel. The results play out on screen, with a number of odd hiccups and irregularities that don’t make much sense the first time through.

In the second half, audiences get to see exactly what was going on behind the scenes to explain all the glitches — including an actual zombie breakout that’s only a comparatively minor part of what goes wrong on the film. Final Cut is much more comedy than horror, and meant for people who love movies about moviemaking — but it’s also a pretty human drama about how hard it is to make art by committee, and yet how satisfying it can be when things come together.

The movie also features a lot of bloody squibs as well as a large amount of zombie vomit. Final Cut isn’t going to redefine zombies, but it sure makes them enjoyable to watch again, even for jaded audiences who feel like they’ve already seen every zombie trope under the sun.

Final CutIn theaters from July 14th. The movie features Bérénice Bejo (The Artist), Matilda Lutz (RevengeFinnegan oldfield (Corsage). The Dead are Cut One by OneIt is available on Shudder or on Amazon Vudu and other digital platforms.