2 Guys And A Chainsaw

We're just two die-hard horror fans presenting new thoughts and takes on both favorite and obscure horror films from yesterday to today. We watch and review one horror movie a week from the perspective of fun, with a lot of film criticism thrown in.

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episode 259: One Cut of the Dead


Occasionally, someone tips us off the an incredible gem of a film that we never would have discovered on our own. This is one of those weeks. Big thanks to Liz for suggesting this Japanese horror…well, it’s hard to categorize, really.

In fact, this is another one of those weeks where we suggest that ALL of our fans go out and see this film before listening to the episode. Its charms – and there are many – will be best experienced if you don’t go into it knowing much about it, much less a play-by-play of the plot.

You’ve come this far with us. You can trust us. This is worth your time.

Expand to read episode transcript Automatic Transcript

One Cut of the Dead (2017)

Episode 259, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, uh, this week’s episode was suggested to me by a good brand big shout out to Liz who, uh, suggested one cut of the dead, told me nothing about it before I started. Watching it, and I didn’t look anything up, but I did know that it was on shutter. And since you and I both share a shutter account, I knew that this was something we could watch.

So, um, thank you for the suggestion. And here we are, we are watching One Cut of the Dead, a Japanese zombie. Sort of from 2017, man, I had not heard about this. And I was really kind of surprised that I hadn’t heard about it. I think one of the, probably one of the main reasons is just because it’s Japanese.

Unfortunately we don’t get a lot of exposure to world film in the USA, probably because there just so many of them and this one, you know, it’s, it’s a good movie. I th I think it’s a great movie. I’m just going to come around and say that right now. Certainly. Internet thinks so. And the critics thoughts.

This is one of the few movies you can find on rotten tomatoes with a hundred percent approval rating. That’s based on 86 reviews. And then it was shot on a $25,000 budget and ended up grossing $25 million thousand point, um, return on it, uh, in its native Japan, and then around the world, it’s done pretty well.

Again, didn’t probably get much of a big release in the USA right now. Your best bet to go see this movie is going to be on. And that is where we watched it. Had you ever heard of this movie before Craig? You follow it? You know what? You go, you follow these websites a little more closely. Maybe you’d heard of this before somehow.

Craig: Uh, if I had, I don’t remember. It did get a state side theatrical release, which I think was unexpected. I think, I don’t think anybody expected it. This, this movie has an interesting production history, so yeah. Said, this is what we’re doing without consulting me

Todd: often is the case. And then you want to murder me afterwards because you hate it.

Craig: And that’s the thing. So wait a minute.

Todd: So what you’re going to say is, so I walked into this expecting to hate it.

Craig: All right. So I’ll, I’ll be completely honest. I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I’m one of those lame ass Americans who doesn’t love subtitles.

Now. It’s not because I don’t like to read. I do in fact very much like to read, but if I’m going to read. I’ll read a book. I don’t want

on a read TV and even it’s so stupid. I take all these notes. I take, you know, tons and tons of notes. And then I usually barely even look at them when we’re we’re talking. So the subtitles pose an additional challenge because I’m constantly going back and forth between this, between two screens between.

My video screen in between, you know, my computer screen taking these notes. And I was afraid that I would miss stuff now. Ultimately, I don’t really think that I missed much, but watching the first 35, 37 minutes, I was like, Jesus Christ. He did it again. Like why do I let him pick these horrible movies?

And then after that 35 or 37 minutes. Things changed. And that’s one thing that I want to say from the beginning. Now you said you knew nothing about it going in, and I think in the email that you sent me, you said I’ve heard that you’re better off not knowing anything about it going in. And so I didn’t look it up.

I didn’t read anything either. Um, I, I looked up the IMDV page to see how long it was, and it’s not terribly long. It’s a little over an hour and a half, which is perfectly fine. I was very, very glad. Ultimately that I didn’t know anything about it going in. So if you are interested in watching this movie, and I think that you should be, I’ll say that from the beginning, this movie is worth a watch.

If you have not seen it. And if you don’t know anything about. Don’t listen to this right now, because I’m sure that we will spoil important things very, very early on. And so, yeah, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll kind of leave it at that for now, but, um, yes, ultimately I thought it was really good initially. Okay. So it’s called one cut of the dead.

So I’m like, okay, I get it. And so we start watching it and it seems like a cheesy. Zombie movie. It seems like it was made by, you know, people who were doing it on the cheap and on the fly and for the love of it and the production value. Wasn’t good. It was all kind of, what do you call it? Handycam or whatever.

And so the, the video quality wasn’t great. The acting was pretty bad. The, the effects and makeup were subpar and I’m just thinking, oh my God, this is. But then when the initial and biggest twist was revealed well, and while that was all going on and because they were clearly doing it all in one, cut it, wasn’t an edited piece.

It, it literally was one, one shot. And you could tell. So what I was thinking and what I was preparing to say for the podcast was it’s ambitious and it’s. Creative, you know, they’re not the only, they’re not the only folks who have ever tried to make a movie in one cut it’s been done before. It’s rare that it’s been done before.

And so watching that, I was like, it’s ambitious and it’s creative, but that does not necessarily a good movie make. And this is not a good movie. So I was already, I was already to talk about it in those terms.

Todd: You had written down your notes are correct. Is like one thumb down ambitious, but falls short.

Craig: Yes. And then at about the 37 minutes. So it’s, it’s very typical in that first half hour. Like they’re in this spooky environment, it’s an old like water filtration plant or something. The premise initially is. The people in the movie are making this cheap zombie movie, but then apparently something happens.

It’s suggested that the director who is dissatisfied with their performances does something to actually. Bring real zombies into the fray. And there’s some mythology about how this place was said to be a place of like experimentation by the Japanese government, bringing people back from the dead. And it’s suggested that the director does something.

To make these zombies rise. And then it’s, it’s pretty typical. The zombie show up, they start chasing the lead actors around of course, as is always the case with these types of movies. You’re like, seriously, the camera guy is still just, you know, filming everything while all this is going well, while also

Todd: not getting attacked himself,

Craig: avoiding being attacked himself the whole time. It was silly. Typical, but, you know, par for the course for cheap zombie movies and, and it was getting to about the half hour mark and then getting closer to the 35 minute mark. And I was like, seriously, there’s an hour of this left. I have to watch another hour.

And then it was over. And the title card came up and the credit started rolling. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, is there going to be like an hour retrospective about this movie at the end or something? And it wasn’t, it wasn’t that at all, it totally changed gears. And from that point on, I was like, Oh, shit.

This really is clever.

Todd: Once again, once again, if you haven’t seen this movie at, this is another safe stopping point, we’re warning you, you could stop here and watch it and be totally surprised by what’s going on. I mean, what really helped was, and I thought this was especially clever was that as you said, the movie within the movie is kind of a Metta movie itself, right?

A movie about this director, like you said, who was scouted at this location and supposed to be this big military thing? The first thing we see is a zombie attacking a girl, basically cornering her into the edge of what looks like almost like a gymnasium. Uh, and she’s holding an ax out and she’s crying.

And he’s very slowly stumbling towards her. Very slowly stumbling towards her. It looks bad. And then she’s like, no, no, no. And then he stopped. And then it’s like, this was one of her former lovers. And so she kind of reaches out to him and starts to touch his fingers. And then he comes at her again and anyway, she’s doing a poor job and this is really dumb.

And eventually you hear cut and the director pops in and he starts berating her. If you are a lousy, why can’t you act like you didn’t feel it? You were just acting like none of this is realistic. And then he turns around eventually the guy playing the zombie kind of comes over. The director turns to him and grabs a scrub of his neck.

And it says, and you, you know, when your rehearsals, you you’re pretty, boy, you have no talent act, blah, blah, blah, screams at him as well, storms off and hits him. He hits and that’s right. It’s so good. This is great about this is that there’s so many payoffs to come later. They go up the stairs. Co was the name of the boy.

She Nazi is the name of the girl. And then there’s this PA name? She, uh, you know, is kind of doing their makeup. They’re taking a break and she mentions the fact that they’re casually talking about, you know, where did they get this creepy location? And she’d mentioned that, oh, the director actually founded, it, took him forever to find it all over Japan and split.

Supposedly during world war II, there were these experiments, uh, where the army was working with reanimating the dead, and then there’s suddenly a bang at the door that startles them all, but sort of nothing happens. And so then they’re like, well, that was weird. There’s just this long pause. And finally the guy speaks up and.

Do you have any hobbies? You have any hobbies? And I was like going, oh my God, you’ve got to be kidding me. And it’s funny because actually Chinasa speaks up and says that she goes, that’s a random. Yeah. And he’s like, well, you know, we’re just trying to have fun here now jumps up. And he’s like, well, actually I’m learning self-defense right now.

Oh, really? Why don’t you show me some. Okay. And so she gets up and it’s like, now approach me from the front and she twists his arm. Oh, that’s horrible. They’ll approach me from the back. Oh, that’s horrible. Finally, you know, there’s another bang anyway, what ends up happening? Gosh, there’s no way we can walk

Craig: you through all of it.

No, but it, but it’s funny because, and I understand why you want to, because there are so many little things that you notice in the beginning that you just kind of scratch your head about. Like after that a zombie. Comes in and they fight the zombie, but meanwhile, there’s this other guy, like, I feel like he’s supposed to be another production assistant or something, and he’s just sitting in the corner, like watching all of this go down.

Like everybody else is freaking out and there’s this one guy just sitting there and I’m like, why is he just sitting there? He’s not reacting at all. And eventually he kinda tries to sneak out. And by that point, the director’s back and the director grabs him and shakes him. He’s like, where are you going?

And, and so like the random, what are your hobbies question? And like this guy randomly sitting there, there are all these little tiny things that just in the back of my mind, I’m like, oh my God, this is a terrible mood.

Todd: Well, and I was thinking, well, maybe this is good. They get more clever because the director does pop in and go, aha. See, you know, now I’m finally getting good reactions from you. And it’s funny, actually, I thought it was hilarious because they are presumably being attacked by these real zombies. And now it’s like, you didn’t do it.

Did you? And he’s like, yes, I put the blood on him. Was like, oh my God. And you release the actual zombies. Like, yes. Now we’re finally getting real reactions. This is going to be a great movie. And so now you realized sort of the conceit is that the director has concocted this found footage film together by unleashing real zombies.

And I was really questioning that the whole way through like, come on. It can’t really be that, or is it, you know, what’s up. Maybe that was where the movie was going to go with suddenly kind of giving me a twist that would, that would explain.

Craig: And it was funny because so at, from that point, basically the zombies just chased them around for the next 20 minutes.

All of the members of the crew, you know, get dispatched in various ways. And then of course there’s, um, bees in there chasing them all around. What was the most funny to me is that at the most random times, when they’re getting attacked by zombies, the director. Burstyn and go act, John,

and he’d be saying things to the zombies, like get that bitch

so fun.

Todd: And then there are these moments where it’s like, the camera is just focused. So it’s towards the end of it, this, um, uh, I think co and, uh, she Nazi who up on the roof and now is up there and now it’s kind of going ballistic because apparently, uh, she Nazi has been cut or bit on her ankle and they noticed that.

And so now wants to kill her with this app.

Craig: Right. And she goes, she goes nuts. Like out of nowhere, her character just totally changes. And. And, and I had in my notes, like, is she a zombie now? Because all of a sudden she’s super aggressive and violent and she’s chasing to Nazi who around and they ended up on the roof and there’s a big scuffle and then co kills now with an ax and  two runs away and ends up in a shed that’s marked with a pentagram on the ground.

And these it’s a close on her and these zombie legs come into frame and just stand right next to her for a second, as she’s cowering in fear. And then they turn around and go away and I’m like, what is happening? This is weird. And it ends up with a chin Nazi backup on the roof somehow, for some reason, facing off with co and it ends up co apparently is a zombie now.

And so basically they are in real life reenacting the scene that they were shooting in the very opening scene and the director is there and he’s like, yes, this is the real reaction. This is how you would really be feeling. She ends up. I, gosh, I don’t even remember now jumps back up out of nowhere with an accent, her head for just a second and then just falls away again.

And I had no idea what was going on there. And I, the director, I feel like gets killed somehow now, kills co. And another thing that I know. But that didn’t really strike me as weird is that most of the big kills happen off camera or they’re obscured by something. So all that you really see is the blood flying.

You don’t really see graphic intense, special effects was a

Todd: great moment in there too, because the cameras, again, this is all one takes. So the camera’s running after them and blood actually splatters up on the lens of the camera. And there’s blood on the scene for a while. And I thought, okay, how was this going to happen?

And during one of the chases I hand comes in and actually wipes the blood off

of

Craig: the lens, I loved it. I loved that.

Todd: I loved that bit. And I later read in the trivia that that was actually real. Like they didn’t add that later. All of that actually happened. This movie was like I said, it was shot for 25,000.

The whole thing is a very low budget production to everything that we saw on the screen that I don’t think there’s anything digital about it whatsoever. So

Craig: the way that the, the, the movie I’m air quoting, as I said, that the way that the movie ends is she kills co and then she. Upstanding on this huge pinch of gram made with blood on the roof.

And there’s like a crane shot, like the camera moves up so that it’s shooting her from above and she’s just standing there and that’s when the credits roll. And I, I had no idea what was going on really seriously. I was sitting here. They’re thinking what is happening? I have no idea what’s happening, but I did think that.

Up to that point, even though it was bad, like it was kind of poorly made. I thought, well, it was fun. You know, like there was, there was a lot of action, a lot of running and the camera’s running and the zombies are chasing. It’s all very unrealistic. Um, like there’s one point where, uh, Janata, who is in a underground tunnel and there are zombies at either side.

So the, the tension is very high, but then she just kind of skirts around one of them and keeps running. I didn’t think that it was amazing, but I thought, okay, well, you know, for what they were doing, It was interesting.

Todd: You were writing your notes that said, you know, Craig Higgins one thumb down look out for, but not a good movie.

However, if you had a Halloween party playing in the background, drinking beers

Craig: with your buddies. Yeah, kind of. But actually what I was thinking was the reason that I find this fun is because I thought that you and I could get our friends together. And make this movie. Exactly. So that was kind of fun. Um, but then the credits roll and it fades to white and I had no idea what was going on and that, because like they, the title card comes up, the credits roll.

I’m like, what is going on? It fades back in onto a city. And this is when the twist is revealed and it also says three months earlier and it jumps back to when the director of this movie is being picked. The movie and all of a sudden the cinematography is far more traditional way, cleaner way sharper.

It looks like an actual movie as opposed to something that somebody shot on their iPhone. And that’s, that’s where we figure out what’s going on. And what I, now I will concede that this is mentioned in the IMD B trivia, but I really thought of it. Before I read it. It turns out that this movie is the horror equivalent of noises off.

Yes,

Todd: that’s exactly what I was thinking when I was watching it. Cause I was involved in a production of noises off. It’s a great play. Oh, it’s hilarious. It’s like you see the play from the beginning, from the river. Is like act one and then act two, you watch a production of the play from backstage, and you’ve gotten a sense from the first act, how wacky these characters are in their rehearsal and all of their little quirks and issues and problems with each other.

And there’s all kinds of drama going on. So then you can see backstage as they’re trying to put it. Far. So, which was, you know, doors opening and closing and kind of, kind of mad cap FARs. It’s just as mad cat backstage as they’re like sabotaging each other. And they’re like pissed off at each other and, and things go wrong and they’ve got to cover for it and all.

And then you see it. Finally, the third act, I think, is like the closing night of this play and it’s from the front, the actual production. And you can tell that the production itself has just kind of devolved into shambles. Right. It’s just hilarious. And you’re right. This is exactly that just in zombie world zombie movie.

Craig: Right. So what we saw was the movie that was made, we saw the production that aired, and as it was pitched to him by these executives, they wanted a half-hour long live one cut zombie film. And when they pitched it to this director, he laughed, he thought they were kidding. And they’re like, no, we’re serious.

Todd: Well, Because they tell him like, why they chose him. Like, you know, why, because all he’s ever done or like some music videos and some small documentaries. And he says, well, what is your catch phrase again? Fast, cheap. Okay. Average. And that’s

Craig: why we picked you. And that’s what they want. Okay. What’s something fast, cheap, and average.

They want cheap entertainment. And it’s funny. So we see, uh, what I will call act two. We get to meet the actual actors and all of the people involved in the production before the production. Yeah. And the actor who plays co is this pretty boy heartthrob kind of guy. He’s a total snob. Douche bag, the girl who plays chin Nazi, who is this up and coming star, who, uh, is very sweet and very pretty, but also kind of prissy and is really concerned about like what her agency will allow.

Like you can’t spray anything on. It’s not that I care, but my agency won’t allow and we meet the director and his family. And, you know, the, you know, they seem like a nice average family. The daughter is a. I would guess late teens, early twenties, she still lives at home and she’s interested in filmmaking too.

And she’s, I think, um, is working as a PA on other productions and stuff. And the wife seems a little bit, I mean, I I’m making this more deep than it is, but she seems a little bit lost. Like she used to be an actress, but she’s not anymore. And she’s. You know, been exploring all these different hobbies, but she’s not really found anything.

That’s really caught her interest. And the daughter is trying to encourage her to get back into acting and stuff. And then some of the smaller characters who we had seen as zombies in the movie, like one of them. Is a big drunk. We find out another one of them has irritable bowel. If he drinks the wrong water, he will have horrible diarrhea.

Todd: That was the best

Craig: part. And then that goes on for about 15 minutes, I would say until then we get to the shooting of the production. And when we see the shooting of the production, all of these things that we’ve learned about these people, first of all, two of it’s live and two of the actors get caught in traffic or something and can’t show up.

So the director has to step in to play the director in the movie. And his wife, who’s just visiting the set with the daughter because the daughter’s obsessed with the actor who plays co volunteers, her to play now the PA makeup artists. Um, so they get thrown a very last minute and then we get to see the first act again.

But from behind the scenes and all of those weird things that were going on and making us scratch our heads when we were watching it, the first time are explained and it’s hilarious. Like I was laughing out loud and that takes quite a bit for me. I thought it was. Really, really funny. It was

Todd: laugh out loud, buddy.

Like for example, that awkward bit at the beginning where there’s a bang at the door, but nothing happens. And so then co asks now. So what are your hobbies? They had to improvise that because their zombie was supposed to come in the door, but this was the drunk guys on B and the director outside runs and finds that he’s.

Laying on the ground, not come standing up totally drunk. And he’s like picking them up and trying to wake him up. And they’ve got like a PA like an assistant there and is trying to drag him to the door to try to get him to go through the door. So all the best he can do is bang on the door and walk away.

And then an assistant from all the camp for behind the camera shows a big sign that says. Improvise improvise some things going bad. And this happens a few times, which is hilarious, right? This little, like, there’ll be a PA who was giving directions to them from sending they’ve written out a piece of papers and black art.

So that’s why now jumps up and is like, well, I’m learning self-defense and which is

Craig: she? Cause she had been, she left. That was, that was one of the hobbies that she was exploring in her real life. It was so funny because like the, she shows, you know, how you protect yourself from the front. But then the real joke is when somebody comes and grabs you from behind you throw your arms up to get out of their grip and you yell something.

I don’t remember what . Yeah. And then she keeps doing it because she kind of goes crazy. Like it’s established. She stopped acting because she would get so into it that she couldn’t control herself. That’s what happens here. And so people keep trying to grab her to restrain her and she just keeps throwing her arms up.

Wow.

So funny, we can’t, we can’t do it justice. You have to see it. Um, but I’m telling you, I’m telling you it is hilarious and all of those little things. You know, I was wondering why is that guy just sitting there, like while all of this is going on? Well, the reason is, is because he’s the diarrhea guy. He’s got diarrhea.

So we straightened that two ships. And he finally traced it, sneak out and the director’s like, where are you going? And he runs out. And when he ran out the first time we heard him screaming, no, no. And so we just assumed that he was getting killed by a zombie, but the truth is he was shitting himself.

Okay. There was a hilarious, see where like the director runs out after him. And we see the behind the scenes stuff where he just has to squat on the ground. And you hear the pooping, like at one point, at one point he’s standing there talking to the director and he’s like, it’s coming in. Director’s like what’s coming out poop

and then he’s squatting on the ground because there are no bathrooms are out. And the director makes the PA. Uh, another PA put zombie makeup on him while he’s pooping on the ground so that they can turn him into a zombie to bring him back to explain what had happened. Like they’re desperately trying to keep this going and they’re jumping off and on script at one point.

Um, they’re so off script, nobody knows where they are and in the booth. The booth people are like, we’re going to have to just cut it. We’re going to have to cut to a card that says we’re having technical difficulties and we’ll try to get things back together. And the director’s daughter who is interested in filmmaking says, no, we can do this.

And like, she jumps in with a plan. She’s like, okay, send so-and-so back in. And then we’ll jump from page 11 to page 16 and just keep going from there. And they communicate with the actors via cue cards, which also explains those. Pauses and silences from the movie. It’s because they don’t know what’s going on and they’re reading cue cards, telling them what to do next.

It’s not like a one time the

Todd: camera man is holding the camera, but he’d kind of turns back and sees a cue card there. And that’s to flip the page to the next page. Oh, there’s so many great little touches in here. And that zombie leg that you had described earlier when she was cowering in the shed, but that zombie life came.

It was one of the production staff who stepped up there and was holding a cue card in front of her saying, go get an ax. And so she, you know, as soon as he leaves, she runs out of there and in the movie she goes and she picks up her name. Oh, annex lucky me.

Craig: Well, and it’s all, you know, like, like you said, we can’t go through it step by step, but it’s all very contrived is the right word, but that has a negative connotation. Yeah. It’s like noises off it’s so well planned. Like when the actress who plays now, when she goes crazy, they have to figure out a way to get her out.

So. Kill her off with an ax off screen. And then the ax ends up embedded in her head, but they realized that they need an axle later in the, in the movie. So they have to take it out of her head and plant it and then tell the girl to find it like they’re just there they’re problem solving as they go along.

And I think that that is what really endeared the movie to me is that ultimately, whereas. Felt so bad. And so amateur in the first part, in the third act, you could tell that this was so meticulously planned the first act and the third act just, I mean, literally you could watch them. If you had two different screens, you could start them at the same time and you could see what was going on on screen for the viewers.

And you could see what was going on. Behind the scenes and they align seemingly perfectly. Um, and the fact that, you know, with all of this craziness going on and the director trying to do his directorial duties while also having to be in the movie. And so he’s running around like a crazy person and everybody is.

Yeah, they’re making it work. And the exacts who are watching it from a booth are like, oh, this is so much

Todd: fun. Everything. What are the last lines of the movie is one of them standing up and going, well, everything worked out for you

Craig: went off without a hitch. I think she says. Uh,

Todd: but part of what’s endearing about it. This is the subject matter, right? It’s like you said, at the beginning, when you were watching the first part you were thinking, well, it’s bad, but Hey, this is something we would have gotten together and could have been herself.

So that makes it a little endearing. This is. This is that same spirit, right? Hey, these guys are trying to make this movie and they’re falling all over themselves to do it right. And they are making the best out of what they have. It’s just really charming and fun and funny. There’s it’s just a fun.

Craig: Well, and that’s something else that I, that is just in Deere, you know, after I watched it, I went and read about it.

And this movie is the result of like a writing and directing workshop. Like yeah. Um, all of these people, all of the actors involved in this were amateurs who paid money to take part in this workshop. And so essentially they paid to be in the movie. I don’t remember how they raised 25,000. Is a lot of money to me, but when it, for film production, that’s,

Todd: it’s nothing, it’s like a, it’s not even going to cover food, but, but I think it was a crowdfunded.

Most of, a lot of it was not all of it, but a lot of it was actually crowdfunded.

Craig: And so they made it for $25,000. They were all basically amateurs doing this to invest in and further their craft. And it was released, you know, on, on like a few screens in Japan and, and, you know, not much happened, but then I think that they submitted it for festivals and it did really well at festivals.

And then they, uh, Did a, a second release in Japan and it did really, really well. And then it got a worldwide release. Like this is, this almost never happens. It does happen, but almost never. And, and that, I don’t know, you know, being somebody who is into the arts and when I participate in things like this, I’ve only done a couple of student films, but you know, I’ve done a lot of like community theater.

Like you don’t really get into. Thinking that it’s going to be anything more than entertaining for your very limited audience and satisfying for you as a performer. And I imagine that that’s what these people were thinking when they got into it. You know, this was going to be kind of a stepping stone, a silly little thing that they did, and then it just blew up and made a thousand times more.

It costs to make it. Wow. I was just super impressed.

Todd: Me too. It was funny reading the trivia about that one take in the beginning that, I mean, the whole movie was only was shot in eight days, but the first, you know, movie within a movie took two of those eight days and six takes for the cast and crew to get.

Right. And apparently they actually got it. Perfect. On the second take, except there was some issues. With a camera error and one of the cameras stopped, so they couldn’t even use it.

Craig: Right. Unfortunate. And that in itself really is impressive because it was, you know, a 35 to 37 minute scene. Now, if it was like, it all took place in that one room, I would think.

Okay, well that’s reasonable. It’s, you know, it’s, it’s, you’re basically filming a play, but it’s. You know, they move around. There are multiple set pieces, um, multiple angles, special effects, makeup changes, like significant makeup changes and effects that are going on. In real time. That is impressive. That is really impressive

Todd: to coordinate.

It’s a lot of crew that have to run around and just stay out of shot of the camera, but be back there to help support and run sound and all this stuff. And then apparently also a behind the scenes guy behind all that with a GoPro who also has to stay out of the way. Right. After the credits of the movie role, the real movie, finally, when we’re done, you get to see some of the behind the scenes of that.

Well, it’s the behind the scenes. It’s crazy, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really, really great. Um, I would highly recommend it for anybody. Anybody really, you don’t even have to be a horror fan. You just have to be able to take a bunch of cheesy zombie fake blood

Craig: stuff. Yeah. Ultimately, I got it. It’s a difficult movie to categorize because it does have, you know, a lot of blood splatter.

I mean, it’s obviously fake. And like I said, you don’t see, there’s not a lot of graphic violence on screen, but you do see the aftermath and that’s something else that I really enjoyed too. And I think that horror fans would enjoy seeing a lot of how some of this stuff has done where you’ve got live actors in a scene.

And then just through creative camera work, you have production assistants off camera. Throwing fake bodies and severed heads and severed arms into the getting blood in

Todd: people’s faces. Right?

Craig: Hoses. Like I love that. Look, when a chin Nazi was, is hacking up co at the end, she’s behind a show. It’s not a wall, but she’s behind something so that you can see her from approximately the waist up.

And so you can see her as she’s lifting the ax, but then as she. Takes it down the blood just splatters on her face. And when we get to see the behind the scenes, it’s just a guy crouched down there with a hose in his mouth, taking big swigs of blood and then shooting them through the hose and it looks great.

It looks

Todd: fantastic. And it’s a payoff for that gag, where she was like things can’t spray on my face, getting loads of it.

Craig: Oh, gosh. Uh, and just little, little things, like in the first part of the movie, the movie movie, you know, you hear people say things like, who are you because random zombies or PAs are just jumping in to try to.

Get things back on track and the actors have no idea what’s going on. And it’s so frantic in the moment that those lines just fly by that. Then when you see it later, you understand what’s going on and that the actors have no idea what’s happening. One of my friends. We talked about how in the movie within a movie now, just out of nowhere goes nuts.

Well that’s because the actress kind of gets lost in her character and goes nuts. And so they’re all chasing her around, yelling at her to stop. And eventually her husband, the director has to grab her, pull her off scene and choke her out so that she. It’s unconscious. And then while she’s unconscious to explain what happened to her, they have to get her into zombie makeup and put an accent, her head.

And so in the movie later in the very last scene, when she pops up out of nowhere, that’s just because the actress regained consciousness and had no idea what was going on. So she just jumped up in the middle of the scene and we see later in the, behind the scenes stuff, that her husband just grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back out of scene.

And that’s, there’s no explanation for it in the movie, within the movie, but, uh it’s and there are other things like that

Todd: too. One of my favorite bits is when. The camera man gets whacked. I don’t, I’m not exactly sure how it happens, but he gets knocked out or something or gets injured. And he falls on the ground in the movie, within the movie, it seems like a cool kind of found footage type trope, right.

Where the camera gets knocked out of someone’s hand for a brief moment and it’s right there on the ground, but it’s still managed this to film most of the scene before it gets picked back up again. Well, in the, in the, behind the scenes, we see, uh, that this guy was incapacitated and this woman who I think was kind of aspiring.

To be a camera person, really interested in that, but just completely out of her league, like looks left, looks right. And she’s the only person there who can like pick up the camera and run with it. So she picks it up and totally runs with it. And even while she’s running through the fields, like slips and falls,

Craig: oh, another one of my other favorites was the, uh, the drunk actor.

Like he promises that he’s not going to drink. Through the shooting, but then somebody brings a bottle of like fancy Saki to the set and he finds it. And so he is literally like passed out and the director has to basically just hold him by the waist and. Marionette him through his scenes. And it’s so funny because like he’s, he’s, he’s got him around the waist and he’s trying to stay low and stay out of shot, which he does.

So in the movie, it just looks like this guy is shambling. A zombie. Um, but when you see what’s really happening, I mean, he’s just barely lucid at all. And the reason that he’s moving that way is because somebody is holding him by the waist and just puppeteering him through. This seems very clever. So clever.

Um, this is not a movie that I ever would have watched. Now maybe if there were a dub diversion, Maybe I would have watched it, but it’s unlikely that I would have watched it, uh, otherwise. And I’m really, really glad that I did. But again, I think a lot of the joy of it came from the unexpected ness of what happened.

I didn’t know what was going on and, and I, and I. That, uh, it was, it was an experience like my, the whole experience of watching the first part and being pissed off at you for picking another stupid ass movie, and then it shifting into something else that I wasn’t expecting at all. And then. That thing that I wasn’t expecting at all, ultimately being really well done and really clever, like it was such a great, great pay off.

I, uh, I, man, I just really enjoyed it. I don’t know that I would necessarily recommend it to everybody, but I think. Fans of horror and, or especially horror comedy, or even people who are just fans of kind of farce and slapstick comedy who can handle a little bit of fake gore. Absolutely. And man aspiring filmmakers.

Oh yeah. Watch this, check it out. Like I just. So clever. I ended up walking away from it with a great big smile on them. Ah,

Todd: and I finally feel redeemed.

Craig: Don’t get, don’t get two full years. It was a diamond in the

Todd: rough. You need a few more movies like this to break as events.

Well, and a big shout out to Liz also for recommending this film to us, uh, really, really grateful again, to get recommendations from people. Uh, things that we probably, like you said, would not have found on our own. If you have a request for us, please send us a message. You can find us online. You just have to search by Google, two guys and a chainsaw podcast.

You will find our Facebook page or Twitter. And our website, you can simply leave us a comment or message there and let us know what you thought of this movie, or send us a request for a movie we should do later until next time. I’m Todd and I’m Craig with two guys and a chainsaw. .


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 June 25, 2021  45m