Resident Evil is a new film from Zach Cregger, the director behind Weapons, one of the best horror movies of 2025. Based on the long-running Resident Evil video game series, the movie has gotten rave reviews, with a tremendously impressive 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with well over 100 critics reporting in.

That makes Resident Evil one of the best-reviewed zombie movies of all times…but it’s not the best-reviewed zombie movie of all time. That honor goes to another…

One Cut of the Dead is the best zombie movie ever made

At least according to critics

One Cut of the Dead is a Japanese zombie movie from 2017. Written, directed, and edited by Shin’ichirō Ueda, it opens on a film set, where a ragtag crew is shooting a zombie movie called True Fear. The director, Takayuki Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu), badly wants this to go well, so he’s found a way to spice things up: he’s raised actual zombies and hasn’t told the cast about it, hoping their fear will come off as genuine if their lives are actually in danger. We watch this scenario play out in bloody, brutal fashion in a long, unbroken take that lasts for 37 minutes.

This first section of the movie is entertaining enough, not to mention technically impressive. But after that, One Cut From the Dead reveals itself to be deeper than it first appears. Without spoiling too much, there’s a metatextual element to the movie that gets underway in the second section, and shifts into overdrive in the third. In the first section, there are weird moments that almost feel like mistakes, including close-ups that are held for too long, and strange interludes where the characters make small talk even as they’re stalked by flesh-eating zombies. In the third act, all of this is revealed to be part of a master plan, and it’s hilarious to watch it unfold.

One Cut of the Dead is technically a horror film, but it’s also a comedy, and a very funny one. In the end, it ends up being a love letter to independent filmmaking; the whole thing cost ¥3 million to make, or about $25,000. It makes the most of its DIY sensibilities, and is the rare movie to have a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 99 reviews and counting.

One Cut of the Dead is an underseen zombie classic

It knows that horror and comedy are very closely related

Horror movies can, of course, play things straight; there are plenty of great horror films that are just out to scare you and nothing more. But there’s also a long tradition of movies that mix horror with comedy. Think of The Cabin in the Woods, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, or zombie-comedies like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. As it ends up, shrieking in terror and shrieking in laughing aren’t so different.

That’s something that Resident Evil director Zach Cregger knows very well. Cregger broke out writing, directing, and starring in comedy sketches on the TV show The Whitest Kids U’ Know. It was only years later that he pivoted into horror with movies like Barbarian and Weapons, and both of those have a sense of humor about them. Resident Evil is earning rave reviews not just because it’s scary, but because it’s hysterical. It follows a medical courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams) over the course of one insane night in zombie-infested Raccoon City, and the movie is just as interested in making you laugh as it is in making you scream. That’s one of the best things about it.

That’s also one of the best things about One Cut of the Dead. The difference is that a lot more people are going to see Resident Evil than One Cut of the Dead, but you don’t have to miss out.

Where to stream One Cut of the Dead

The movie is worth it

When One Cut of the Dead came out in theaters in 2017, it made an impressive $27.93 in Japan and $30 million around the world, earning over 1,000 times its budget. It’s easy to compare it to a movie like Obsession, a huge horror hit from earlier this year that also earned tons of money despite being made on a shoestring budget.

That said, One Cut of the Dead only made $50,000 in North America, so it never broke out stateside. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t currently available to stream on major services like Netflix or Prime Video, although you can watch it on the horror-centric streaming service Shudder. If you don’t have that, you can always rent or buy One Cut of the Dead on Prime Video or Apple TV.

Zombies everywhere

Resident Evil and One Cut of the Dead have something else in common: they both run roughly 90 minutes, so they won’t take up too much of your time. That makes sense, since they’re both comedies at heart; a good comedian knows to that brevity is important.

If you want even more zombie fun after seeing these two classics-in-the-making, you have lots of options.

Release Date

November 4, 2017

Runtime

96 minutes

Director

Shin’ichirô Ueda