‘Final Cut’ Is a French Zombie Comedy for Would-Be Tarantinos
Pop quiz: You’re a filmmaker. You’re making a zombie movie. The crew is … let’s be charitable and say “adequate.” The budget is somewhere in the high three-figure range at best. Your main actor is a pompous diva. Even worse, your lead actress isn’t giving you the amount of bone-chilling terror that you require. The climax involves her character killing the hungry corpse — also the man she loved — who’s now trying to eat her flesh. If she can’t sell the sense of sorrow and the scares, the last scene doesn’t work. Which means the whole thing doesn’t work. Time is running out. Desperation is setting in. What do you do?
If you’re Remi (Romain Duris), a French director who finds himself in this exact predicament, you do what any sane person might do and turn to an ancient curse. It seems that the building they are shooting in was once allegedly used by the Japanese military for experiments of a highly suspicious nature. Some sort of cult within the ranks named the Star of Blood Brotherhood sought to resurrect an army of the dead. No one believes the rumor, until suddenly, the cast and crew are being attacked by what appears to be actual zombies. Remi has not only brought these carnivorous cadavers back to life, he’s also running around capturing the chaos on film. Finally, some genuine reactions! And more realistic-looking blood! It ends with the now truly terrified final girl wielding a well-used axe, standing above a mystical star hastily sketched in Type O.
This is where most horror films would naturally call it a day, but Michel Hazanavicius’ Final Cut isn’t like most horror films. (Well, it is extremely similar to one in particular, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.) Flashback to one month earlier. Remi has been summoned by a producer (Lyès Salem). The gentleman is working with a Japanese TV channel called “Z.” They want to put together a French version, and kick it off with a redo of a popular zombie flick that was a phenomenon back home. Given that Remi’s motto is “Fast, Cheap and Decent,” they think he’s perfect for the gig. The only caveats are that he has to use the original script, complete with Japanese character names; it has to be shot in one continuous take; and they’re going to air it live.
Remi is hesitant. Still, his wife Nadia (Bérénice Bejo), a former actor who quit the biz due to committing to her roles a bit too intensely, thinks it would be good for him. Plus their daughter Romy (Simone Hazanavicius), herself a Tarantino-loving budding auteur, is crazy about the hot young actor (Finnegan Oldfield) who happens to be starring in this lowbrow gem. Remi signs on. Rehearsals don’t exactly go smoothly. The date for the live airing draws nearer and nearer. He’s going to need something above and beyond to make this work. Something truly horrific….
Should you have seen Shin’ichirô Ueda’s 2017 film One Cut of the Dead, a microbudget indie horror film that became a massive box office success in Japan, you’ll experience a not-unpleasant sense of déjà vu watching this French remake from the man who brought you The Artist. (If you have not, go into this new film cold. Then check out the original, currently streaming on Shudder.) Even with the meta touches of One Cut‘s Yoshiko Takehara playing the channel’s production liaison — and including the near-iconic shot of that movie’s hero, shouldering her bloody axe, on Remi’s prep packet — this is a very faithful redo, beat by beat if not exactly shot by shot. It just happens to be cast extremely well, with everybody from Duris and Bejo to Matilda Lutz (Revenge) and members of Quentin Dupieux‘s repertory company completely understanding the gonzo vibe. Plus Hazanavicius has a knack for knowing when to pour gasoline and light metaphorical matches to fire up the more farcical elements. It’s a fast, not as cheap, and much better than decent cover version of another song, one that knows very well that it’s a cover version.
What really makes Final Cut work, however, is how it nails what’s happening beyond the horror-movie elements. More than anything else, this is a tribute to the way that, to quote a wiser man, in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. There’s a D.I.Y. spirit here that permeates the entire endeavor, down to someone wiping blood off a camera’s lens after a special effect splatters. It’s one of the few movies to ever stick the landing twice. And while you could easily argue that yes, it could be scarier and sure, this 2.0 version might have been funnier, there’s a joie de vivre here around creativity under pressure that comes through in the best possible way. Cinema is not dead, the film says. But it may be undead, still shuffling around and finding 13th-hour ways to turn fake blood, real sweat, and honest-to-Godard tears into something like magic.