Makes creative use of its meta film-within-a-film premise. It starts off on an amusing enough note as the crew of a low-budget production are attacked by the very same monsters found in their script and are thrust into danger by their unhinged director. It's not bad, but the zombie action is kind of weak and there are a lot of odd moments that don't make sense until much later on in the running-time. So it's not until the second portion when the curtain is pulled back on a huge unexpected twist and it completely changes its entire game (while still remaining true to the mise en abyme concept), essentially giving us two movies in one, that I began to understand why this has received so much praise. As weird as it feels to say, things are better off without the undead. After One Cut goes in a wholly different direction we get a much funnier tale that can be surprisingly heartwarming. What we just saw beforehand is not simply abandoned however. Rather, it's built on, enriched, and made deeper. A lot of its more questionable aspects you will have noticed are explained, adding a lot of value to a rewatch of that first segment. In the end there aren't two disparate halves here, but rather a pair of distinctive, yet similar pieces that need each other to work. Enjoyable as it all may be though, most of the hype is coming from its novelty more so than the actual content which is merely solid. There are some good jokes, but it's never a laugh riot and while I do think it's sweet with a good heart I wasn't invested in the characters. At the same time, I haven't seen anything that's executed its ideas quite like this has and in an era where originality is harder than it should be to come by that makes the experience quite refreshing, so I understand why there are so many overstatements about its quality. Particularly given its charming attitude. This is probably the cutest thing on Shudder after all.