At the very least “The ABCs of Death” is the execution of a killer concept. Call it an uber-horror-anthology film birthed from the likes of “Creepshow” or last year’s (horrible) “V/H/S” that takes the idea of collecting mini-monster movies to the extreme. Instead of the standard 3 or 5 tales lumped together, here we have 26 shorts composed by 26 different filmmakers! With such a large variety of material to choose from the results range from brilliant and inventive to bizarre and outright idiotic. With so many hands in the mix, “The ABCs of Death” has little choice but to be wildly uneven but is nearly always interesting and more than worth a look to fans of the extreme.
There is no wraparound story to link the vignettes; the film plays like a mini-film festival that has gathered stories from around the world. Each short is about 5 minutes in length putting the running time at right around 2 hours which plays a little long. The shorts usually begin abruptly with the title and filmmaker revealed at the end written in letter blocks. Part of the fun is guessing what each letter stands for and some are easier to guess than others. One story features a man stuck in an underground fistfight with a snarling dog and is entitled “D is for Dogfight”. This is one of the standouts and the title is pretty easy to guess but good luck guessing the premise of “L is for Libido”.
While the dogfight marks a highlight, other solid entries include a rather clumsy murder directed by Nacho Vigalondo that opens the film, a visual joyride that shows us what an orgasm might look like if you own a bubble machine and a futuristic tale that features a baby’s beheading and a killer looking robot. Many of the film’s directors are little known here in the states but fans of “The Innkeepers” will be greatly disappointed in that director’s contribution. Ti West presents the laziest short entitled “M is for Miscarriage” that must of taken him all of 2 minutes to conceive, write, shoot and edit.
Miscarriage is not the only let down here as the many of these segments are too simple or just plain confusing. The letter W is represented by an amusing little lump of crazy called “W is for WTF” that was directed by “Metalocalypse” producer Jon Schnepp and features many WTF moments involving a Walrus, a Warrior and zombie clowns. WTF could also be used to describe many of the other installs as 26 shorts ends up being too much for the film to handle.
The film has been released unrated and there are many extreme moments. The hardcore fans will not be disappointed and the film has done well enough that there is already another in the works. One other noteworthy piece of something for you: The producers of “The ABCs of Death” actually held a contest whose winner is included here in the finished film. The short that won is a cool little stop-motion piece that revolves around a child’s founded fear of the toilet.
Blu-ray Special Features
• Filmmaker Commentary
• A is for Apocalypse: Oil Burns Visual Effects (HD, 1:10)
• B is for Bigfoot: Making Of (HD, 2:56)
• C is for Cycle: Deleted Scenes (HD, 3:28)
• D is for Dogfight: Making Of (HD, 6:57)
• F is for Fart: Behind the Scenes (HD, 9:46)
• H is for Hydroelectric Diffusion (HD, 18:10)
• I is for Ingrown: Making Of (HD, 6:43)
• J is for Jidai-Geki: Behind the Scenes (HD, 6:30)
• P is for Pressure: Interviews (HD, 18:48)
• R is for Removed: Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery (HD, 71 stills)
• T is for Toilet: Behind the Scenes (HD, 3:04)
• V is for Vagitus (HD, 19:09)
• W is for WTF (HD, 13:03)
• Z is for Zetsumetsu: Behind the Scenes (HD, 11:07)
• AXS TV: A Look at The ABCs of Death (HD, 4:16)
• Trailers (HD, 1:43)
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment (HD, 6:45)