Directors: Nacho Vigalondo, Adrian Garcia Bogliano, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Marcel Sarmiento, Angela Bettis, Noboru Iguchi, Andrew Traucki, Thomas Cappelan Malling, Jorge Michel Grau, Yudai Yamaguchi, Anders Morgenthaler, Timo Tjahjanto, Ti West, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet, Simon Rumley, Adam Wingard, Srdjan Spasojevic, Jake West, Lee Hardcastle, Ben Wheatley, Kaare Andrews, Jon Schnepp, Xavier Gens, Jason Eisener, Yoshihiro Nishimura,
Running Time: 123 Minutes
Certificate: 18
Extras: Filmmaker Commentary, Makings of, Behind The Secenes, Deleted Scenes, Interviews, Photo Galleries, Trailers
Horror is one of the few genres that is suited perfectly to anthologies. Horror can take the form of short stories, fables, or even visual jokes with disturbing punch lines. But how far can the anthology format be pushed? THE ABCS OF DEATH takes it to the extreme by offering 26 short films (one for every letter of the alphabet) in just over two hours. It’s quite the behemoth task, and as you can imagine it’s a mixed bag in terms of tone. What is most surprising is the consistency of quality throughout the majority of the running time.
THE ABCS OF DEATH is a cinematic experiment and one that will undoubtedly fail to make audiences see eye to eye. Directors from around the world were asked to make a short film costing no more than $5,000 centred around the theme of death. They were each given a letter of the alphabet and could choose any word beginning with that letter as their title. The films also had to begin and end on a red screen. Other than that, the world was their oyster, which leads to an erratic mix of different visual styles. Even those who don’t find much enjoyment in the film will be fascinated to see how differently each segment turns out. Ranging from a few seconds to minutes in the double digits, some of the films are abstract visual feasts; some are humorous animations, some are complete stories in their own right; and a few are even begging for feature length adapatation.
The majority of the shorts are unforgettable in at least one way or another, but a few deserve specific mention. ‘D Is For Dogfight’ is a gorgeous looking, dialogue free, film with a wonderful twist that adds an emotional punch. The Japanese efforts ‘F Is For Fart’, ‘J Is For Jidai-Geki’, and ‘Z Is For Zetsumetsu’ are bizarre and peculiar trips through twisted imagery and crude humour. Competition winner ‘T Is For Toilet’ by Lee Hardcastle, is a superb amateur animation which mixes horror, gore, and a comedic spin in the final moments. Best of all is the disturbing and gut-wrenching ‘L Is For Libido’ wherein a number of men must masturbate over increasingly disturbing scenarios with the last one to climax facing a gruelling death. It’s a film that gets to the point and puts the audience on the spot. Xavier Gens’ ‘X Is For XXL’ is also a thought provoking and visceral exploration into gore.
Only a few of the films failed to make much of an impact, but even when the shorts fail to have an impact, you’re never far from a new vision of death. If nothing else, this is a worthwhile showcase of talent from around the world and shows how creative constraints can be just as rewarding as full creative control. An assault on all the senses, it’s an imaginative triumph where later views can be viewed in bitesize chunks.
THE ABCS OF DEATH is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 22nd July via Monster Pictures.
