"It's not my fault you got the letter 'Q.'"
The ABCs of Death (2012) is an international horror anthology film produced by The Alamo Drafthouse containing 26 separate segments from different directors all involving involving death and a letter of the alphabet.
I really like the concept of this film. It's a good idea, and it's an idea that make you go, "yeah that's cool, I think I'd like to check that out!" Unfortunately the end result isn't as good as it is on paper but It's still interesting, and I don't regret watching it at all.
There's no host or framing convention to this film, but instead at the end of each short they tell you the title of the film and the letter of the alphabet it represents. I thought this was a really clever way to present the films. And while I think some filmmakers used this better than others it gives the viewer something to focus on a look forward to as they're watching these strange, weird short films.
Some of the solidly good stories I liked include, H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion, K is for Klutz, L is for Libido, T is for Toilet and X is for XXL.
Sadly because all the films are so uneven as a result this film is uneven. I think the only way to fix that would be to filter the films or give the flimmakers more of a specific prompt, but I can understand why they wouldn't want to do that in order to keep the filmmakers' product very pure, so the film is uneven.
The thing I didn't like about this film most was as a result of all of the films being about "death" the majority ended up being either really gross or really weird (or both!) which aren't exactly the types of horror films I enjoy watching. I felt these films over all were lacking any real good narratives and characters. Most of them are either just very basic (person kills another person) or so freaking strange that I have no idea what the meaning was. And a couple of the films are so freaking dark I almost wish I hadn't watched them. But if you like watching people (and things) die, this is definitely the film for you.
The stories I didn't care for the most were: R is for Removed, P is for Pressure, W is for WTF!, Y is for Young Buck.
The thing with asking 26 directors to make films is you're bound to get a couple good ones out of it. So at least there's that.
And a good thing about the film is the mix of stories, no two in it are that incredibly similar. And most of them are vastly different from each other. The amount of creativity you will witness in two hours is really something to marvel at.
The stories I really liked best in this film are, J is for Jidai-geki, N is for Nupitals and S is for Speed.
3/5 Stars.
Happy watching!
This review is part of my 2014 run of 13 Nights of Macabre Movies! Tune in tomorrow as I review the final film of my series this season, V/H/S (2012).
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