The ABCs Of Death is an anthology of 26 shorts (short movies) each dedicated to one letter of the English alphabet. The movies themselves are not all in English. Each movie is by a different director; the directors spanning 15 countries and their stories as varied… with the idea that the unifying thread would be death.
Wikipedia describes the movie as an anthology horror comedy. If it is comic in any way then it is a weird sense of humour that the movie appeals to and which I do not fully comprehend. A lot of the shorts were gross in more ways than one. Some just grossed me out with the gore and some by the very content / topic.
The shorts in the movie ranged from the lazily directed non-story to some elaborate, hard-hitting, social commentary. Here is a list of the shorts with their directors and my opinion of them:
** There aren’t any real spoilers in there… but… SPOILER ALERT, just in case! **
A is for ApocalypseNacho VigalondoInteresting. Leaves a lot to the viewer’s imagination.B is for BigfootAdrian Garcia BoglianoNot a bad story to scare kids with.C is for CycleErnesto Diaz EspinozaI liked the idea, but the short was too short for me to want to analyze it.D is for DogfightMarcel SarmientoBeautifully shot in slow motion, a little hardcore but worth the screen time it took.E is for ExterminateAngela BettisTypical urban legend stuff, but with an additional, somewhat unexpected PoV, literally.F is for FartNoboru IguchiStupid, gross effort at comedy, Japanese style.G is for GravityAndrew TrauckiFelt like a YouTube video… uninteresting.H is for Hydro-Electric DiffusionThomas MallingComical in a weird way, quite British.I is for IngrownJorge Michel GrauThis movie has a background narration which only confuses the viewer because it is so detached from the scene depicted.J is for Jidai-geki (Samurai Movie) Yûdai YamaguchiI seem to not get the Japanese sense of humour. At all.K is for KlutzAnders MorgenthalerToilet humour… something I do not appreciate. This was comical in a slightly gross way.L is for LibidoTimo TjahjantoExtreme BDSM gone wrong. Nerve wracking & quite painful to watch. Japanese again.M is for MiscarriageTi WestThe laziest short in the anthology. It’s like Ti West did not think the movie was worth his time / efforts.N is for NuptialsBanjong PisanthanakunA simple story with the sort of twist you see coming from a mile away.O is for OrgasmBruno Forzani & Héléne CattetA non-story, but visually captivating. I found it beautiful, like dark poetry. Extremely sensual an experience.P is for PressureSimon RumleyThis short could have been better… much better than the lackluster effort it is subjected to.Q is for QuackAdam Wingard and Simon BarrettThis actually was funny. But the end was expected.R is for RemovedSrdjan SpasojevicMy favourite of the lot. A chilling prospect. I wouldn’t mind a feature length movie on the concept even thought it is extremely gory.S is for SpeedJake WestMeh! Uninspired.T is for ToiletLee HardcastleClay animation. Toilet humour meets toilet horror… a wee bit unsettling.U is for UnearthedBen WheatleyA vampire’s PoV… interesting for the way it’s shot.V is for Vagitus (The Cry of a Newborn Baby)Kaare AndrewsA look into a dystopian world, an interesting story.W is for WTF!Jon SchneppWhat the F**k!! Yes… another lazy lack of effort.X is for XXLJason EisenerThis was my second favourite of the lot. A sort of social commentary on the way society perceives women and what it can do to someone who does not fit that perception of perfection.Z is for Zetsumetsu (Extinction)Yoshihiro NishimuraThe director must have been high on something illegal and downright horny when he made this. It is kinky and gross and makes absolutely no effing sense in spite of its claim to be satirical.
I would not want to rate this movie. It perhaps is worth a watch simply because it has something for everyone and what I might consider gross and humourless may not be so in the eyes of some of you.
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