THE ABCS OF DEATH 2

THE ABCS OF DEATH 2

"The following feature film was created by 26 directors from around the world. Each director was given a letter of the alphabet and asked to choose a word. They then created a short tale of death that related to their chosen word. They had complete artistic freedom regarding the content of their segments".

That's the introductory text which opens this 117-minute, 26-strong portmanteau of short horror blasts. It is, of course, a sequel to the wildly successful Timpson Films and Drafthouse Films co-production from a couple of years back, THE ABCS OF DEATH. The fact that it comes out on UK DVD now, mere days after the first film hit the headlines when a teacher Stateside faced imprisonment for unwisely showing it to their pupils, seems quite fortuitous...

Anyhow, if you've seen the first film you'll know the format. If you haven't, I'm sure you can do the maths and quickly suss this out: each film is roughly around 5 minutes long. So, put any notion of character development, emotional engagement or dramatic substance to one side - THE ABCS OF DEATH 2, like its predecessor, is all about superficial showmanship.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's not entertaining. This point is reinforced with opening segment, "A is for Amateur", by CHEAP THRILLS director E L Katz. It concerns the theft of a large sum of mobster money and a subsequent hit, and is laced with a cool visual style reminiscent of KING OF NEW YORK. There's a neat twist in the tale and a superb gunshot effect that I didn't see coming.

"B is for Badger" is more lo-fi in look but plays on British humour well. Fans of early Peter Jackson should enjoy how this one ends. Julian Barratt, who readers may know from his role as actor in the likes of TV's "The Mighty Boosh" directs here, as well as impressing in the lead role as an obnoxious TV presenter who gets his comeuppance while filming a nature documentary.

Julian Gilbey (A LONELY PLACE TO DIE) is at the helm for "C is for Capital Punishment". This was the first segment to really demonstrate a good understanding of its cast and provide a strong narrative grasp. Concerning a tight-knit community who form a lynch mob when they suspect one of their clan of murdering a local youngster, it has potential that seems unfortunate to have been clipped to such a short running time. It's also properly fucking gory at its conclusion.

"D is for Deloused" comes courtesy of animator Robert Morgan. You may have seen his short "The Separation" on Synapse's excellent SMALL GAUGE TRAUMA DVD a few years ago? Anyway, this is a pin-sharp oddity that comes across like a cross between Jimmy ScreamerClauz and Jan Svankmajer. That's a compliment.

"E is for Equilibrium" is the first letter to be directed by a non-Brit. Alejandro Brugues, the fellow behind the enjoyably silly JUAN OF THE DEAD, is the culprit here. Not that it matters: there is no dialogue in this particular venture. Instead, it's an entertainingly daft. albeit beautifully sun-kissed, tale about the trouble caused when a beautiful woman gets washed up on the shore of a desert island inhabited by two Robinson Crusoe-alikes.

Aharon Keshales co-directed one of my favourite films of recent years, BIG BAD WOLVES. So I was looking forward to seeing his "F is for Falling". It's well-shot and performed as I thought it would be, but admittedly still comes across as a bit "ho-hum".

"G is for Grandad", by Jim Hosking, is more engaging from the off. Like Brugues' offering it's more comedy than horror, but relies on script and performance over stylish camerawork wankery. It also contains the first bona fide WTF ending of the show.

Bill Plympton's "H is for Head Games" offers more animation, of the more traditional kind. "I is for Invincible", from Erik Matti, is a gore-soaked horror comedy that feels like the final five minutes of a pre-existing movie. It's certainly well-produced.

As is Dennison Ramalho's more sombre "J is for Jesus". Again, this could've easily been developed into something far greater. Considering Ramalho has never really capitalised on the promise shown in his superb 2003 short "Love from Mother Only", it's encouraging to see he's still making short films - and challenging ones at that, what with this harrowing account of bigots believing homosexuality to be the work of Satan - but I do wish he'd find the support to make a feature film of his own.

And so it continues. I'm not going to offer appraisals of each and every film because there has to be some surprises left for those wishing to check this out for themselves. What I will say, is that THE ABCS OF DEATH 2 is much more coherent and enjoyable than its predecessor. Yes, it is occasionally flashy for no good reason and there is the odd segment that is just crap ("P is for P-P-P Scary!" for example), but by and large the balance of humour, gore and style is just right - with much more focus on narratives this time round. The irony is that the directors here do a much better job than the first lot, despite being much lesser known (Bruno Samper, anyone? No? What about Marvin Kren? Anyone?).

Arguably the best-known among this particular bunch are the Soska sisters (AMERICAN MARY), along with Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury - co-directors of INSIDE and LIVID. So, actually, the introductory text lies: there are 28 directors involved, not 26. The Soska's "T is for Torture Porn" will most likely be celebrated by some as a rally against Hollywood sexism. Fair enough, but it's still disappointing; the French filmmakers' offering, "X is for Xylophone", is throwaway fun on the one hand. On the other hand, it stars BETTY BLUE herself, Beatrice Dalle. So, you know, it's definitely worth a watch.

Elsewhere, "S is for Split" provides possibly the best twist in the entire film. Juan Martinez Moreno, of GAME OF WEREWOLVES, directs and even makes sense of split-screen techniques (something I usually find overly gimmicky). Jerome Sable's "V is for Vacation" manages to create a character so loathsome within its meagre running time that you relish in the gory denouement. "W is for Wish", by Steven Kostanski, is the most playful short on offer - a great hark back to violent 80s straight-to-video trash based on fantasy novels.

Flawed and uneven like all anthologies are, THE ABCS OF DEATH 2 is at least a major improvement on its predecessor. The gags work for the most part, the gore is strong when it comes, all segments are stylishly shot, but this time they don't drift off so much into technical show-off wankery. Dare I say it, I enjoyed this. For the most part.

Monster Pictures present the film uncut and in its 1.85:1 ratio. The picture is 16x9 enhanced and looks fantastic in the main: sharp definition, clean imagery, bold colours, solid blacks and contrast.

Audio is tendered in options of 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Both proffer sterling playback - clean, evenly balanced, bombastic in all the right places - though the latter does clearly, predictably have the edge. Various languages are spoken (though English is the predominant one) and easily readable subtitles are provided where necessary.

A static main menu page leads us into an equally static scene selection page. If you need to ask how many chapters there are, well ... shame on you. But just in case, there are 26...

Bonus features are restricted to the original 100-second theatrical trailer for the main feature. "Some People Never Learn" the tagline reads during a high-speed montage of gory, amusing clips.

We also get previews for five more titles currently available from Monster Pictures: THROWBACK, THANATAMORPHOSE, GUN WOMAN, CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY VANILLA and THE SEARCH FOR WENG WENG. The disc is also defaulted to open with the latter three trailers.

Still a theme that sounds better on paper than it is in practice (26 consecutive films of 5 minutes in length is always going to get tiresome), THE ABCS OF DEATH 2 does at least have a lot more highpoints than the first film did. I enjoyed it.

By Stuart Willis


 
Released by Monster Pictures/Fusion
Region 2
Rated 18
Extras :
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