THE ABCs of DEATH

There has been a distinct resurgence in Horror Anthologies lately. The highly entertaining Udo Kier hosted THEATRE BIZARRE definitely struck a chord with me while the success of Adam Wingard’s V.H.S. venture was almost immediately followed by a sequel. But one of the most innovative ideas in recent years has to be the brainchild of Ant Timpson who along with fellow producer Tim League put together a movie called THE ABCs OF DEATH. The concept is very simple. 26 directors from the contemporary world of Horror have been given a letter of the alphabet. The eclectic group, emanating from 15 different countries between them, must then conjure a "short tale of death" based on a word of their choice beginning with their given letter. Although having to play by these rules, they were granted "complete artistic freedom" when creating their miniscule movies.

What we actually get during the 2 hour run time is a varied assortment of macabre, humorous and downright twisted imaginings! I will resist mundanely listing the titles and directors as this will spoil a lot of the fun for those who have yet to view the pioneering project. But to convey essence of the movie here are a few personal highlights.

If I had to pick a winner from the 26 films I would vouch for Xavier Gens’ XXL. Considering his previous work included FRONTIERS, it was no surprise to see he was responsible for one of the more graphically extreme films. Laced with a little feminist social commentary his sharp and provocative short film made for an exceedingly gruesome alternative to Weight Watchers!

Then there was that rather controversial Serbian, Srdjan Spasojevic, who lived up to his notorious reputation by cranking up the gore and weirdness with his nasty and surreal REMOVED contribution.

A couple of animated shorts underlined the diversity of the project. KLUTZ by Dane Anders Morgenthaler was traditional cartoon fare revolving around a stubborn piece of poop, whereas Yorkshire’s Lee Hardcastle (who won his way onto the list of directors by winning a competition with his claymation short) was a stroke of pure clay driven genius with his hilarious TOILET skit.

Other rather amusing fare was NUPTIALS by Thailand’s Banjong Pisathanakun which concerned itself with a parrot whose loose tongue spilled the beans on mans infidelity to his fiancé!

But it’s not laughs all the way. The rather sobering concept of an abused child embarking on a brutally justifiable revenge comes in the forms of Jason Eisener’s (HOBO WITH A SHOT GUN) YOUNGBUCK.

Some Japanese craziness gets in on the act with the completely surreal FART by ROBO GIESHA creator Noburu Iguchi while TOKYO GORE POLICE director Yohihiro Nishimura closes proceedings with his frenzied fascist flavoured ZETSUMETSU.

Of course the paradox with the movie, due to the variety of styles, means it is doubtful everyone will enjoy everything. I expected a lot better from our very own Ben Wheatley for example who opted for a POV style escapade with UNEARTHED. The opening movie APOCALYPSE managed to cram a ludicrous amount of CGI into the gore scenes whereas CYCLE by Chile’s Ernesto Diaz Espinoza just seemed to chase its tail during an irritatingly repetitive 5 minutes.

The bottom line I guess is the fact that you can’t have such a wide range of differing material and expect to like everything along the way.

Monster Pictures have truly put together a quite stunning package for the film’s DVD and Blu-ray releases. I was granted a sneak preview of the double disc DVD and apart from the movie itself, here is what you get for your hard earned cash.

The opening menu screen allows you to jump forward to individual movies as it is divided up into 27 chapters consisting of the 26 films and the end credits. These can be easily navigated as they are grouped in fours like A to D, E to H etc.

Redband and Greenband trailers are offered along with a 1 and a half minute promotional cartoon segment called DO YOU KNOW YOUR ABC’s.

The aspect ratio for the movie is 1.78:1 throughout and English subtitles are automatically turned on for the numerous foreign entries. In the SETUP menu you can choose to turn these off but considering the material spans the globe, unless you are incredibly multilingual, I would advise against this!

The SETUP menu also offers the opportunity of a hearty English 5.1 Dolby Digital track or a feature length Filmmaker commentary track which again is a novel concept in audio commentaries. We get to hear from no less than 30 people which of course include ALL the directors along with the producers and Aaron Becker who was responsible for the blood laden title sequence.

Disc two is equally as intriguing. We get an assortment of Making Of…, Visual effects, Deleted and Behind the Scenes, interviews and Outtakes depending on which movie you focus on. It totals over 3 hours of bonus material.

I appreciate some folk prefer their Horror Anthologies to be more conventional with a polished ‘wrap around’ ending segment to conclude proceedings. But I loved the chaotic randomness of ABCs. With traditional narratives often sacrificed for near abstract slithers of morbidity I applaud Timpson and League for their original and ambitious project and of course the directors for some fascinating shorts.

The Monster Pictures disc is heaving with extras so offers excellent value for money. It will be interesting to see whether or not the promised sequel (due out in 2014) with 26 different directors will live up to, or indeed exceed, the original.

Review by Marc Lissenburg