This (so-called) horror anthology film sees 26 different directors assigned a letter of the alphabet and then told to make a movie about death around that letter. It’s an intriguing concept, but it’s a mixed bag, with some films being mini-masterpieces, others are utterly terrible and the rest falling somewhere in-between.
It’s difficult to classify The ABCs Of Death as horror, as many of the vignettes crossover into other genres. At times we have comedy, science fiction, drama and abstract imagery. Maybe a third of the film is made up of actual horror – and that’s being generous. That’s not to say these other genres are the weaker entries, but it would have been fun of they had all stayed in the realm of horror.
A is for Apocalypse (Nacho Vigalondo), B is for Bigfoot (Adrian Garcia Bogliano), D is for Dogfight (Marcel Sarmiento), H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion (Thomas Malling), Q is for Quack (Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett), R is for Removed (Srdjan Spasojevic), S is for Speed (Jake West), U is for Unearthed (Ben Wheatley), V is for Vagitus (Kaare Andrews), X is for XXL (Xavier Gens) and Y is for Youngbuck (Jason Eisener).
I’m not quite sure if The ABCs Of Death works a as a film, and it may have been better suited to being an online series, but there is enough talent on display here to make you want to check out the directors that you like.
The blu-ray has a wealth of special features, as well as a commentary from the director of each instalment. There’s some really good stuff included here like special effects breakdowns, storyboards and behind the scenes footage. Not every film has a special feature, but there’s enough here for everyone.