The ABCs of Death

"The ABCs of the Dead" is an interesting mosaic, but there is one major problem. There are not many films that truly stand out. I don't think it's because the short format is inadequate, but rather because the authors wanted to play around and as a result, created imaginative but uninteresting pieces. Brutality is frequent here, yet mundane and exaggerated, and there are very few good punchlines. It is intriguing as a showcase of different styles and approaches, but as a cohesive work, it is incredibly weak. (25/03/2014)

Massive disappointment. Very few truly good segments, mostly average and below par + something absolutely appalling here and there. The idea of bringing together renowned modern horror filmmakers from all over the world, assign them a letter of the alphabet and let them make a short with death as the theme is not bad. But the result is an incredibly unfocused mix of very inconsistent quality. The good ones are Y Is for Youngbuck by Jason Eisener, X Is for XXL by Xavier Gens, D Is for Dogfight by Marcelo Sarmiento, L is for Libido by Timo Tjahjanto, U Is for Unearthed by Ben Wheatley, and Q Is for Quack by Adam Wingard. So, 6 out 26, which is very little. There a few more that have something and are well made (I, O, T, H, R), but that I didn’t like, while the rest swings between boring, uninteresting average and unwatchable cringe (F!!!). And Ti West must have drunk the budget he had, because otherwise his half-minute long M Is for Miscarriage is impossible to explain. (31/01/2013)