ABCs of Death, The

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. (01.02.2013)

"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)