ABCs of Death (2012)

What it's about: A 26-chapter anthology that showcases death in all its vicious wonder and brutal beauty.

Review: I'd heard about this film here or there, but never fully looked into it until after my initial viewing. But I guess to keep everyone informed of the intention, a quick explanation plays before the film -- 26 directors were each given one letter of the alphabet, a budget, and five minutes to make a short film that showcased death in some aspect.

It sounds very ambitious. At first, I thought the fun might be in trying to figure out what word the director had chosen -- and some of them are very easy to figure out -- but after awhile some of the films got so bizarre that I just had to sit back and watch it all unfold.

Yeah, this doesn't even scratch the surface of how weird this film gets.

In short, some of the films work, and some of them don't. It's definitely interesting for a first viewing, but would I watch it again? No. The films stretch across a variety of mediums -- live action, animation, clay-mation. Some of them would definitely be more interesting in a full featured film, like v for vagitanus.

Some of the shorts were very clever, like o for orgasm (le petite mort, anyone?) while others were simple but well done, like a for apocalypse. When it came to some of the Asian shorts, things...got a little weird, but I've never particularly enjoyed the gorefest Japanese films like Frankenstein Girl vs. Vampire Girl or Tokyo Gore Police. It's just a difference in taste and culture.

Two...no wait, twenty six for one!

I think vignettes work better when bookended by a larger story, like in VHS, Trick 'R Treat or Creepshow. This is definitely a great way to get more names out there -- sadly for me, the only name I could recognize was Ti West -- and it definitely displays talent in the same vein as a challenge like one of those fifteen minute challenges on a cooking show. It's very difficult to come up with something in such a short amount of time with so very few resources, and I'm in no way complaining about the attempt.

Some of them were just downright creepy.

Like I said, it's very interesting on a first viewing, but beyond that? Eh. It's also not going to really be for the casual viewer; I really think only diehard horror fans are going to enjoy this film, but that's probably who it was made for. Too bad that means it's probably not going to see a whole lot of return.