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Directors: Various
Screenplays: Various
Cast: Various
Synopsis: As with The ABCs
of Death (2012), twenty six directors from around the world are assigned a
letter of the alphabet, asked to conceive a short based on a death surrounding
this letter, with complete artistic freedom as a result.
[Note: Due to the length of this review, it has been split into two
posts for ease for reading. The link to the second part will be at the bottom
of this one.]
After the original ABCs of Death, trumpeted as a major
event but also having a lot of divided opinion on the anthology in terms of
quality, a sequel came not so long after. Issues from the original were ironed
out by the producers. One of the most amusing was that, after the number of
shorts that dealt with the subject previously, toilets and bodily functions
were made verboten despite creative freedom still being encouraged in any other
subject. The other was that, whilst Sion
Sono was promoted as working on this sequel but never appears within it,
and there are still a few recognisable names within what we got, most of the
known and very popular cult and genre directors had been included in the first.
This time there's a sense of a very different tone to the sequel because of the
obscurer names involved and the general sense of going its own direction from
the first film.
A is for Anti-climax
Many have viewed the sequel as
actually a better film, but for me it's entirely subjective. The first is a
wild, if utterly messy, rollercoaster of the ridiculous to the sublime. I
completely understand people who hate most of it, but having watched the first
multiple times by now, even the "bad" segments have gained charm. The
sequel, in one flaw to its name, doesn't have three opening segments as strong
as A, B and C last time, when
three Latin American directors helmed them in a cluster and all of them had
energy to them. Yes, Cheap Thrills
(2013) director E. L. Katz uses A
to show the illusion of air ventilators being remotely usable for an
assassination attempt, but it's not as bombastic a start. Likewise C from Julian Gilbey is a pretty generic mob rule story with predictable
results. Out of them three, B is the
most rewarding if only because of its by The
Mighty Boosh alumni Julian Barratt,
emphasising how British he is by directing a tale of a nature programme host
who is an arsehole (played by himself ) and an irradiated badger.
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E is for English
There's a noticeable tonal
difference between the anthologies, many more of the segments serious with
fewer comedic ones like Barrett's.
Noticeably as well the intentional nature of the directors helming the films is
also more pronounced this time, so much so that for me most of the English
language entries are actually sidelined by the international ones, usually of
higher quality or greater interest. You have solid entries, don't get me wrong.
Larry Fessenden's N is a tragic tale of an ordinary
accident, slowly built to, on Halloween day. V by Jerome Sable is
inventive use of webcam, emphasis on modern tech being implemented to tale new stories,
where a boyfriend's adventure in a foreign land proves horrifying to witness
for his off-screen girlfriend. Vincenzo
Natali's U is a potential film
within itself on a world where that which is not "beautiful" is
gruesomely dealt with. Director of Room
237 (2012), Rodney Ascher,
manages to find a way to do Q well
in spite of the fact that I think Adam
Wingard and Simon Barrett's take
on one of the most awkward letters in the alphabet is superior completely.
It would be insane not to
champion these sorts, especially not one of the best segments, Juan Martinez
Morenoby Juan Martinez Moreno, which
uses split screen to create a disturbing tale full of twists. Juan Martinez
Moreno, by Astron-6, is one of the
few humorous entries which is yet one of the most perverse, imaging a fantasy
land (effectively He-Man and the Masters
of the Universe) as the hell it'd probably be, two young boys regretting
being transported to their toy set's world if anything just for Fantasy Man,
whose inherently creepy name is enough to suggest how black the humour is.
It also means, sadly, you have Jen and Sylvia Soska's T, ironically a piece of
interconnection as with fellow Canadians Astron-5
they appear in each others segments. It's not a nice feeling when you want
to celebrate two young female filmmakers who are as idiosyncratic as they, two
twins who love horror and genre filmmaking, but found Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009) bad and couldn't understand the
critical praise for American Mary (2012).
Their tale of a woman (Tristan Risk)
taking revenge on evil, misogynistic porn filmmakers is as heavy handed and
slight as the premise sounds. Whilst the highs of the prequel anthology were
great, I will admit that there's a higher percentage of solid entries within The ABCs of Death 2, which makes the
fact that the Soska Sisters' segment one of the few bad ones
really sting.
C is for Competition
Following on from the prequel,
where one of the letters was assigned to a competition winner, this time for M,
Robert Boocheck's tale of slow motion
carnage is a very well made entry, as well made as most of the professional
ones within the same anthology. (And yes, the punch line works perfectly even
on multiple viewings). To the series' credit neither of the competition winners
were bad in either film, and were among the most praised even for those who
found the anthologies bad. Whether ABCs
of Death 2.5 (2016), collecting the other M entries together as its own anthology film, would work is an entirely
different matter, but I admire the interest in trying to bring up new talent in
cult cinema through it.
D is for Diversity
One of the other curiosities,
prominent here, is how there are explicitly filmmakers who have never made
horror films who were chosen, a few I have brought up already. More so, as a
snapshot of its time just from the names chosen, that you see future voices
cross paths with veterans. The future director of The Greasy Strangler (2016) Jim
Hosking makes a peculiar tale of a granddad who hates his grandson for G. It does feel awkward and perplexing
to see, but was more than likely a dry run for what he would be doing later.
For a veteran, despite not being a genre filmmaker in the general sense of the
term, you have the unexpected inclusion of legendary American animator Bill Plympton with H. His work, especially his features, are not easy to find, but as
a small child I vividly remember some of his advertising work alongside an
interactive piece of PC software, both of which involved two older men taking
cartoon physics to an extreme by disintegrating each other's bodies in various
ridiculous ways. He is a director who has unfairly been neglected in the
present day in spite of his work's so completely unique and once very popular, so
his inclusion was a pleasant surprise. That famous duo are effectively
recreated this time only in a literal gender war between a man and a woman, a
maligned figure in Plympton allowed
to wave and be thankfully recognised in one of only two animated features, the
inclusion of which itself alongside live action another of the series' virtues.
For Part 2 of the ABCs of Death 2 review, follow the
link HERE.
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