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The ABCs of Death
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Magnolia Pictures Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (19th August 2013). |
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The Film
 Innovation in horror is a great thing. Now, I’m not saying that what the brains behind “The ABCs of Death” (2012) have done is entirely novel since horror directors have been brought together several times before to helm segments within a feature, but the idea of using the letters of the alphabet? Pretty damn genius. It sets a firm template for the film’s narrative (in some sense) while also allowing the chosen directors to play in the sandbox however they see fit. The results of that laissez-faire approach, however, have yielded extremely mixed results. And, really, how could it not? You’ve got 26 (!) different directors, many of whom are playing for a foreign team, and they’ve been given free reign over their short film aside from two strict guidelines: they have to pick a word that begins with their selected letter of the alphabet, and someone has got to die. That’s really all there is to it, and the on-screen results will certainly show that these filmmakers truly came up with whatever they wanted. They employ a variety of shooting cameras, mediums, artistic styles, and writing all in the name of death. Out of a hefty roster of talent, only a fraction managed to craft a short film worthy of your time, though. I’d have to say maybe four or five segments elevate the picture; the rest are utterly forgettable. Rather than recapping the entire alphabet, this review will highlight the few bright spots amongst this gloomy canvas. “D is for Dogfight” is interesting for its subversion of a typical backroom street fight. As the title suggests, man and dog collide in a makeshift ring surrounded by sketchy thug types. But like many of these shorts, there’s a clever enough twist at the end to make the segment interesting after the excitement of the premise’s opening wears off. “F is for Fart” was, for me, the highlight of this film. Maybe that says something about how scatological humor only seems to exponentially increase in enjoyment as you age. Regardless, this short manages to cram in so much of the Bizarre Japan that the country has become known for that it almost begs for a feature-length film to be made. Alright, maybe not quite that far but if your idea of entertainment isn’t Japanese school girls inhaling deadly flatulence and getting sucked into each other’s butts, well then what does amuse you? Director Noboru Iguchi, who also helmed the extremely fun “Dead Sushi” (2012), is absolutely a director to keep an eye on if only to see how absurd and insane his next project turns out. He’s got a filmography that boasts both theatrical films and adult videos, and his work certainly does a great deal to meld the two. “K is for Klutz” is a traditionally animated short about one woman’s adorable little turd that refuses to be flushed down the bowl. The animation style is reminiscent of something from the 80's, but only in regards to character design and color use. Going with animation took things outside the box; it was a good call. “Q is for Quack” gets meta with director Adam Wingard and producer Simon Barrett trying in vain the come up with something for their chosen letter in the film. They decide the most shocking thing to do would be a live death on screen. Not a person, though; an animal, since “nobody gives a shit about animals!” Needing a “q” animal, they select a duck for its ability to quack. As expected, the simple task of shooting a caged, helpless duck in the desert goes awry with amusingly tragic results. “T is for Toilet” was directed by Lee Hardcastle. Never heard of him? Not a shock. Lee won entry into the film thanks to a contest, and he happened to deliver one of the bright, shining moments of the film. Going even further outside the box, Hardcastle did his entry using stop-motion animation and clay puppets. The plot concerns a young boy who has a blood-drenched nightmare about using the toilet for the first time. When he wakes up, he finds out if there’s really anything to fear from the porcelain altar. This is crudely done, but so very effective thanks to the cascade of blood, vibrant colors, and his inventive designs and effective methods for how a toilet would kill an entire family. “X is for XXL” wasn’t one of the best segments, but fans of director Xavier Gens’ over-reliance on gore might like this disturbing entry about a woman who goes to great lengths for the perfect body. “Y is for Youngbuck” is an odd entry from director Jason Eisener. It blends elements of revenge and pedophilia into something that Todd Solondz might have done if he were more bloodthirsty in his filmmaking. Come to think of it, based on his currently-short filmography, Eisener seems to enjoy using revenge as a template. No qualms here; it’s one of the best motivations in film. This short retains his style and the perverse sense of humor that has pervaded his earlier efforts. Outside of these recommended selections, the rest of the film ranges from decent to terrible. Some of these directors clearly made the most with their limited time and budget, turning in a piece that shone in the final film. Others, however, seemed to have no ability to condense their ideas for a limited runtime and deliver a clear, concise selection. The best segments threw all caution to the wind, just letting their crazy ideas fly wild. The worst got off to a bad start and never recovered. “The ABCs of Death” promises at the end that there will be a sequel and, to that, I say this entry should be mandatory viewing for any director getting involved so that the deficiencies of this are not repeated.
Video
The only constant here is the film sporting a 1.78:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded image. Outside of that, we’ve got 26 films done by 26 directors using (almost) 26 different methods of capturing their ideas. As expected, every single one of these segments ranges in quality. The films were shot using digital cameras, stop-motion animation, traditional animation, a GoPro helmet cam, and probably more than a few different film stocks and speeds. As such, it would be nearly impossible to assign an overall rating to something that is constantly changing. Still, it would also be right to assume that each film has been faithfully reproduced here for the high definition that the medium of Blu-ray provides. As a general observation, most films exhibited a good amount of detail in addition to strong color reproduction. But, again, everything varies from film to film.
Audio
As with the video, such is also the case for the film’s English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound track (48kHz/24-bit). There aren’t any real problems to address here; all of the segments have a robust track that makes full use of their original fidelity. Some films make better use of the sound field than others. Overall everything sounds as it should. Bass levels are warm and powerful; dialogue is even across all 26 segments. Subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
As you might expect for a film with 26 different directors, there’s a wealth of bonus material here since nearly everyone tried to put together something for this Blu-ray. There are commentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes, interviews, theatrical trailers, photo galleries, and more. The filmmaker audio commentary features participants for all 26 of the film’s segments, Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis, Hélène Cattet, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Jason Eisener, Bruno Forzani, Adrián García Bogliano, Xavier Gens, Lee Hardcastle, Noboru Iguchi, Thomas Cappelen Malling, Jorge Michel Grau, Anders Morgenthaler, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Simon Rumley, Marcel Sarmiento, Jon Schnepp, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Adam Wingard & Yudai Yamaguchi. Some shorts having more than one active participant involved. As such, these commentaries all vary in their usefulness. Most are simply the directors trying to explain what they were going for and how it was achieved under the gun, so to speak. They’re informative, but sitting through this again can be a chore if you didn’t like it. Up next, a host of featurettes for many of the short films: “A is for Apocalypse: Oil Burns Visual Effects” (1080/60p) is a featurette that runs for 1 minute and 10 seconds, providing a behind the scenes look at how they fried a guy’s face. “B is for Bigfoot: Making Of” (1080p) is a featurette that runs for 2 minutes and 56 seconds. “C is for Cycle" deleted scenes (1080p) runs for 3 minutes and 24 seconds. “D is for Dogfight: Making Of” (1080p) is a featurette that runs for 6 minutes and 57 seconds. “F is for Fart: Behind the Scenes” (1080/60p) is a featurette that runs for 9 minutes and 43 seconds. “H is for Hydro-Electric Diffusion” contains a few different pieces: - “Behind the Scenes” (1080p) featurette runs for 6 minutes and 40 seconds. - “The Making of Bertie the Bulldog & Frau Scheisse” (1080p) featurette runs for 4 minutes and 47 seconds. - “Finished Short vs. Behind the Scenes” (1080p) featurette runs for 6 minutes and 44 seconds. “I is for Ingrown: Making Of” (1080p) is a featurette that runs for 6 minutes and 43 seconds. “J is for Jidai-Geki: Behind the Scenes” (1080/60p) is a featurette that runs for 6 minutes and 30 seconds. “P is for Pressure” contains two interviews (1080p): - “Writer/Director Simon Rumley” runs for 9 minutes and 3 seconds. - “Producer/Director of Photography Milton Kam” runs for 9 minutes and 45 seconds. “R is for Removed" behind the scenes photo gallery (1080p) contains 71 images. “T is for Toilet: Behind the Scenes” (1080p) featurette runs for 3 minutes and 4 seconds. “V is for Vagitus” contains the following: - Deleted scene with optional commentary (1080p) runs for 37 seconds. - “Behind the Scenes” (1080p) featurette runs for 13 minutes and 32 seconds. - “Animatics” (1080p) featurette runs for 5 minutes and 1 second. “W is for WTF!” contains the following (1080p): - “Behind the Scenes” featurette runs for 7 minutes and 44 seconds. - “Bonus Flubs!” (1080p) bloopers runs for 3 minutes and 1 second. - “Star-Beast" (1080p) outtakes runs for 2 minutes and 19 seconds. “Z is for Zetsumetsu: Behind the Scenes” (1080/60p) featurette runs for 11 minutes and 7 seconds. “AXS TV: A Look at The ABCs of Death” (1080/60p) is a featurette that runs for 4 minutes and 16 seconds. As you might surmise from the runtime, this is a brief overview of the film, its concept, and some of the minds behind it. A few theatrical trailers for the film are included (1080p): - “Faux educational film" theatrical trailer runs for 1 minute and 43 seconds. - “Red band” theatrical trailer runs for 1 minute and 27 seconds. - “Green band” theatrical trailer runs for 1 minute and 24 seconds. There is a BD-Live link that (shockingly) will take you to some actual content relevant to the film. Here, viewers can watch some of the contest submission winners who made short films of their own based upon a pre-selected letter. The disc also includes bonus trailers for the following releases (1080p): - "John Dies at the End” runs for 2 minutes and 23 seconds. - “Kiss of the Damned” runs for 2 minutes and 27 seconds. - “The Sorcerer & the White Snake” runs for 1 minute and 39 seconds. - “AXS TV promo” runs for 33 seconds. Finally, the disc is also enabled with a bookmarks feature.
Packaging
The single disc comes housed in a Blu-ray keep case.
Overall
The conceit behind the film is ingenious, but the end results are a mixed bag… and that’s being generous. A few good segments can’t help a two hour film with so much dead weight; however, I will say that the brevity of each film made the task of watching it go by rather painlessly. Even a slow, meandering, pointless short lasts around five minutes. The anticipation of seeing what’s coming up next helps considerably, too. Worth a watch, but probably not a purchase.
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