The ABCs of Death (2012)

A 26-chapter anthology that showcases death in all its vicious wonder and brutal beauty.

Directors:

Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis,

Writers:

Kaare Andrews (segment), Simon Barrett,

Stars:

Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Iván González, Kyra Zagorsky

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ingrid Bolsø Berdal	...	Frau Scheisse (voice)
Erik Aude	...	Beat Down Dude (segment "D Is for Dogfight")
M@tch	...	Mastectomy (as Match)
Iván González	...	Bobo
Kyra Zagorsky	...	Lainey
Dallas Malloy
Sarah Bonrepaux	...	(Segment X as for XXL)
Fraser Corbett	...	Nezbit
Lee Hardcastle	...	Dad
Peter Pedrero	...	Hooded Man
Darenzia	...	Roxanne
Arisa Nakamura	...	Yoshie (segment "F is for Fart")
Hiroko Yashiki	...	Female Detective (segment "Z is for Zetsumetsu")
Lucy Clements	...	Lulu
Chems Dahmani	...	A Bad Guy

Storyline

The ABC's OF DEATH is an ambitious anthology film featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world's leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children's educational ABC books, the motion picture is comprised of 26 individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death. Provocative, shocking, funny and ultimately confrontational; THE ABC's OF DEATH is the definitive snapshot of the diversity of modern horror. Drafthouse Films, Magnet Pictures and Timpson Films are proud to present this alphabetical arsenal of destruction orchestrated by what Fangoria calls "a stunning roll call of some of the most exciting names in horror across the world."

---

Plot Keywords:

death | anthology | alphabet | destruction | man versus dog | 

---

Taglines:

26 Directors, 26 Ways to Die

---

Genres:

Horror

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA New Zealand

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 April 2013 (UK)

Also Known As:

Abeceda Smrti

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$10,110 (USA) (8 March 2013)

Gross:

$21,660 (USA) (29 March 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Magnet Releasing, Drafthouse Films, Timpson Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The characters name 'Frau Scheisse' means literally translated 'Mrs. Shit" in German.

---

Quotes

Dad: Call the plumber now. It's an emergency!

---

Connections

References Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

User Reviews

A Huge Wasted Effort

Concept of the anthology: 26 letters in the alphabet, 26 shorts, and all must have at least one death and open and close with the color red. To say the anthology is a mixed bag is obvious. You have some good films here mixed with a lot of bad ones mixed with a whole lot of forgettable ones. "The ABCs of Death" just proves how incredibly hard it is to make a good short film, and I'm sad to say the bad far outweighs the good.

The first decent short does not come all the way until the letter L, which is almost halfway through the alphabet. It's not until you get to the second half of the letters where you finally begin to see some good shorts, my favorite being Q, directed by Adam Wingard. Other notable filmmakers involved include Ti West (M) and Nacho Vigalondo (A). Unfortunately, West's segment feels incredibly lazy and shot in five minutes while Vigalondo's segment rehashes the same apocalypse premise we've seen many times before. T is a notable segment because it was for a competition, and it's one of the best ones here. X is the most violent (and is also very good), which isn't surprising coming from French filmmaker Xavier Gens ("Frontier(s)").

Shorts F, J, and Z are all Japanese, which you think might be a good thing, but they are huge stinkers in the bunch, especially "F is for Fart." It's pretty much self-explanatory. Another one that I hated is W, appropriately titled "WTF!" O is the most visually breathtaking with uses of slow-mo and sound effects, but it's pretty much style over substance. But hey, compared to most of the shorts you see, it's a welcome change. G seems to be the most pointless one where all you see is a guy surfing. Seriously, I'm not joking. That's all there is.

I guess I was a bit mad watching this because, as an aspiring filmmaker, if someone were to give me $5000 to make a short, I would work very hard in creating something good. Seeing all the wasted effort from most of the filmmakers here just angered me. Overall, "The ABCs of Death," while a neat idea, is mostly just a collection of forgettable to incredibly bad shorts sprinkled with very few good ones.

The Good: L, N, P, Q, T, U, X // The Bad: E, F, G, H, J, M, W, Z // The Best: Q // The Worst: W // The Forgettable: All others not listed.