Twenty-seven independent horror film directors have created a symphony of terror with 26 short films each representing a letter of the alphabet and the director’s most gruesome visions of death. Each director was given $5,000 dollars and less than five minutes to express themselves. The variety of brutality is astounding with good taste often going right out the window.
With 15 countries represented here you truly get the sense that depravity is a true human condition without references to borders, language or cultural barriers. The film is an encyclopaedia of carnage with all manner of torture, sexual perversions, executions, crimes of passion and dystopian near-futures. Also, the depraved seem globally drawn to the bathroom and specifically the toilet where the action is centred in more than one of the films. You can take that to mean whatever you want.
Besides the mind boggling array of repulsion the films themselves vary greatly not only in content, but in quality. Some of the films look like they were filmed on old VHS camcorders over a weekend with a few buddies where others seemed to have been made over months with elaborate costumes and special effects. Some of the films are meta where you actually see the filmmakers trying to decide what to do for their letter, others went for comedy and I believe others just sat down and tried to think up the most offensive thing possible to commit to film. Every filmmaking style is used, including: animation and claymation and somehow the less realistic the film the more it can turn your stomach.
This film probably isn’t for everyone, yet it is a must see for any horror fan as it sums up what is going on all over the world in this genre.
The ABCs of Death
Directed by: 27 different people
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/abcsofdeath
