The ABCs of Death 2

So a long while ago I did a little review of portmanteau project The ABCs of Death.  Well, there's a sequel I've finally caught up on now, so why not have a look at that too.  The basic idea is the same; a group of twenty five directors are each given a small budget, a random letter from the alphabet and the mission statement of making a five minute max short based around something that starts from that letter (the twenty sixth one was an open contest; best entry got in the film).  This time they're all set out with nice little ghoulish animations with an undead teacher, very Edmund Gorey.  Let's go through them one by one, with their directors...

• A is for Amateur (E.L Katz) - Very clever take on an potential assassin's expectations of his job, against how it actually turns out, with an extra little twist at the end.  Bonus points for his target being played by Andy Nyman.  Hit!
• B is for Badger (Julian Barratt) - A note perfect parody of BBC nature shows, with a good touch of the Boosh about it.  Would definitely like to see Barratt get more directing gigs.  Hit!
• C is for Capital Punishment (Julian Gilbey) - Very grim one, with a little too much attention paid onto the act itself, which blows its punchline way too early.  Miss.
• D is for Deloused (Robert Morgan) - A wonderfully creepy, almost Lynchian stop motion piece, with a grim, rough aesthetic, grotesque body horror, but a sort of subtle humour that makes it work.  Hit!
• E is for Equilibrium (Alejandro Brugues) - Very slight and more comedic one that which is kind of predictable, and not exactly progressive gender politics.  Miss.
• F is for Falling (Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado) - The politics are blunt to say the least, but it's a well done line morality tale, directly dealing with the issues of Israel at the moment.  Hit!
• G is for Grandad (Jim Hosking) - Very darkly comic work, but one of the lesser taste entries this one.  The final shot is definitely memorable, but not in that good a way... Miss.
• H is for Headgames (Bill Plympton) - Animated piece that's quite well made, stylised, but kind of shallow, not that much to it.  More Meh than Miss.
• I is for Inheritance (Erik Matti) - All out gore fest with a good sense of humour, and a very nice little punchline.  Without the bloodshed, it's actually a lot like a lot of real life family arguments. Hit!
• J is for Jesus (Dennison Ramalho) - One of the most grim and shocking ones of the whole film, but with kind of a powerful message, as a horrific attempt to "cure" a gay couple ends up being turned against the suppressors.  Hit, but one of the hardest watches of the whole thing.
• K is for Knell (Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper) - Some interesting imagery in there, but it really feels like this one just sort of stops before it gets to the real point. Miss.
• L is for Legacy (Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen) - A Nigerian one; doesn't exactly sell one on the film industry there, as the story's incomprehensible, and the monster at the end is laughable. Miss.
• M is for Masticate (Robert Boocheck) - The contest winner; very well filmed slo-mo rampage, pretty stylish, and a simple but effective little punchline. Hit!
• N is for Nexus (Larry Fessenden) - A building tragedy on Halloween night, that works in building the tension to the moment.  Bonus points for how it works in the letter theme.  Hit!
• O is for Ochlocracy (Mob rule) (Hajime Ohata) - A simple reversal of the zombie concept, which works so well it makes one wonder why hasn't anyone done it before.  A thick and fast horror/comedy/drama mix.  Hit!
• P is for P-P-P-Scary! (Todd Rohal) - OK, that's cheating on the letter theme and you know it!  If you can get past the over-the-top mugging to the camera acting, and the abstract style, it kind of works.  Hit, I guess.
• Q is for Questionnaire (Rodney Ascher) - Starts looking like a sort of pisstake of Scientology, but goes somewhere very different, a lot of fun.  Hit!
• R is for Roulette (Marvin Kren) - Tense and stylish black & white piece, with a very neat finale that gives new meaning to the rest of the film. Hit!
• S is for Split (Juan Martinez Moreno) - Brian De Palma would be proud of this split screen home invasion thriller.  Has a slick twist ending I did not see coming! Hit!
• T is for Torture Porn (The Soska Sisters) - Not as slickly made as the others, but it works in calling out the casual sexism/leering in that subgenre, and has a truly gonzo ending.  Hit!
• U is for Utopia (Vincenzo Natali) - Manages to tell a great little dystopian future tale more effectively in less than five minutes than more than one YA franchise out there.  Hit!
• V is for Vacation (Jerome Sable) - Really grim and nasty one that feels more like a discard from the first V/H/S; just feels kind of dirty to watch.  Miss.
• W is for Wish (Steven Kostanski) - An 80s style toy advert (of the sort I have a lot of nostalgia for) goes very very wrong indeed.  One of the most fun and out there of the whole bunch, has a slightly open ending that works really well!  Hit!
• X is for Xylophone (Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustilo) - As simple as these get, but works through telling the story entirely visually, with a marvellous grotesque final image.  Hit!
• Y is for Youth (Soichi Umezawa) - Not only a riot of practical effects, but this take on a young girls' inner imagination feels very real, it's one of the most human feeling stories in the collection.  Hit!
• Z is for Zygote (Chris Nash) - Shocking in concept, and jaw droppingly realised, this certainly finishes the whole thing with a bang; gets under your skin more ways than one.  Hit!

Wow, so as you can probably tell there was a much better hit to miss ratio this time round for me, and some of those hits are absolute home runs.  In fact, very few of them are worth pressing the "next chapter" button over, it's very impressive.  What's more impressive is the sheer range of stuff in there, from all over the world, the net's been cast very wide (although quite a few British ones I noticed).  Now I wonder if it's just my biases, but I found that many of the ones I liked the absolute best were from creators I had previously enjoyed (I must single out W is for Wish here, since only one of the minds behind Manborg could have come up with something like that!).  Interestingly, I notice far more went for a more comedic route this time, going more for laughs than scares.  There are some more grim and shocking ones sure, but many are approaching these more like sketches than fright shows, and it works, with enough having an edge to keep the tone right.

The ABCs of Death 2 is definitely worth picking up, way more fun than the first one, and I believe in projects and concepts like this.  I also recommend looking up the other projects from the directors you enjoyed, this can be a great way of broadening your horizons.  For the number and range of hits in here, the disc's an absolute steal!