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Oct 29, 2014 By Stephen Danay Web Exclusive

Anthology films can be strange animals. Their success depends on many of the same elements as normal films—proper pacing, precise tone, coherent themes—all of which must be agreed upon by multiple creative teams. In the case of ABCs of Death 2, which features 26 morbid short films—one for each letter of the alphabet—such precision and unity is thrown to the wind in favor of a whiplash-inducing two hours that assault the viewer with more tones, styles and languages than they may be able to handle.

Coming quickly on the heels of its 2013 predecessor, ABCs of Death 2 maintains the same formula, but steps up its game in several ways. The roll-call of directors features more names familiar to modern horror aficionados, including Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice), E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and French extremism duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Inside). Less obvious contributors are on hand as well, including prolific animator Bill Plympton and Mighty Boosh member Julian Barratt. The film certainly succeeds in terms of diversity, with shorts from England, Canada, Israel, Japan, France, Nigeria, Germany and the Philippines, to name just a few. Gender diversity is significantly less present, with only two shorts directed by women; the incredibly creepy “K is for Knell” by Lithuania director Kristina Buozyte and the pointedly political—and deeply weird—“T is for Torture Porn” by twin sister team Jen and Sylvia Soska. The variety extends to style as well. Two of the films are animated, three are in black and white and six are effectively silent.

Despite the overall quality improvement over the first film, ABCs of Death 2 remains an inevitably mixed bag. Several of the films are little more than gruesome jokes, some with better punchlines than others (“M is for Masticate” was my favorite of these by a wide margin). Those that swing to the opposite pole and attempt to make serious social or political points don’t fare as well (I’m looking at you, “C is for Capital Punishment” and “J is for Jesus”). The best are the films that go for scary and succeed. The disgusting claymation short “D is for Deloused” and the terrifying “K is for Knell” will stick with me for a while. And I won’t even spoil the titles of the fantastic one-two-three punch of X, Y and Z, which send the film out on a glorious high note.

ABCs of Death 2 is currently on VOD and its best reason for existing seems to be as a Halloween party game. Guessing the titles—some of which are pretty clever curveballs—as the films unspool is great fun and if you don’t enjoy a given film, you’ll get something completely different with the next one.

www.magnetreleasing.com/theabcsofdeath2

Author rating: 6.5/10