Movie Review: The ABCs of Death (2012, Magnet Releasing)

...not too long ago, a most intriguing proposal was afforded 26 film directors, from around the world...some relatively fledgling and unknown, some known and very much seasoned: given free and unbridled creative reign...write, produce and film a small vignette about the subject of death, with the only boundaries and limitations being that each directer is assigned a single letter in the English alphabet, and the death-themed film produced, has to relate to a word...it's first letter being that of the assigned alphabet letter (...budget seemingly unknown, though an amount of $5,000 is per chance mentioned, in one of the segments). What resulted in this rather unusual cinematic experiment, is something which, for the most part, is equal parts uneven, thought-provoking, unnerving, provocative, funny, perverse, shocking, irreverent, jaw-dropping, horrific and...well, just totally off-the-wall, in an enjoyably macabre and engaging way. A fleetingly chaptered anthology, spanning a widely diverse and eclectic spectrum of subject matter, in alternately brutal, grotesque, perverse and, well...admittedly beautiful ways, at times...Now, now...gather around, boys and girls, as we learn "The ABCs...of Death"...

 

...quite frankly, from a critiquing standpoint, it is somewhat difficult to render explicit and critical views on the individual segments, themselves; in effect, each one stands relatively on it's own merit, good or bad, and is far too short to warrant any in-depth reflection, as fleeting as each segment proves. Although the directer of each individual piece is identified, as the episode fades to red, and the associate word of the piece is revealed, many devoted fans of the genres represented, may well easily recognize the unique styles of the filmmakers, before they are actually named (...in fact, this viewer, after the first couple of segments, actually made it a sort of trivia head game, in that respect). The more prominent filmmakers representing herein, Yoshihiro Nishimura (...special effects artist, known as the 'Tom Savini' of Japan, having worked on 2008's "Machine Girl", the same year's "Tokyo Gore Police" and 2009's "Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl", amongst others), Jake West (...of 2009's "Doghouse" and 1998's "Razor Blade Smile"), Banjong Pisanthanakun (...of 2004's "Shutter"), Ti West (...of 2009's "House of the Devil" and 2012's "The Innkeepers"), Yudai Yamaguchi (...of 2003's "Battlefield Baseball" and 2000's "Versus"), Noboru Iguchi (...of 2009's "RoboGeisha", 2012's "Dead Sushi", 2011's "Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead" and 2010's "Mutant Girl Squad"), Angela Bettis (...actress, known for 2000's "May", 2002's "Carrie", and 2004's "Toolbox Murders"), Jason Eisner (...of 2011's "Hobo with a Shotgun") and Marcel Sarmiento (...of 2008's "Deadgirl"). For the rest, especially in regards to the lessor known filmmakers represented here, some rather clever and imaginative talent most assuredly lies here, just waiting to burst into the open, and make their mark...as irreverent and macabre as such humble beginnings, are presented here...

...even the efforts and motivations herein, are as varied and eclectic as the vignettes themselves. In most cases, considering the shortness of the pieces, substance takes a relative back seat, in favor of style, which covers the gamut, from live action renditions, to cell & clay-mation animation, to surrealistic slow-motion photogenicism, and all methods in-between; however, the end to such means bears different fruit, from film to film. A good number of the entries keeps a deftly clever, ironic (...and severed) tongue-in-cheek humor amongst the proceedings, whereas many of the other reflect an obvious flair for fetishism. Still others, surprisingly enough, express underlining commentary, as far as human society, and even world views...but from the perspective not merely from these shores, but also from the satiristic point of view...a keenly directed, albeit twistedly distorted magnifying glass, deftly focused ON these shores. And a select few, although interesting to watch, seem merely hodge-podge...even outright lazy throw-together exercises in depravity, over-the-top bloodshed & violence, and explicitly perverse sex-capades. As wildly as these episodes bounce unevenly back and forth, in all these respects, this viewer could not help but compare this outrageous gauntlet of playfully devilish, albeit unrelentingly executed ultra-violence and twisted perversity, to that of equally uneven, though no less sightfully engaging snippets, featured in this viewer's local yearly Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation...the Sick and Twisted Edition, that is...

...without ruining the surprises, as far as the associated words and letter, some of the better of the segments, involve: ...a surreal parable, involving the World War II adversaries of British and Nazi forces, filtered through a live-action Tex Avery cartoon.....a supposed, planned and cleverly executed marriage proposal, and a parrot who has heard, and ends up telling more than it should, in the process.....a Guy Ritchie-esque, slow-motion ballet of sweaty, punch-pounding ultra-violence, itself an underlining parable about animal abuse.....a graphically bloody, albeit satirical look at vanity, infomercial diet fads, and someone who proposes to take a much more drastic and unconventional approach, to achieving the same results.....a 'speedy' and desperate high 'speed' chase through the desert, with an unswervingly relentless, faceless demon, in hot pursuit.....a humorously macabre-flavored, modern-day variation on the classically urban legend 'earwig' story.....a tortuously driven contest, where the captive participants must 'perform', no matter how progressively twisted, perverse and deprived, the presented sexual motivation gets.....a spiritual disbeliever, who would rather die at the hands, or rather, of the fumes of her mentor's noxious flatulation, than from the deadly, apocalyptic, earthquake-releasing gases, presumably sent by God.....a child's fear of the bathroom, in the midst of potty training, swells to monstrously imaginary proportions, which just might not be as imaginary, as initially thought.....the euphoric, moan-instilling throes of oh-so satisfying sexual pleasure, culminate in fatal fetishism, through the surrealistically slow-motion parable of generated, then punctured soap bubbles.....and a wildly off-the-cuff, anything goes, waywardly produced piece of disastrously crazed WTF insanity, stemmed from the actual filmmaker's suggestion that he's having a tough time trying to come up with a concept, utilizing the alphabet letter, which he was assigned (...in fact, this is one of two shorts in this ensemble, which uses this parable...the other being, in giving just a bit of something away...the hapless filmmaker, who was begrudgingly given the frustratingly torturous letter 'Q'...)...

...given little opportunity to take a breath, from one shocking sequence to the next, "The ABCs of Death", an utterly outrageous and unique approach to the classic anthology film format, is nonetheless, quite relishable, depending upon one's assorted underlining likes and dislikes...upon one's familiarity and subsequent embrace with the fetish world...upon one's innermost bizarre sense of humor (...and let's face it; we ALL have one...)...upon what murky depths one is willing to transcend. It's an eclectically varied deck of cards, , with each card, simultaneously ugly and pretty, and wholly individual unto itself...but if singularly left out of the deck, would prevent this 'game' from being adequately played...as gleefully macabre, twisted, perverse and depraved as 'this game' might be...