At long last, The ABC's of Death 2 finally had a screening in The Big Smoke as part of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
Another round of twenty-six directors
showcase their alphabetical interpretations of murder, mutilation and
mayhem.
Anyway you slice it, this second
helping of ABC's is far superior to its predecessor. It really is
quite remarkable how much better realized this one is, as even the
title sequence had improved. Even I, who enjoyed the first more than most, could see the massive jump in quality here. I wager it was a
combination of this current batch of filmmakers being aware of what
didn't work in the previous iteration as well as the producers laying
down some guidelines to steer the project away from pedestrian potty
humour. Whatever it was, they succeeded.
I won't go through every letter, but it
should come as no surprise that I thought Steve Kostanski's (“W”)
& Chris Nash's (“Z”) were among the best. They are the most
talented filmmakers that I have the pleasure of knowing and I hope
that their entries open many doors for them. They earned it.
![]() |
Delphine Roussel in Chris Nash's segment “Z”. |
It should also not shock anyone that I
adored Robert Morgan's letter “D”, as he serves up another
spectacular stop-motion nightmare. I still think my biggest
disappointment about this project was missing the chance to possibly
meet him when ABC's didn't play Midnight Madness. Oh well, maybe
someday...
![]() |
Robert Morgan's letter “D” |
Apart from those, other standouts were
E.L. Katz's letter “A” and Aharon Keshales & Navot
Papushado's letter “F”. The latter may have been a bit heavy
handed, but I really appreciate dialogue-driven entries that go
somewhere. I responded to that in much the way I did to Marven Kren's
“R” segment and my probable favourite, the letter “S” from
Juan MartÃnez Moreno. Even going beyond the well-executed De Palma
split-screen of the piece, I fuckin' loved that ending! That's the
kind of stuff that makes me go, “damn that's cold!” I was also
impressed because nothing I'd seen previously from Moreno gave me any
indication he could go balls-out like that.
I found it funny just how loaded this
project was in the back end though, as in addition to “S”, “W”
& “Z”, the letters “U”, “X” and “Y” were strong,
as well.
![]() |
Steve Kostanski's letter “W” |
Overall, I felt there were very few
duds. Even Todd Rohal's letter “P” – which seems to be getting
universally slammed online – was at least amusing in its absurdity.
I have to say I was expecting a little more from Bill Plympton
though, if only because his “H” segment seemed like a rehash of a
sequence from his 1992 effort, The Tune.
So, there you have it. Having learned from its weaknesses, ABC's of Death 2 has eclipsed its predecessor and hopefully given much needed visibility to the next wave of genre filmmakers.
No comments:
Post a Comment