The ABCs of Death (2013)

The ABCs of Death is horror as a global mixtape: 26 directors, 26 letters, and a dare to see how wildly imagination can sprint when the only rule is “make it about death.” The pleasure is in the sheer variety—pitch-black comedy rubbing shoulders with nightmare surrealism, splatter-gore craftsmanship, and sudden jolts of invention—so even if one segment doesn’t land for you, another is already kicking the door in with a completely different flavor. It has the scrappy, anything-goes energy of a midnight movie, curated like a twisted children’s alphabet book that keeps turning pages faster than you can catch your breath. Fair warning: it’s aggressively not for the squeamish, and some entries push into deliberately provocative territory, but if you want horror that’s fearless, international, and constantly surprising, this is a gleefully grim sampler platter worth tasting.

The ABCs of Death is clearly trying to be a global horror mixtape: 26 directors, 26 letters, and total creative freedom to turn “death” into something shocking, funny, or just plain weird. The problem is that freedom creates brutal unevenness—some shorts are clever or stylish, but plenty feel like half-formed ideas that end right when they might’ve become interesting, and the film leans hard on gross-out provocation when it runs out of substance. It’s also relentlessly explicit, with sexual violence, extreme gore, and mean-spirited humor that can feel more “dare” than “story,” so if you’re sensitive to that or want coherent scares, this will likely feel like exhausting overkill. If you treat it like a hit-or-miss sampler where you’ll love a few segments and endure the rest, you might have fun; if you want consistency or restraint, skip it.