ABCS OF DEATH 2 (various directors). 122 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (October 31). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
It will probably come as no surprise that ABCs Of Death 2 follows the same formula as its predecessor. How could it not?
Once again, producers Tim League, Ant Timson, Todd Brown and Marc Walkow have commissioned 26 horror shorts from 26 filmmaking teams, each taking its subject from a letter of the alphabet. And as with the original, the result is a very mixed bag, since some directors are far more capable of telling a story (or delivering a scare) than others.
Standouts include Rodney (Room 237) Ascher’s questionnaire creeper, Evan (Cheap Thrills) Katz’s slick comedy about an assassination gone terribly wrong, Julian (The Mighty Boosh) Barratt’s found-footage goof, Vanishing Waves collaborators Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper’s unsettling alien-invasion tale and Inside and Livid directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s intensely creepy babysitting sketch.
And this chapter’s Canadian content is particularly strong, with contributions from Chris Nash, Vincenzo Natali, Jen and Sylvia Soska and Astron-6’s Steven Kostanski.
But if you’ve been keeping count, that’s just nine shorts, leaving 17 that either deliver a feeble payoff or nothing at all. It might be enough to get you through, but you’ll be very aware of the running time after three duds in a row.
