Did you all hear about the substitute teacher in Ohio that showed The ABCs of Death to her classes? As a teacher, I was curious to check it out to see just how much of a felony it was. After watching it, I can say that’s a pretty big felony. It’s extremely obvious that it should not be shown in schools, but I’m a fan of anthologies in print or film, so I checked out The ABCs of Death, which gives 26 international filmmakers different letters of the alphabet to capture through horror. It was fun to see the cultural variances in horror, and I enjoyed guessing what the word would be for each letter, which was given at the end of each film. I definitely hated some of the films, but because they were short I was able to get over it and go on to the next one. Let’s say you didn’t have time for that, or that you were fundamentally opposed to keeping a scale in your head of suck vs. awesome in your head to determine if you should even finish. If that’s the case, here are the ones to watch:
“B is for Bigfoot” by Adrian Garcia Bogliano—What’s so evil about telling a kid a myth in order to get compliance?
“D is for Dogfight” by Marcel Sarmiento—What if dogs understood the oppression of a dogfight?
“L is for Libido” by Timo Tjahjanto—(this one alone is a felony) Is our sexual appetite malleable?
“P is for Pressure” by Simon Rumley—What horrors do we agree to in exchange for something we care about more?
“Q is for Quack” by Adam Wingard–-How much control do people really have?
“S is for Speed” by Jake West—How can something horrific make us feel good?
“T is for Toilet” by Lee Hardcastle—Do children respond more rationally to fear than adults?
“U is for Unearthed” by Ben Wheatley—What’s scarier–fighting a demon or being possessed by one?
“V is for Vagitus (The Cry of a Newborn Baby)” by Kaare Andrews—Could the future end the luxury of family planning?
“X is for XXL” by Xavier Gens—To what extent does negative body image destroy your identity?
All in all, this is 10 of 26, meaning don’t watch the whole thing. If anyone out there has done something similar for The ABCs of Death 2, I’d love to watch the selected few:)
