ABCs of Death 2 (Movie Review)

The second installment of Drafthouse/Magnet’s anthology film ABCs of Death continues with the established format as it’s predecessor and delivers the gore and demise.  It is well understood that with any compilation, you get the good with the bad, and ABCs of Death 2 is no different. Luckily for the film, the duration of each segment clocks in around 10 minutes and spares you too much of the agony you’re witnessing on screen. The shining stars of the anthology are so enthralling and brutally memorable that they far out last the lesser ones.

The intrigue of the ABCs of Death 2, like the first installment, relies on providing 26 very different directors a blank canvas to terrify or entertain; each short is visually, emotionally, and physically different from the next and explores the multifaceted world of horror. Viewers can expect to see little known directors flexing their muscles at the big screen while also getting to see some of their favorites do what they do best.

The most stand out shorts in ABCs of Death 2 are bizarre and intense and of course heavy on the gore: D is for Deloused (Robert Morgan), a stop motion story of a large bug helping a man get his revenge, K is for Knell (Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper) where a mysterious black liquid turns humans into murders, T is for Torture Porn (The Soska Sisters-American Mary) unfolds as Tristan Risk’s character auditioning for a porno only to attack her directors, V is for Vacation (Jerome Sable) features the death of 2 men on a trip by a prostitute they hired, and lastly Z is for Zygote (Chris Nash) follows a pregnant woman who has carried her child inside her for 13 years.

Ripe with blood, weirdness, and horror for any type of viewer, ABCs of Death 2 is worth the time to check out – even if you tend to fast forward through the less interesting ones.