I enjoyed the first film in this series well enough to
recommend it to fans of horror. The same cannot be said of this sequel. Of the
26 letters used here I only found myself enjoying and actually laughing at one,
perhaps three tops. The rest made it feel like an incredibly long film I would
rather have missed.
For those who aren’t aware of the concept, 26 directors are
given a limited budget and the choice of a letter and are then turned loose to
create a short film to be included in this collection, usually no more than 3
minutes in length. Just what they will do with their films, what subject matter
they will choose or which word they will associate with that letter that
pertains to death is up to them.
Unfortunately this time around the inspiration for each
director seemed lacking. It felt like they found themselves wanting to shoot a
short art film rather than a short film that would tell a story in 3 minutes.
The ones that chose to take that 3 minute story route in the first film were
what made those stories appealing. The art film ones were what slowed it down.
So imagine if you will 20-25 short art films tossed together with varying
degrees of cinematographic, writing, acting and directorial skills and this
film is what you get.
So what letters were good? A starts the film off in an
interesting way. Then you have to wait until the letter M for the truly
funniest moment in the film. Yes, there can be funny found in death if you have
a dark sense of humor which fortunately I do. But the rest just kind of sit
there. Everything from attempts to use the most vulgar and horrendous sights to
behold to shorts done in a foreign language that take as much time to read as
to partake the visuals offered.
I think it’s great that new, young directors are being given
an opportunity to create these short films to be seen in this format. But
perhaps more guidelines are needed to make their stories more viable for a mass
audience. Then again perhaps I’m missing the whole intent and the reason these
films are made are to satisfy the needs of an audience attuned only to movies
inspired by the films of David Lynch. If you’ve ever seen ERASERHEAD and
wondered what the hell you were watching, expect more of that here. If you
loved that movie then perhaps you will enjoy this one as well.
I think maybe the time has come in this series to approach
big name, top of the line directors to see what they come up with. It might be
interesting to see what someone who has grown accustomed to working with a
mega-budget can do with something this size. Could they go back in time to when
they were just starting out and working on films like this and then come up
with something? Who knows?
All I can say is that if this is the best that up and coming
directors have to offer it will be quite some time before we have another
breakout horror film to wait on. I’ve heard IT FOLLOWS is garnering a lot of
attention and THE BABBADOOK did the same a few months back. Having seen the
latter I can say that none of the 26 short films on display here can compare to
that film. Let’s hope they do something to make the next one, if it is made,
better.
Click here to order.
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