23 Ways to Die

Leider ist die Fortsetzung der Buchstabenanthologie deutlich schlechter. Die paar großartigen Kurzgeschichten kann man nämlich an einer Hand abzählen. Zum Beispiel der Einführungsfilm Amateur, die animierte Bizarrheit Deloused, das französische Verhängnis Xylophone und natürlich der abschließende Gorefest Zygote. Die anderen Segmente sind entweder mehr oder weniger durchschnittlich (Vacation, Macticate, Split) oder sogar wirklich schrecklich (Legacy, Head Games und P-P-P-P Scary). Natürlich fehlt es nicht an schwarzer Komödie (Equilibrium, Grandad) oder einem gewissen asiatischen Wahnsinn in Form des Segments Youth. Als größten Mut betrachte ich die Geschichte Wish, deren Fantasy-Welt ein visueller "Leckerbissen" ist :) (04.10.2014)

Certainly, a notch or two better than the first ABCs. Mostly, because it lacks the shitty and embarrassing rubbish that pulled the first anthology down so much. Instead, the worst letters of this sequel (H, L, P, Y) are only boring and below-par, rather than unbearable crap that made me feel sorry for their creators. But also the opposite end of the quality spectrum is an improvement, the stories that I would call definitely good are more numerous than in the previous one (A, B, D, J, O, S, V, X, Z), while the rest are kinda “OK”. So, zero expectations and a pretty pleasant surprise. (04.10.2014)

First, we'll list the best ones, and this time there really were not a few. The clear winner is Z: Zygote: absolute peak and orgasm! Superb gore, perfect idea, disgusting, extreme and insane and for me a big thumbs up for a totally unknown director. Second place probably V: Vacancy: perfectly bloody, depressing and violent found footage, strangely well shot. Third place S: Split: an unnerving home invasion, brilliantly shot, wonderfully paced, solid music and decent gore! Next up C: Capital Punishment: perfect idea, uncomfortable calm before the storm, very well done execution and breathtaking atmosphere. Q: Questionnaire: incredibly clever and gripping dialogue and superbly filmed operation (yummy brain removal) X: Xylophone: I expected more from Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, but they showed their perversion and gore here too. K: Knell: weird but visually interesting, atmospherically strong, it suited me. J: Jesus: great gore, decent look. R: Roullete: great atmosphere, decently filmed, heart pounding. N: Nexus: decent make-up effects, suspenseful, atmospheric and tragic. E: Equilibirum: incredibly funny and entertaining short story, I liked it. T: Torture porn: sleazy and perverted towards the end but unfortunately amateurish and low quality gore, but it had something going for it. U: Utopia interesting premise. A: Amateur: quite funny, decently gory and nicely shot. Unwatchable short stories: The winner is Y: Youth: typical Asian weirdness, stupid, badly made with crazy ideas, horrible. Next D: Deloused: almost unwatchable, characters made of plasticine or what the fuck, horrible. L: Legacy: promising cannibals but terrible digital execution. W: Wish: a naive, amateurish and uninteresting story, I shook my head. H: Head Games: bad joke, rubbish. P: is for P-P-P-P Scary! I didn't get it. A little disappointing after the second screening, there are fewer downright bad ones, but I found four of them less than I used to, too. Today I liked Deloused and Wish already. The highlight are still Zygote, Toilet! and Xylophone. 60%. (04.10.2014)