XX (2017) 1h 20m

Anthology horror films have started to pop up more and more.  We have the V/H/S films, Southbound, The ABCs of Death series, and now we have XX.  An anthology where the focus is on the women in horror that aren't scream queens, but are the ones that make the scream queens scream.

XX consists of four short films: The Box (based off of a Jack Ketchum short story) where a boy catches a glimpse of what's inside of stranger's present and he is never the same.  The Birthday Party which has a mother about to host her daughter's seventh birthday party only to find her husband dead of pills and booze and she tries to hide his corpse.  Don't Fall, where four 20-something campers stumble across an area which caries a violent curse.  Then the final short is Her Only Living Son, in which a single mother is dealing with the fact that her son is coming into his own around his 18th birthday and the past catches up to them.  All four of these are framed by strange stop motion sequences which I could only describe as if a living house were into gothic-lolita.

I was glad this film came up because I spent a lot of time this week trying to remember where I saw The Box before.  It's my call for the strongest of these shorts but each of them are really well done.  If I had to pin one down as the weakest short then it would be The Birthday Party. I'm only saying this because when you get to the very end you realize it was a 15 minute set-up for a joke, and it's one of those jokes though where you kind of laugh but then do an exhaled sigh at the end because a part of you just died for laughing.  It is worth watching though because the styling and usage of color are fantastic.  Also, I would like a large purple toilet costume.

I give XX 3.5 Rosie the Riveters out of 5:

The ABCs of Death (2012) 2h 9m

This isn't my first rodeo with The ABCs of Death.  In fact, this may be my third time through if I'm remembering correctly.  I wish I could do this with a fresh set of eyes, but it is what it is and so I'll review based on this watch.

If you're unfamiliar with The ABCs of Death (or its sequel The ABCs of Death 2), it's an anthology of short films where 26 different directors from around the world are each given a letter of the alphabet.  From there they must pick a word that begins with that letter and make a short film pertaining to that word and death.  Any format is acceptable so long as they stay within those requirements.  At the end of each short the word is revealed to the viewer.

This is why the first watch of either of these films makes them the best.  When we initially watched The ABCs of Death it was spent trying to guess what the word was before the short ended.  On this viewing I remembered some of the themes ahead of time so a few of them lost that excitement.

Overall though, a majority of these short films are pretty great. While there are a few so-so ones, these films are so short that you're not weighed down before you have something new altogether.  The main killer here ends up being the two-hour plus running time, but you've gotta fit A-Z in there.


I give The ABCs of Death a solid 3 alphabet books out of 5 (for this watch through):

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