While Drafthouse Films, Magnet Pictures and Timpson Films (the latter referring to our pal Ant Timpson of New Zealand’s Incredible Film Fest) has announced the full roster of solicited directors for their anthology The ABC’s of Death – 26 directors, each making a short film featuring a death inspired by a different letter of the alphabet – aspiring directors still have until October 1 to win a spot as the final auteur on board. The ABC’s of Death is the latest entry in what marks an exciting comeback for the horror omnibus film (including recent faves The Theatre Bizarre and Little Deaths). To enter the contest, check out the rules at http://26th.theabcsofdeath.com/ and see below for the most recent official press release announcing whose esteemed company you’d be in should you win the final slot. (I should also point out, as the founder of Vancouver’s annual BLOODSHOTS 48-Hour Horror Filmmaking Challenge that one of the directors, Kaare Andrews, is a Bloodshots alumnus!)

– Kier-La Janisse

Official Press Release courtesy of Drafthouse Films:

Today Drafthouse Films, Magnet Pictures and Timpson Films announced the full roster of directors signed on to participate in the international co-production THE ABCs OF DEATH, an anthology horror film featuring segments directed by over two dozen leading talents in contemporary genre film from around the world. The feature is comprised of 26 individual episodes, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet inspiring a single word about internet pharmacy propecia death. Currently in pre-production, the film’s producers reserved the 26th director slot for a worldwide contest to find tomorrow’s next great horror filmmaker. The contest ends October 1st.

In May 2011, the film’s producers announced that enlisted directors were to include Jason Eisener (HOBO WITH A cialis usa SHOTGUN), Ti West (HOUSE OF THE DEVIL and the upcoming THE INNKEEPERS), Ben Wheatley (SXSW 2011 favorite KILL LIST), Srdjan Spasojevic of A SERBIAN FILM infamy, and 18 others. Joining the roster are recent signees Jon Schnepp (co-director of Adult Swim’s epic animated series Metalocalypse) and Jorge Michel Grau, whose jarring 2010 cannibal drama SOMOS LO QUE HAY (WE ARE WHAT WE ARE) garnered a great deal of notice and established him as one of the more fearless rising filmmakers of the era.

“Having Jon Schnepp onboard is really going to bring some anarchic diversity to the project,” says co-producer Ant Timpson. “His work on Metapocalypse, The Venture Bros and Aqua Teen Hunger Force shows that he is the real deal; a supremely multi-talented guy with a unique perspective and set of skills to match.”

“Jorge Michel Grau won top honors, the ‘Next Wave’ award, at last year’s Fantastic Fes for his feature viagra super active WE ARE WHAT WE ARE. We are delighted that this visionary filmmaker is joining our already strong roster,” says co-producer Tim League.

The following is the list of participating directors, along with their countries of origin and a reference title from each of their filmographies:

• Kaare Andrews (ALTITUDE), USA
• Angela Bettis (ROMAN), USA
• Ernesto Diaz Espinoza (MIRAGEMAN, MANDRILL), Chile
• Jason Eisener (HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN), Canada
• Bruno Forzani & Héléne Cattet (AMER), Belgium
• Adrian Garcia Bogliano (COLD SWEAT), Argentina
• Xavier Gens (FRONTIERS; HITMAN), France
• Jorge Michel Grau (WE ARE WHAT WE ARE), Mexico
• Noburo Iguchi (ROBO GEISHA), Japan
• Thomas Malling (NORWEGIAN NINJA), Norway
• Anders Morgenthaler (PRINCESS), Denmark
• Yoshihrio Nishimura (TOKYO GORE POLICE), Japan
• Banjong Pisathanakun (SHUTTER), Thailand
• Simon Rumley (RED, WHITE & BLUE), UK
• Marcel Sarmiento (DEADGIRL), USA
• Jon Schnepp (Metalocalypse; The Venture Bros.), USA
• Srdjan Spasojevic (A SERBIAN FILM), Serbia
• Timo Tjahjanto (MACABRE), Indonesia
• Andrew Traucki (THE REEF), Australia
• Nacho Vigalondo (TIMECRIMES), Spain
• Jake West (DOGHOUSE), UK
• Ti West (HOUSE OF THE DEVIL; THE INNKEEPERS), USA
• Ben Wheatley (DOWN TERRACE; KILL LIST), UK
• Adam Wingard (A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, YOU’RE NEXT), USA
• Yudai Yamaguchi (YAKUZA WEAPON), Japan

Visit the Facebook page for news and updates: www.facebook.com/theabcsofdeath

(Press Release courtesy of Drafthouse Films)

About the author:

Kier-La Janisse

Kier-La Janisse is a film writer, publisher, producer, acquisitions executive for Severin Films and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. She is the author of Cockfight: A Fable of Failure (2024), House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films (2012/2022) and A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (2007) and has been an editor on numerous books including Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive (2021) and Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s (2015). She wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021), viagra no prescription and produced the acclaimed blu-ray box sets All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror (2021) and The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle (2023).