History Film / TheABCsOfDeath

* EarAche: When the original spider finally dies, the horde of its newly-hatched babies from the man's ear.

* TragicKeepsake: The protagonist wears Buddy's dogtags (which list him as a missing pet and provide contact information) as he goes battles his four-legged friend in the ring.

* TragicKeepsake: The protagonist wears Buddy's dogtags (which list him as a midding pet and provide contact information) as he goes battles his four-legged friend in the ring.

* MadeOfIron: The husband survives being poisoned, stabbed repeatedly (including having the knife being shoved through his neck and left there), having scalding grease thrown in his face, and being battered repeatedly with a FryingPanOfDoom.

* NothingIsScarier: We never know what the titular apocalypse is meant to be, as all we hear is screaming, car crashing, and something roaring in the distance.

* GoOutWithASmile: Through a combination of the above-mentioned GlawgowGrin and her delusional state of mind, Gertrude succumbs to blood loss with a smile on her face, posing her new "figure" in her bathroom mirror.

* {{Bookends}}: The first scene has Jon working on an animation where a knight tries to save a damsel from being stabbed by a wicked witch. The end of the segment as that same witch stabbing his still-living severed head to death.

* NotQuiteDead: Psychics and use their abilities to keep themselves alive after death, if only for a short while.

* CrapsackWorld: The segment is set in a dystopian future where reproduction is only allowed by permit, and any unapproved babies are taken and killed. Meanwhile, the government has also instituted a campaign of genocide and human experimentation on psychics, to the point where Stoker doesn't even consider legally consider them people. Or even alive.

* DecapitationPresentation: The leader of the mob, who weilds an axe, uses it to decapitate the vampire and proceeds to hold its head aloft. This is seen from vampire's point of view, indicating that its senses are still functioning at this point.

* ToiletHorror: A kid whose parents hope to toilet train dreams about his toilet turning into a man-eating monster that kills said parents.

* VitrolicBestBuds: Lulu and Roxanne hurl insults at each other frequently, but the latter genuinely wants to save her friend from Death's clutches. Lulu doesn't nessecarily see things her way.

* FireBreathingWeapon: Roxanne pulls a flamethrower from the trunk of her car, trying to tries to barbecue the Hooded Man. It doesn't work.

* CigarChomper: Bernie celebrates his triumph over Frau Scheisse with a cigar.

* HoistByHerOwnPetard: Frau Scheisse falls victim to her own DeathTrap, thanks to some quick thinking from Bernie.

A man discovers a pesky spider that keeps annoying and biting him throughout his week, especially when it keeps evading his attempts to kill it.

* SuicideBySea: The unseen protagonist weighs himself down with the bricks, paddles out into the ocean, and sinks to the bottom. The final shot is of his surfboard sticking upright out of the water, like a tombtone.

* TheBaroness: Frau Scheisse is a Nazi FoxyVixen who spends most of the segment in boot, short shorts, a swastika armband, and nothing else.

* PaedoHunt: Stage #13 features a little boy having involuntary sex with a slightly-heavyset man, which is mercifully kept offscreen. This is notably the act where the protagonist ''doesn't'' climax first, cementing his fate.

* GenreShift: The whole point of this anthology, showcasing the various kinds of horror from different parts of the world through different visual mediums.

** Played straight in "B is for Bigfoot" and "Y is for Youngbuck", where the children present in the segments do not get killed.

** Double subverted in "V is for Vagitus (The Cry of a Newborn Baby)", in which a baby [[spoiler: is decapitated, but thanks to its psychic powers is ''still alive'', and capable of avenging itself, as a disembodied head.]]
* MoodWhiplash: To give you a fair idea, "I is for Ingrown" is a depressing segment about [[spoiler:a woman being injected with a lethal poison and DyingAlone in a bathtub]]. "Jidai-geki" is about a samurai warrior who can't execute another warrior because he keeps making hilarious faces.
* NobodyPoops: Averted in the "K is for Klutz", "R is for Removed", and "T is for Toilet" segments. The "K" segment has a woman get killed while trying to get rid of her own bowel movement, the "R" segment features a bed pan being used, and the "T" segment is about a boy being toilet trained.
* RedHerring / RedHerringTwist: Seeing as each short's name is revealed only at the end of the short, several segments feature a plot element that just so happens to start with the letter the short is named after. The short is never named after said element. One example would be Zetsumetsu (Extinction), which never features an extinction.
* ShowWithinAShow: The "Q is for Quack" and "W is for WTF" segments are about the real life crew members trying to figure out what to do for the "Q" and "W" segments for this very film.
* SilenceIsGolden: A majority of segments have minimal to no dialogue. In particular, the “G”, “M”, “O”, “P”, “R”, and “Y” segments are entirely dialogue-free.
* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror: The movie alternates bleak, highly disturbing segments (such as a woman being left to die in Ingrown, men being impaled for not masturbating to some sick shit in L is for Libido, and an obese woman skinning herself in X is for XXL) with stories about [[ToiletHumor farting and pooping]], although the short dealing with a [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever man-eating toilet]] manages to be rather scary and funny at the same time.

* VomitIndiscretionShot: Several shorts have people throw up on-camera, often in extreme close-up.

* FryingPanOfDoom: A hysterical woman attacks her bedridden husband with this. [[spoiler: She had meant for him to die from poisoning long before then but has run out of time. The title is then revealed to be "A is for Apocalypse", implying that this is a MercyKill.]]
* MadeOfIron: The husband survives being poisoned, stabbed repeatedly with a kitchen knife (including the knife being shoved through his neck and left there), having scalding grease thrown in his face, and being battered repeatedly with a FryingPanOfDoom.
* MercyKill: [[spoiler:With the title in mind and the woman trying to kill her husband repeatedly, it paints a picture that she's trying to kill him so he won't have to worry about the apocalypse. Unfortunately for the both of them, the husband turns out to be way too resilient for his own good]].

* AccidentalTruth: Dulce and Erik fabricate a story about the Abominable Snowman coming out every night to take away kids, but only those who stay up at night, to scare Xochitl into staying in bed. They are then killed by homeless man in almost exactly the manner they described to Xochitl. Xochitl is spared because she hiding under the cover counting sheep, just as they told her to do.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The homeless man shows up and kills a couple for no apparent reason, leaving a little girl they're babysitting alive for the same.

* HereWeGoAgain: Cycle ends with Bruno in exactly the same place he was at the start, with the implication that he is now trapped in a unending loop (hence the title).

* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: The unnamed trainer, he even one ups his evil by forcing owner and pet to fight to the death.
* BeastlyBloodsports: A gang abducts dogs and then uses then in death matches against humans.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Dogfight features the hero getting his dog back and punishing the dog snatcher.]]
* HateSink: The unnamed trainer runs an organization where he kidnaps dogs. When their humans come looking for them, he has them kidnapped too. He subjects both human and dog to TrainingFromHell before forcing them to fight to the death.
* ManBitesMan: After the dog latches on to his arm, the protagonist retaliates by sinking his teeth into the dog's throat.
* {{Overcrank}}: The whole of "Dogfight" is shot at a slower pace, to [[{{Squick}} wince-inducing effect]].

* EarAche: A horde of spiders erupt from the man's ear when the egg's hatch.
* SpidersAreScary: The whole point of "Exterminate" is about a man being menaced by a spider.
* UrbanLegend: "Exterminate" follows an old urban legend of spiders being able to lay eggs inside people's bodies.

* DeadlyGas: An earthquake unleashes a deadly gas that kills everyone in the school.
* {{Fartillery}}: Miss Yumi's farts are toxic enough to allow someone to commit suicide by inhaling them.
* {{Gasshole}}: Yoshie's farts are powerful enough to cause her skirt to flip up. Miss Yumi can fill an entire room with the gas from her farts.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Yoshie has very poorly disguised crush on with Yumi. When they are faced with the cloud of DeadlyGas, Miss Yumi reveals that her feeling are reciprocated, and the segment ends with the two of them making out [[spoiler:in the Land of the Dead]].

* SuicideBySea: Gravity follows an unseen protagonist he weighs himself down with bricks, paddles out into the ocean, and sinks to the bottom; his surfboard sticking upright out of the water like a gravestone.

* AdventurerOutfit: Bertie wears the classic 'airman' version': bomber jacket, scarf, gloves, boots, flying helmet and goggles. He is also an anthropomorphic bulldog.
* TheBaroness: Frau Scheisse is Nazi FoxyVixen who spends most of the segment in boot, shorts, a swastika armband, and nothing else.
* BilingualBonus: “Frau Scheisse” roughly translates to [[spoiler: Mrs. Shit.]]
* DeathTrap: Frau Scheisse has prepared a particularly elaborate one for her nemesis Bertie. Had she gone with something simpler, she might have succeeded.
* DieselPunk: Set in a universe where UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was fought by anthropomorphic animals, the setting has very diesel punk feel: especially Frau Scheisse's elaborate industrial DeathTrap.
* ElectricTorture: Frau Scheisse takes the opportunity to electrocute Bertie several times while she is attempting to force him into her DeathTrap.
* EyePop: Bertie's eyes do this when he sees Frau Scheisse [[YouCanLeaveYourHatOn performing her striptease]]. They later do it in pain after her GroinAttack.

* GroinAttack: Frau Scheisse uses a small robot to punt Bertie in the groin so hard that his eyes pop out on stalks.
* HateSink: As a parody of WWII British propaganda films, this short has a loathsome Nazi in the form of Frau Scheisse. After seducing AcePilot Bertie the Bulldog, Scheisse has a small robot punch him in the groin to capture him. She then proceeds to subject Bertie to ElectricTorture while slowly lowering him into electrified water to shock him to death.
* HoistByHerOwnPetard: Frau Scheisse falls victim to her own DeathTrap.

* WorldOfFunnyAnimals: The segment's universe is one where anthropomorphic animals fought in DieselPunk [[UsefulNOtes/WorldWarII WWII]].

* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: Frau Scheisse poses as burlesque dancer and performs a striptease to lure Bertie into her trap.

* AllThereInTheManual: The credits reveal the reason Ingrown is named as such: [[spoiler: "2015 women murdered in the last 10 years in Mexico. 200 women a month. The horror is not on the screen."]]
* BoundAndGagged: The woman in "Ingrown", who [[spoiler:is in this position in a man's bathtub before he injects her with motor oil that causes her death]].

* BaitAndSwitch: Of a sort. Those trying to guess what the short is called but aren't very knowledgeable about Japanese movies (and even some that are) might be tempted to guess that the title of this segment is "Japan."
* {{Seppuku}}: An executioner prepares to decapitate a samurai; however, the samurai begins performing a series of bizarre and physically impossible facial expressions, causing the executioner to panic. A man off-screen tells the executioner to finish the job, as he notices that the samurai is performing seppuku. The executioner, who turns out to be a kaishakunin, beheads the samurai, but then laughs at the ridiculous expression that the latter made.

* TheCanKickedHim: The protagonist is killed in the toilet when [[spoiler:her own stool rams her way up her rectum and out of her mouth at high speed]].
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: There is no explanation for how the turd comes to life, nor does it speak to show any personality. It just shows up, refuses to go down the toilet, and [[spoiler:rams its way through the woman that made it, killing her]].
* TalkingPoo: An animated stool gets into a battle of wits with the woman who produced it, and who is now trying to flush it. [[spoiler:The stool winds up killing her.]]

* ChainedToABed: After failing in his final task, the protagonist wakes up to find himself chained to a bed with a beautiful woman making love to him. For a few moments, things to going much better for him. And then they get much, much worse.
* ChainsawGood: After finally failing to be the first to climax, the protagonist wakes up to find ChainedToABed, having sex with a beautiful woman. Who then pulls out a chainsaw and proceeds to hack him to death while she continues to ride him.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: While looking up the skirt of his female captor, the protagonist sees an eye staring back at him. Given his deteriorating physical and mental state at the time, this may have been a hallucination.
* OutWithABang: The protagonist is murdered by a beautiful woman while they are having sex.

* GrossUpCloseUp: If you don't want to see [[spoiler:what a dead fetus looks like]], skip "Miscarriage."

* FowlMouthedParrot: Nuptials has a man buying his fiancee a parrot, which he had trained to give her a wedding ring to propose to her. But after the proposal was made...the bird starts repeating the words of the man and his mistress during sex.
* NotInFrontOfTheParrot: A man's pet bird helps him propose to his girlfriend in a very adorable way... Then the bird exposes its owner's true nature. HilarityEnsues.

* EroticAsphyxiation: The end of the short has the man pulling out a leather belt to strangle the woman. It either goes horribly awry or is used as a cover for murder, depending on your interpretation.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: Pressure, as in financial pressure which drives people to do things they wouldn't usually do, [[spoiler: and physical pressure which kills the cat.]]
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Brilliantly deconstructed in Pressure, [[spoiler:where the woman gets the money she needs by crushing a cat under her heels for an animal crush video.]]
* GoryDiscretionShot: We (thankfully) do not see the main character from "Pressure" [[spoiler:crush a poor kitten's head]]. [[{{Squick}} We do hear it though]].
* PlatonicProstitution: The john hires the main character [[spoiler:crush a kitten beneath her high heel shoes while he films it]]. None of the hookers he approaches will touch the job.
* RedLightDistrict: Pressure opens and closes in the city's red light district.

* AdamWesting: Creator/AdamWingard and Simon Barrett enjoy playing coke-sniffing, hypocritical versions of themselves.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Adam and Simon kill themselves when Simon points his gun at Adam while trying to find the safety catch. The gun goes off shooting Adam, whose own gun discharges and shoots Simon.
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened to the Duck?]]: The fate of the duck that was intended to be shot unknown.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The patient lets the nurse live when he escapes because she was the only one of the staff who was kind to him.
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: When the patient shoots one of the guards, the guard is blown backwards across the corridor and smashes out through a window.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The doctors keeping the man hostage and forcing him into surgeries are never given an explanation for why they want the film strips his body makes. We never even learn what's on them.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: While escaping, the patient smashes a glass flask full of blood over the orderly's head.
* HumanResources: The killer in "Removed" goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against doctors who [[spoiler: have been harvesting his skin to make 35 mm film.]]
* RiddleForTheAges: [[spoiler:Why was the patient attempting to tow that locomotive?]]
* TheUnreveal: The killer's face is never shown.

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:The segment turns out to be a drug-induced hallucination.]]
* BadassLongcoat: The Hooded Man gets his name from the longcoat he wears, which includes [[InTheHood a hood that obscures his face]].
* FireBreathingWeapon: Roxanne pulls a flamethrower from the trunk of her car and tries to barbecue the hooded man. It doesn't work.
* ImplacableMan: Nothing Roxanne does to the hooded man stops him. When he finally catches her, he congratulates on her leading him a better chase than any of his other victims.
* InTheHood: The Hooded Man gets his name from the BadassLongcoat her wears, complete with a hood that obscures his face.
* PersonWithTheClothing: Roxanne's pursuer is only identified as '[[InTheHood The Hooded Man]]'.

* AbsurdPhobia: Features a child who is literally afraid of the toilet, to the point of having nightmares about it turning into a monster and killing his parents. [[spoiler:Justified at the end, when the toilet ends up falling apart and crushing his skull. Albeit he survives it thankfully.]]
* TheCanKickedHim: [[spoiler:The boy gets his head trapped between the toilet seat and the bowl, and then is killed when the cistern falls off the wall and crushes his skull. That being said, ''Ghost Burger'' reveals he managed to survive the incident.]]
* DerangedAnimation: Lee Hardcastle uses his unsettlingly-amateurish yet gory style of claymation to this segment.
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The toilet just comes to life for no reason and massacres the protagonist family. [[spoiler:Of course, it is a child's nightmare, so having no logical reason for the horror fits.]]
* ToiletHorror: A kid dreams about being in the restroom while his toilet turns into a man-eating monster.

* CurbStompBattle: Angry mob vs [[spoiler:cornered vampire.]] Bet on angry mob.
* DecapitationPresentation: The mob member with the axe decapitates the vampire and holds its head aloft. [[spoiler:This is seen from MurdererPOV, indicating that the vampire's senses are still functioning at this point.]]
* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The vampire is awakened and immediately goes on a killing spree until it's put down. Judging by the fact that it only speaks in streaks and growls, it might not even be sentient.
* HeroAntagonist: The angry mob.
* MurdererPOV: Unearthed is shown through the eyes of the vampire. [[spoiler:Even after decapitation.]]
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: These are ravenous creatures who kill the whole time they're awake, and only speak in shrieks and growls. They're impervious to most harm, and can only be killed by a stake to the heart followed by decapitation.
* VillainProtagonist: The vampire, the whole segment is seen from their perspective and we follow their actions throughout the short.
* {{Xenofiction}}: And not one of those self-righteous HumansAreTheRealMonsters ones either. No, Unearthed is from the perspective of a complete monster who lives only to kill and destroy, and you're supposed to feel good when they slash the bastard's head off.

* CrapsackWorld: "V is for Vagitus (The Cry of a Newborn Baby)" is set in a dystopian future where, due to overpopulation, reproduction is only allowed by permit. Any unapproved babies are taken and killed. Meanwhile, the government has instituted a campaign of genocide and human experimentation against psychics, to the point of declaring them legally not alive.
* DystopianEdict: "Vagitus" is set in a future where women must earn their fertility through service to the government.
* HateSink: Stoker is an agent of a dystopian government in a BadFuture where procreation without a permit is banned and psychics are subjected to genocide. When two of his agents capture a psychic family, Stoker has all of them killed with the intent to resurrect the baby for experimentation, flat admitting that he doesn't consider them to be people. When the baby reanimates and starts massacring his goons, Stoker orders the guy holding its head gunned down in a desperate attempt to wipe out the child. Cold and ruthless, Stoker exists to put a hatable face on a nightmarish regime.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: The robot has its eyes glow red whenever it detects the influence of mind control.

* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: The city is attacked by a giant walrus that fires laser beams from its eyes.
* ChainmailBikini: The warrior woman fighting the giant walrus is clad in a bikini made of leather and metal.
* MindScrew: Living up to it's name, the segment is unapologitically nonsensical
* ShoutOut: An outbreak of [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext clown zombies]] prompts the response, "[[Music/InsaneClownPosse Are they looking for magnets?]]".

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Subverted. [[spoiler:After the obese woman cuts herself into an emaciated figure, she falls over dead.]]
* FlayingAlive: Gertrude does this to herself in an attempt to become skinny.
* TheFreelanceShameSquad: Every person Gertrude passes on the subway and the street mocks her for her weight.
* GlasgowGrin: When Gertrude starts cutting herself, she cuts her mouth into a Glasgow grin in an attempt to have a permanent smile like the skinny girl on the television.
* GrossUpCloseUp: The main character ravenously chows down on slop she takes out the fridge, with close shots of her mouth as she chews.
* WeightLossHorror: [[spoiler:Gertrude, an overweight woman, wanders the streets of France as people everywhere taunt her size; she is haunted by images of thin, attractive women. She sadly gorges herself on food before deciding to finally do something about her weight. Using a variety of sharp objects, Gertrude proceeds to cut the fat off of her body. She walks out of the bathtub in a skeletal state and missing all her skin; she poses briefly and then bleeds to death.]]

* {{Bambification}}: Subverted. A decapitated deer's head is [[spoiler:used to kill someone.]]
* EyeScream: The pedophile janitor gets antlers jammed into his eyes.
* HateSink: The unnamed VillainProtagonist is a school janitor and secret pedophile. After he pervs on some boys playing basketball, he licks the sweat from the bleachers with disgusting glee. Eventually convincing one of the boys to go hunting with him, the janitor rapes the kid after he kills a deer.
* {{Paedohunt}}: The disgustingly creepy janitor has apparently molested a boy. Thankfully, he gets what's coming to him when the boy kills him.
* RepeatCut: The arrow is seen being fired from three different angles.

* BloodyHilarious: Zetsumetsu is directed by [[Film/TokyoGorePolice Yoshihiro]] [[Creator/YoshihiroNishimura Nishimura]], so this isn't much of a surprise.
* CrapsackWorld: Takes place in a post-apocalyptic Japan suffering from the aftermath of a nuclear strike.
* MindScrew: Zetsumetsu is just all over the place and nobody seems to be able to tell what's going on.

* OneHitPolykill: The Rice Girl fires one bullet that goes through the heads of all three men making sushi.
* RefugeInAudacity: Zetsumetsu seems to be going for this with the over-the-top political and sexual imagery in addition to all the violence.
* ShoutOut: Zetsumetsu contains numerous references to ''Film/DrStrangelove'', particularly the wheelchair-bound narrator and nuclear war theme.

* WouldHarmASenior: PlayedForLaughs when jon is discussing ideas about a short related to the letter W, one of them Being "W Is for Wheelchair", in which an "[[EvilOldFolks evil old man]]" is pushed off a cliff by a nurse because "everybody hates old people".

* WidgetSeries: The "Fart," "Jidai-geki," and "Zetsumetsu" segments were made in Japan and are definitely very bizarre. ESPECIALLY Zetsumetsu.

* BadassBaritone: The hooded figure pursuing the female protagonist.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: The main character from "Exterminate" is at one point masturbating while he's being watched by the spider.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Masturbating to increasingly disturbing stuff was the main goal for the contestants in "Libido," with the last one to climax getting killed.

* TheCanKickedHim: [[spoiler:The boy gets his head trapped between the toilet seat and the bowl, and then is killed when the cistern falls off the wall and crushes his skull. That being said, the sequel reveals he manged to survive the incident.]]

* TheCanKickedHim: [[spoiler:The boy gets his head trapped between the toilet seat and the bowl, and then is killed when the cistern falls off the wall and crushes his skull. Although he the incident, as revealed in the sequel.]]

* BlackComedy: A few of the segments segway into horror-comedy territory.

* AnAxeToGrind: One of the mob is carrying an axe that employs to good effect against the vampire.

->Written and directed by: Srđan Spasojević

->Written and directed by: Srđan Spasojević[[note]]Also known as the director of the ''Film/ASerbianFilm''[[/note]]

-->Written and directed by: Nacho Vigalondo

-->Written and directed by: Adrian Garcia Bogliano

-->Written and directed by: Ernesto Diaz Espinoza

-->Written and directed by: Marcel Sarmiento

-->Written and directed by: Angela Bettis

-->Written and directed by: Noboru Iguchi

-->Written and directed by: Andrew Traucki

-->Written and directed by: Thomas Malling

-->Written and directed by: Jorge Michel Grau

-->Written and directed by: Yûdai Yamaguchi

-->Written and directed by: Anders Morgenthaler

-->Written and directed by: Timo Tjahjanto

[[M is for Miscarriage]]
-->Written and directed by: Ti West

-->Written and directed by: Banjong Pisanthanakun

-->Written and directed by: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani

-->Written and directed by: Simon Rumley

-->Written and directed by: Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett

-->Written and directed by: Srđan Spasojević

-->Written and directed by: Srđan Spasojević

-->Written and directed by: [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ-4K4911cLZMNEZLnxnpIg Lee Hardcastle]]

-->Written and directed by: Ben Wheatley

-->Written and directed by: Kaare Andrews

[pfolder:W is for WTF!]]
-->Written and directed by: Jon Schnepp

-->Written and directed by: Xavier Gens

-->Written and directed by: Jason Eisener

-->Written and directed by: Yoshihiro Nishimura