You will not see another horror movie like ABCs of Death 2 this year, that's guaranteed: 26 different directors tasked with creating a short film about death that's based on a letter from the alphabet. The first short, "A Is for Amateur," is directed by a guy named E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills), and it happens to be one of our favorites. Previously we debuted an exclusive image from the short and spoke to Katz about what it's like sharing a film with 25 other directors. With Halloween right around the corner -- and with death being such a crucial part of the movie -- we had to ask Katz for his top five favorite death scenes in movies.

Check out Katz's list below (complete with his own words on each), then catch ABCs of Death 2 when it comes to theaters on October 31.  

 

Street Trash (1987)

"Not too many people know about this little movie, which is a shame because I think in the pantheon of '80s gore flicks, pound for pound, Street Trash delivers more then any of its peers. The concept alone -- that some mysterious group created a liquid that, if ingested, causes you to rapidly melt into an almost psychedelically colorful puddle of guts and slime -- is just insanely hilarious. The first time I watched the opening kill, I didn’t know what hit me. I was like, 'How can they make a movie out of this?' It’s offensive as hell, and I would only show it to a small percentage of the people I know, but those people usually get a huge kick out of it."

 

Wild at Heart (1990)

"I absolutely love death scenes that start with one kind of trauma, but then surprise you by throwing in a bonus bit of trauma... and there’s almost no better case of that than the fate of good ol’ Bobby Peru (a particularly slimy Willem Dafoe) as he takes a shot in the belly, and then falls forward slamming his shotgun on the ground, blowing up his head like a ripe cantaloupe. He’s also such a despicable character that it’s great to see his ending be so ridiculously overblown."

 

Dead Calm (1989)

"There's just something about watching Billy Zane eat a lit emergency flare -- as his head lights up like a jack-o'-lantern -- that's strangely calming to me. Try it, you’ll see."

 

Death Warrant (1990)

"Patrick Kilpatrick as the Sandman serial killer is one of my all time favorite villains... and he's got a really good death scene, too. First he's burned alive in some sort of furnace, and then he has his head skewered by two steel prongs sticking out of the wall."

 

Contraband (1980)

"I don’t think you can have a top five death-scene list and not include something by Lucio Fulci. It’s difficult for any one death scene to distinguish itself in a movie where somebody’s face is burned off by a blowtorch, and it’s not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but maybe my favorite death here does just that because of the silly quote right before the death... a pimp dances stiffly to disco while uttering, 'I like the finer things in life, caviar and champagne.' And then his throat blows up, and it’s glorious! Maybe you had to be there. It does it for me."