Talk about giving back. With 26 directors and 26 short films making up the horror anthology The ABCs of Death, you’d imagine that they’d have their hands full, but the fine folks at Magnet, Timpson, and Drafthouse Filmshave decided to give back to the community. Their first poster promoting the project is a vibrant public service announcement celebrating the FUNdamentals of reading. It does it with a crow-winged Angel of death and a tiny toddler, but the sentiment is the right one. Check it out for yourself:

According to a press release that left blood all over my inbox, Lee Hardcastle – a filmmaker twice featured in our illustrious Short Film of the Day feature – has won the chance to see his work next to 25 of the best horror filmmakers working today in the anthology picture The ABCs of Death. Drafthouse Films and Timpson Films held a contest that saw 170 entries narrowed down to 13 by the voting public. Those top 13 were then shown to the directors involved in the production, and they voted Hardcastle as the winner. T is For Toilet features a young boy who is learning to use the toilet all by himself, and the horrific monster that we all know lives inside all of our johns has different plans for him and his family. It should be shown to all potty training young ones, alongside this magical gem. Runners up, T is for Talk by Peter Haynes; T is for Turbo by Francois Simard, Anouk Whissel and Yoann-Karl Whissel; T is for Table by Shane Free; and T is for Termite by Steve Daniels will all be invited to be included in the DVD/Blu-ray release of the film. In the mean time, check out T is for Toilet for yourself:

Why Watch? An unseen villain, a simple request, and a gruesome outcome. For the next week or so, we’ll be shining a spotlight on some of the short films from the ABCs of Death competition going on right now to find the 26th director for the upcoming horror anthology. Each entry starts with the letter T and has to pick a T-word to use in a deadly way. The results include movies like this one from director Peter Haynes who decided to kill people with talking. Is it wanton gore or a keen insight into our relationship to media? The answer is probably somewhere between the two, but this gorgeously shot piece inspires fear directly because of its lack of information, it’s impressionistic character development (which is there, but not by much), and the horrifying act committed in its closing seconds. It’s the exclamation mark that comes after the red stuff spills liberally. What does it cost? Just 4 minute of your time. Check out T is For Talk for yourself:

By now you’ve already heard about The ABCs of Death – the anthology project being put together by Drafthouse Films, Timpson Films and Magnet. 26 directors, 26 letters of the alphabet, and 26 tales of horror and gore. The complete list of directors includes: Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis, Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, Jason Eisener, Bruno Forzani and Helene, Adrian Garcia Bogliao, Xavier Gens, Noburo Iguchi, Thomas Malling, Yoshihiro Nishimura, J.T. Petty, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Simon Rumley, Marcel Sarmiento, Chris Smith, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Adam Wingard, Anders Wulffmorgenthaler, and Yudai Yamaguchi. You no doubt counted that list and saw 26 filmmakers. You also noticed that two of them are a filmmaking pair, which means they still need one more to complete the series. That’s where you come in. This is your chance to have your name next to the guy that made A Serbian Film on a film’s credit sequence. Drafthouse Films is hosting an open short film competition to choose the last director where contestants will choose their own word (starting with the Letter T (my money’s on “Trebuchet”)) and craft a short based on it. Entries will be whittled down to a final 10 by a public voting system, and the winner will be chosen by the directors listed above. There’s no entry fee, and it’s open from now until October 1st at midnight PST. Grab your camera. Get started.