Abruptio
directed by Evan Marlowe
starring James Marsters, Sid Haig
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Evan Marlowe’s 2023 film, Abruptio, is a reality-bending neo-noir thriller mixed with elements of horror and science fiction. It is also a film populated entirely by puppets. Yep, puppets. Super realistic human puppets, engaging in horrific acts of violence and self-discovery. Suffice to say, it is a truly strange and remarkable film that was a hit on the festival circuit and finds a home on Blu-ray from Anchor Bay Entertainment.
Les Hackel is a miserable wage slave working at a low-end office job and still living at home with his parents. His on-and-off girlfriend has just dumped him again, all while he is attempting to quit booze cold turkey. His life gets a jolt when he discovers someone has implanted a bomb in the back of his neck and he must fulfill the missions he is sent via text message or the bomb will go off. This proves to be no idle threat or conspiracy theory when Les’s only friend gets his head blown off when he can’t bring himself to kill Les. Les seems to have far fewer issues with his predicament, as he sets off nerve gas at his office and murders a family being gifted a car and a house as a reward. The jobs get even more bizarre and violent, but nothing could prepare Les for what he discovers as he attempts to uncover who is behind this madness. Inter-dimensional aliens play a part. Further complicating the issue, Les is repeatedly hauled into a Kafka-esque police interrogation, where is cajoled via torture to confess, so they can know what crime to charge him with. The more Les’s life and mind unravel, the closer he gets to the truth. And the answers he’s looking for are far more personal than he realizes.
In any format, the plot of Abruptio would be strange, but the uncanny valley of the hyper-realistic human puppets just adds another macabre layer to the film that is already an unholy melange of film noir science fiction and horror, like a mash-up of D.O.A. (1949, Rudolph Maté), Brazil (1985, Terry Gilliam), and Phantasm (1979, Don Cascarelli), with a touch of Office Space (1999, Mike Judge) for good measure. The entire affair is played straight and never succumbs to snickering about puppets committing murder or showing full frontal nudity. The voice cast, headed by James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) playing strongly against type as Les, is joined by Jordan Peele, Robert Englund, Christopher McDonald, and Sid Haig. This cast of pros really sells the entire thing and elevates Abruptio from a quirky novelty to a genuinely disturbing film that lingers in your psyche.
Achor Bay gives a terrific platform for this film that was a true labor of love, taking a decade to complete. The film is accompanied by two audio commentaries, one by husband and wife team Evan Marlowe (writer/director) and Kerry Marlowe (writer/director), and the other with puppeteer Danny Montooth. Both of these tracks provide a great deal of insight into the mad passion that created such an affecting cinematic oddity.
