The tag line on the Abruptio poster says everyone’s a puppet. It’s quite true. This unsettling Kafkaesque tale of a recovering alcoholic barely resisting an alien invasion features a cast of life-sized puppets, voiced by some horror greats. Whether or not that makes you more comfortable with the violence and occasional gore is up to you. At first, the film’s approach has a distancing effect, and then producer/writer/director Evan Marlowe’s intent sneaks up on you. It’s not just weirdness for its own sake; we’re fully immersed in his nightmare world.
Which, of course, does have to have a set piece in an abandoned amusement park, or it wouldn’t be a true nightmare.
On an ordinary day, schlub Les Hackel (James Marsters) endures his job, gets dumped by his girlfriend, and grows colder and colder. Then he discovers someone — or something — implanted a bomb in his neck. His buddy Danny (Jordan Peele) has one, too. They receive text messages instructing them to carry out horrific acts or their heads will explode.
Why is it happening? Les floats numbly through his instructions just as he floated through his job, though we’re given the glimpse that he’s quietly struggling not to relapse into alcoholism. Marlowe intercuts his puppetry with some limited animation, indicating that the whole country has descended into chaos. When aliens get blamed, at least one character notes that they didn’t really need to do much to set humanity against itself.
A fever dream, Abruptio weaves in stylistic touches from 1970s horror cinema and manga. One of Les’ companions in gore looks like a high-strung salaryman right out of Akira. Assuming he stumbled into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And yes, it’s almost as disturbing to see puppet bodies being ground up.
In addition to Marsters and Peele, the voice cast includes Robert Englund, Pitch Perfect’s Hana Mae Lee, Christopher McDonald, and the late Sid Haig. Each of them would have fit perfectly if the film were straightforward live-action, so hearing their tones come out of these puppet people adds another layer of disconcertedness.
All of that is meant as praise. While it’s obviously not a film for every taste and not leavened by humor, Abruptio is a creature of its own device. Any film trying to push and use the boundaries of cinematic storytelling is at least worth your attention. The nightmare of Les Hackel’s mundane life may stay with you for a while, and you’ll find yourself recommending it to certain friends. You know the ones. They probably come to this site.
