Verdict
Summary
Abruptio is an effective and depressing little tale cleverly told with puppets, performers in masks and suits, and some seamless filmmaking on practical sets. The facial designs are hideously ugly and creepy, straight out of someone’s nightmares, and the overall effect of the film is to get under your skin, which is does.
Plot:
A story told through puppetry about a man who realizes there’s a plot against humanity … and he’s become a tool.
Review:
Lee (voiced by James Marsters) is a dumpy, unattractive office drone with a depressing life. His on-again, off-again girlfriend dumps him, declaring that he’s a creep, and he goes about his drab, pointless life in a drone-like state. Like many modern men, he has become demoralized and emasculated, and his one friendship with another man (voiced by Jordan Peele) takes a sudden and startling turn when his friend points a gun at him one day when they’re hanging out, and just as he’s about to pull the trigger, his buddy says he can’t do it … and then his head literally explodes because of his choice. Lee then receives an ominous email; an anonymous sender tells him that he’s been implanted with a bomb behind his neck, and now Lee has his own choice to make: He must drop his life, leave his old routines behind, and embark on a journey of murder. Lee obeys. He kills a family in their own home, assumes ownership of the home, and takes on a female companion (voiced by Hana Mae Lee) who is in the middle of her own nervous breakdown. Just when she realizes that Lee is some kind of vessel for chaos, she too is “gotten to” and turns against him. This is what seems to be going on: Either an alien invasion is happening, turning people into murderous drones … or a wave of very serious mental illness is sweeping the world, turning everyone into killers. Oh, and there are portals to other dimensions placed around for Lee and his hunters / controllers to pass through as well. Is this the “new normal” … or is Lee just a “puppet” in the grand scheme of things?
Close to 10 years in the making from filmmaker Evan Marlowe, Abruptio is an effective and depressing little tale cleverly told with puppets, performers in masks and suits, and some seamless filmmaking on practical sets. The facial designs are hideously ugly and creepy, straight out of someone’s nightmares, and the overall effect of the film is to get under your skin, which is does. It’s a human horror show for sure, dropping you into a parallel universe, and it manages to feel akin to films such as Anomalisa and Beau is Afraid, both very strange and unusual films about neurotic, unappealing men who seem to walk through nightmares or deal with mental illness. This film certainly won’t be for everyone, but it’s vividly done and of interest to fans of puppets and David Lynchian worlds. Sid Haig and Robert Englund are featured voice performers.
Anchor Bay has just released a DVD and a Blu-ray for Abruptio, and it comes with two audio commentaries – one with the writer director, and another with one of the puppeteers – and it also has interviews with the performers and filmmakers.
