Today’s nightmare fuel comes courtesy of Abruptio, Evan Marlowe‘s life-sized (yes, LIFE-SIZED) puppet horror that combines comedy, mystery and blood in a ‘first-of-its-kind surrealistic horror/thriller.’
The long-awaited Abruptio has been in production since May 2015, and FINALLY got its world premiere at January’s Santa Monica Film Festival. The film will next screen virtually at Cinejoy (virtual version of Silicon Valley’s Cinequest) from March 1 to March 12, 2023, thanks to HellBent Pictures.
The official Abruptio press release describes the film as follows:
Les Hackel hates his life. He works a dead-end job, was just dumped by his high-maintenance girlfriend, and still lives with his nagging mom. One night, he discovers a fresh incision behind his neck. His friend Danny tells him it’s a bomb, that someone has implanted one in his neck, too. And then the messages start coming in, forcing Les to carry out missions with deadly results. Les is partnered up with a series of oddball characters to commit heinous tasks. The violence escalating around him, Les pieces together the clues that reveal the horrific plans to breed a monstrous race of beings.
Joining Marsters and Peele in lending their vocal talents to Abruptio is a stacked ensemble cast including Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Christopher McDonald (The Faculty), Hana Mae Lee (The Babysitter), Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh) and the iconic Sid Haig (House of 1000 Corpses) in one of his final roles.
Director Marlowe describes Abruptio as ‘a darkly comedic horror film’, stating that it has “as much in common with Franz Kafka as it does Ray Chandler. It pays homage to the groundbreaking cinema of the 1970s while pushing the envelope in its own right.” From the descriptions of some of Abruptio‘s most challenging scenes (‘abandoned amusement park’, ‘gory set piece involving a lot of corpses’), he’s not kidding.
You can find ticket info for Abruptio here, and then please proceed to take a nosedive into the uncanny valley with this trailer and official poster:
Abruptio trailer from Evan Marlowe on Vimeo.
