#even marlowe

[world-of-puppets]

Abruptio (2023) Dir. Even Marlowe

[world-of-puppets]

Abruptio (2023) dir. Even Marlowe

[world-of-puppets]

Even Marlowe’s Abruptio Update

All the way back in October of 2020, I wrote a post about the horror/thriller puppetry film, Abruptio, directed by Even Marlowe. Back then, the film was said to be released sometime in 2021. But 2021 came and went with Abruptio not getting so much as a trailer.

Recently, I decided to look into the film again to see if I could find any updates. As I feared the film might still be in development hell or had been cancelled.

However, to my surprise, not only did Abruptio finally have its worldwide premiere at the Santa Monica Film Festival on January 17 2023, according to Wikipedia, but the first trailer for the film also dropped just two weeks ago on the Chicago Horror Film Festival YouTube channel.

I gotta say. It looks pretty interesting. The tone seems to be a bit more serious and slow then I expected. Given the whole bomb implant the main character Les has that forces him to carry out dirty work for a mysterious puppet-master, I envisioned something more action-y and high adrenaline. The tone form what I can see in the trailer seems to be going for something more surreal and dreamlike, almost introspective. Les’s line at the end “I have a bomb in my neck… just like everyone else” plus the movies tagline “everyone’s a puppet” makes me wonder if the movie will use the neck bomb, and the puppetry medium as a whole, as some kind of deeper metaphor of some kind. Like how no individual person is truly in control of their own life and were all ultimately at the whim to larger, enigmatic forces beyond our understanding or control… or something along those lines? Or maybe I’m just reading too deeply into it.

The puppets themselves look… alright. As mentioned before, practical effects artist Jeff Farley worked as lead puppet fabricator on the puppets, and his expertise shows here, visually speaking. The realistic/semi realistic textures, scale and materials look pretty good for a mostly independent, non-Jim Henson puppetry film production. The puppet movements themselves I’m on the fence about. A lot of the movements look rather stiff and stilted, and some bits like the one where that guys head blows up in a warehouse looks very floppy crash test dummy-esque to me. This coupled with the very detailed and realistic yet slightly off look of the puppets, and I can totally understand why some people might be turned off by this trailer and the film itself. I will say though, given the surreal, unsettling feeling this film seems to be going for, making the puppets themselves off beat and uncanny looking/moving feels rather fitting. Though that’s just my opinion. Plus, most of what we’ve seen of the puppets in action is just this trailer so far, so maybe we’ll see some more impressive feats of puppetry performance in the film itself/future clips and trailers. We’ll have to wait and see…

[world-of-puppets]

Abruptio (2021)

Abruptio is an upcoming surrealistic puppet horror/thriller film written, directed and edited by Evan Marlowe. The premise is, according to Even;

Les hackel (James Masters) is a guy down on his luck who wakes to find an explosive device has been implanted into his neck. He must carry out heinous crimes in order to stay alive while trying to identify the mastermind manipulating the now twisted and strange world around him.

The director revealed more details in April of 2020, describing the film as a “puppet movie” using “only realistic lifelike hand puppets in actual settings.”, comparing it to Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal (1982). Marlowe also revealed that Jeff Farley has been lead puppet fabricator on the production.

Along with James Marsters, the film’s voice cast will also include Christopher McDonald, Hana Mae Lee, Robert Englund, Jordan Peele, and Sid Haig in his final film credit before his death on September 21st, 2019.

As of writing this, Abruptio is scheduled to be released in the United States sometime in 2021 by Hellbent Pictures, LLC., Sweet Home Films and Universal Pictures.