Rating: B-
Dir: Evan Marlowe
Star (voice): James Marsters, Hana Mae Lee, Darren Darnborough, Sid Haig
For the second time in about a week, after Plan 9 From Aliexpress, I find myself compelled to ask: What the fuck did I just watch? Back in the nineties, there was a series on MTV called Liquid Television. It showcased experimental animated and related content: Aeon Flux got its start there, as did Beavis and Butthead. It feels like this is a feature-length version of a segment from that show. Because it’s a real-life world, inhabited entirely by full-scale human puppets. They’re pretty realistic, to the point I suspect in some shots they are humans with fake heads. Yet, they are clearly not human, which leaves the viewer feeling a perpetual sense of uncanny valley.
If the execution is bizarre, the script is 110% mental. Les Hackels (Marsters) is stuck in a dead-end job and his girlfriend just dumped him. How could things get worse? How about: a bomb is implanted in his neck, and he’s consequently forced to take a box to his job, which emits a poison gas that kills his coworkers. It’s just the start of a series of tasks where he is forced to kill on commands from… Well, the “who” remains a bit vague. Meanwhile, society is collapsing round about him, he gets arrested by the police who demand he confess to something – it’s not clear what. Oh, yeah: and there’s an ongoing extraterrestrial invasion, which is creating a race of alien/human hybrids. His mother may be involved.
If the above sounds batshit crazy, then I’ve done it justice. There’s a constantly unsettling vibe here, and that’s not even considering the disturbing content. At one point, for example, Les feeds his ex-girlfriend into an industrial fan. Its closest cousin is likely Meet the Feebles, in its combination of fake characters in our everyday world. Except, the graphic violence there unfolded with a sly wink. Here, there’s rarely any sense other than Marlowe being entirely serious about the entire endeavour. It’s not as much fun as Feebles, yet probably has more to say. Just don’t ask what. When an interviewer inquired what he wanted audiences to take away from Abruptio, Marlowe replied, “Their empty popcorn boxes and soda cups.”
Yeah, there’s good reason its entry on the IMDb currently has 66 critic reviews, and only four viewer ones. Not sure I’ve previously seen a ratio so skewed. It does feel like a film for cinéastes, merging elements of David Lynch, Charlie Kaufman, Jan Švankmajer and David Cronenberg – basically, every film weirdo in recent history. Though, make no mistake, the end product reflects a fairly unique sensibility. I did feel there was a point, perhaps an hour in, where it felt like it was simply becoming strange for the sake of its own strangeness. Had the novel style been in the service of a plot with more rigour, it could have been a classic. Instead, I feel it’s a one and done viewing for me, albeit one I won’t forget in a hurry.