Abruptio

Filming started in Los Angeles on May 23, 2015 and wrapped on December 2, 2017.[16][17][18][19] In December 2017, several actors were confirmed to have recorded lines, including James Marsters, Robert Englund, Sid Haig, Jordan Peele, Hana Mae Lee and Christopher McDonald.[20] In a June 2020 interview, the film's director Evan Marlowe revealed that with "six years in, we're still not quite halfway done filming. We plan to pick up where we left off in the coming months."[15]

On September 23, 2019, the film's crew relayed their feelings towards the tragic death of co-star Sid Haig, while confirming they will finish post-production on Abruptio soon, for a projected release sometime in 2020.[21][22][23] In April 2020, Marlowe revealed information about the film's production:

Abruptio is a puppet movie. We resolved (for some insane reason) to use only realistic lifelike hand puppets in actual settings, just like any other movie. No CGI backgrounds or actors wearing prosthetic makeup. This sort of thing has never been done. The Dark Crystal comes close, though there, the designers weren’t bound by the confines of reality. We’ve had a few incredibly skilled people helping out. Jeff Farley has been our lead puppet fabricator. Again, this kind of work isn’t common, so some amount of trial and error has been needed to find the balance of aesthetic, durability and function. Meaning, the heads need to look great on camera, hold up well under shooting environments that are often hostile, and let the puppeteer emote without too much effort. When it comes to the actual shoot, our puppeteer Danny Montooth lip syncs with each line, played on loop on my magical iPad until all the aspects (lighting, camera movement, mouth motion, eye line) are just right. Once I’ve got the footage, I edit it up and then our visual effects guy John Sellings smooths out any problems. When a scene is done, it gets color-corrected and graded, and then the sound and score are added. I’d estimate a good 30% of the film is ready to go. We were set to shoot another 30% this year when the coronavirus shut down production. Who knows what the immediate future of film production will be, not only for major studio work but small-scale (read: zero crew) productions like ours? We hope we can rev back up this year.[20]

In August 2020, production resumed, with coronavirus safety protocols in place, including limited crew members.[24] The film will wrap production in early 2021.[7]