"Kylgor in the Grisly Abyss": Interview with Writer and Director Mason Newton DeRushie

Kylgor in the Grisly Abyss: Interview with Writer and Director Mason Newton DeRushie

By: Nathaniel Simpson

    As I have been gearing up to cover 2026 Fantastic Fest remotely while the Festival takes place at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, there is one film that stood out among the rest - Kylgor in the Grisly Abyss. The reason why it stood out to me the most? The entire film, which is a gruesome horror/thriller about a band of survivors who attempt to kill an evil king but find themselves trying to escape the Grisly Abyss, is entirely shot with puppetry or stop motion. When reading through the synopsis for this film and exploring the background for this movie, I was immediately intrigued by this unique way of telling this story and was wondering how it was going to turn out. 

    When watching the film, this movie absolutely blew me away with the fantastic puppetry and how DeRushie and his group of filmmakers were able to craft this picture. Shooting out of DeRushie's garage with a budget of less than $50,000, it was so awe-inspiring to see such a low budget-big concept movie come to life in this way. I never would have thought that utilizing puppets would have been a great way to tell a story like this, but DeRushie makes it work incredibly well. The creature puppets here are fantastic and I think he did a great job of making this film so incredibly gruesome and violent; it is a testament to the filmmaker that a movie about puppets was able to make the viewer recoil in disgust at some of the graphic scenes or gore and mutilation.

    While you can read my full review for this movie in the next few days, I was lucky enough to be able to interview Mason about his work on this film and how he brought it to life. While the movie was so interesting to watch and wonder how they made this happen, it was so much better to hear his responses to my questions about how this film came to be and try to imagine how he made it work so well. There is not a doubt in my mind that this is just the start for Mason a filmmaker, and I can't wait to see what kind of special effects-heavy films he does in the future. 

Q:  To start, what was your main motivation in choosing puppet characters for this film? Were you inspired by the likes of Jim Henson or Frank Oz for the puppet and the puppetry? What was the biggest challenge you had with crafting your movie this way? 

A: l’ve always been mesmerized by puppets and stop motion and always wanted to make an All-Puppet movie. I don’t think there is anything with puppets in it before the year 2000 that I don't love. I was definitely inspired by everything Jim Henson/ Frank Oz! There is even a Fraggle rock homage during a montage in the movie. Meet the feebles is also one of my grail movies. When my dad and I began talking about doing a feature film, Covid was coming around, so having puppets instead of actors seemed like the perfect call. The biggest challenge was planning our shots without having full knowledge of what the puppets could do because we didn’t have much testing time beforehand. It became immensely easier to plan out more intricate shots as we went, once I knew the puppet's limitations fully.

Q: I want to applaud you on the absolutely fantastic set designs and special effects. This movie honestly blew me away with how you were able to craft the entire movie, and to read that you shot the entire film in your garage made me appreciate it so much more! Do you have a favorite set piece or special effect in the film? And can you walk us through what it was like crafting these sets and fight sequences? 

A:  There is a double-succubi creature kill in the movie that I am pretty proud of. It was one of the few times in the movie where Kylgor did an extra big combo move. The sets in the movie are actually just one set. We would shoot the scene and then carve away some foam here, add a little foam there, and repaint. The lighting helps with the illusion as well. It’s tricky to do so many fight scenes with puppets because of the risk of too much repetition. We really wanted to make sure to not repeat kills, and fight choreography, or how we shoot them. And if we happened to be shooting in the winter, sometimes it was like puppeteering stiff tire rubber.

Q:  As a follow-up to the previous question, can you describe how you were able to capture some of these monsters through puppetry and special effects? One that really stood out to me was towards the end of the film when Kylgor encountered the giant one-eyed monster. I thought it was jaw-dropping. Can you explain how that puppet worked and how you were able to make it look so realistic and scary? 

A:I appreciate the kind words! So much of this movie was planned with “In theory, this should work” as the driving force. The cyclops scene was the first one I came up with because I wanted to do a miniature Kylgor hiding from a big creature glove that's feeling around. My uncle Jeff made the cyclops head and glove that interacts with the miniature and we bounce between that and our giant fingers that scales with the full-size hand puppets.

Q: I really like the fact on how you were able to use the unique filmmaking technique of using puppets, but also make the film scary and disgusting at times when we get into the gore and disembodiment of these characters. How were you able to balance the campiness of the puppets with genuinely great horror filmmaking throughout this film? I think it worked really well in the final product of this movie. 

A:Most puppet movies lean heavily into the goofiness with the Performances, We knew that if we played it completely straight dialogue and story wise, that physically the puppets would force a natural campiness into the movie. And then seeing them cut to ribbons definitely brings a macabre fun to it. So we just focused on the seriousness of the story.

Q.: What about this film are you the most proud of, and that you’re excited for audiences to see at Fantastic Fest? 

A: This is my first feature, so there is that level of proving to yourself that you can do it. I'm just very proud that we did in fact do it and that it’s gotten noticed by such great festivals. I'm also very proud that all of the people in our small town have their hard work on display around the world.

Q: I read that this movie took about 6 years to fully complete. What were your thoughts when you finally finished this film? Was it a sense of relief or was it more melancholy that this chapter was now over for you? 

A: So we hit the five year mark since we dropped our crowdfunding campaign in May! When the movie was finished, it turned into “off to get the dcp done!”, then after that “now we start submitting to festivals!” The race doesn’t give you too much time to think about it. The melancholy feeling is definitely starting to hit me now. Steven Kostanski told me beforehand to “enjoy your time making it” I never forgot that and made sure to during production. I miss being in our dirty cave sets with the crew.

    Klygor in the Grisly Abyss premieres on Friday, September 18 at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. I think this movie is going to be a major crowd-pleaser, and this one is going to be a lot of fun for a lot of people. My review for the film will be out on the 18th, so make sure you stay tuned for the full review for this film! A huge thank you to Mason for letting me talk with him about this picture, and I'm very excited for all the success he will have with this one!