Aberrance review.
Mongolia enters the horror fray with Aberrance. Big ideas are executed in ways ranging from brilliant to confusing…but always interesting.
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Aberrance
Directed by Baatar Batsukh
Written by Baatar Batsukh, Byambasuren Ganbat and Erdene Orosoo
Starring Selenge Chadraabal, Erkhembayar Ganbat, Sukhee Ariunbyamba, Oyundary Jamsranjav and Bayarsanaa Batchuluun
Aberrance Review
Aberrance presents a stylish nightmare that can, at times, be quite confusing. On the plus side, it’s impossible to know where the story is heading from scene to scene. It does feel too much like a cheat a few times, however. Shocking moments that feel narratively disconnected from each other are sprinkled throughout the movie. They make for exactly that…shocking moments. Moments often mired by unnecessary added confusion. There’s a line between twists with narrative cohesion and twists with narrative confusion. Aberrance opts for the latter early and often.
Selenge (Selenge Chadraabal) and her husband Erkhme (Erkhembayar Ganbat) arrive at a remote cabin. The plot from there can be difficult to follow. Selenge is an unreliable protagonist. Erkhme is either a protective husband or a monster. Their neighbor suspects the latter is true…spying on the couple to discover the truth. The arrival of a doctor only further muddies the truth…flipping what we understand into something new.
What Aberrance lacks in clear narrative it makes up for in style. A gorgeous film with an active camera, director Baatar Batsukh puts a lot of visual talent on display. To be honest, the inventive ways he shows the story alleviates some of the problems in the telling of it. And it is important to make this distinction. While Aberrance can, at times, feel needlessly confusing…it is consistently interesting. In that way, the cheat works. Not only does the story supply exciting (if unearned) turns…it is constantly engaging.
You won’t be able to get a complete read on the characters in Aberrance until it’s too late. Too late to predict what’s going to happen…and too late to make full sense of how it fits with what came before. That’s the give and take of Aberrance. Beautiful to look at. Interesting to watch unfold. A headache to unpack.
Of course, the story eventually settles into a firm place. It almost feels like it chose a path rather than built to one naturally. This shouldn’t dissuade you from seeking the film out. You’ve probably never seen anything quite like it. It holds an interesting place in history as the first Mongolian horror film to run in American theaters. I couldn’t think of another Mongolian horror movie…so I’m not sure what else could have done so. Still…it’s great to see another culture represented in horror. Especially when it offers so much style.
The cast is excellent in what amounts to a lot of dual roles. Because the characters change so strikingly throughout the course of the story…there is a lot of meat to the roles. A loving husband or a terrifyingly violent man? A kind neighbor or a dangerous psychopath? An abused wife or a sick woman who isn’t taking her meds? Despite the movie eventually settling on one thing…the truth is that the characters are all of the above. The cast does an excellent job believably playing the extreme differences. It’s part of why the wild shifts work so well despite the missing pieces. The actors constantly give us something fresh and unexpected.
And then there is the camera. In addition to looking fantastic, Aberrance uses its camera to put on a show. As the narrative twists…the camera twists with it. When Selenge’s world spins out of control…so spins the camera. Chase scenes are shot with a close-up energy. It never blinks away from the violence. There are more interesting shots in this movie than any I can remember in some time.
In the end…the downside of Aberrance isn’t that it isn’t narratively cohesive. It’s when it forces itself into cohesion. The path it chooses is interesting…and it is delivered with all the shocks that you’d want. In doing so, however, it just becomes a story. Whatever the movie was gaining from its disconnected, stylish flair is stamped out by a need to choose an ending. I’m not saying the ending is bad…it isn’t bad at all. But…when a story you can’t get a handle on chooses its monsters and its heroes…it’s always going to feel unnatural. You can’t build logically when you count on an illogical feeling to engage and surprise.
Whichever way you come down on the choices that Aberrance makes in the end…and how it arrives at them…you probably won’t guess where it was heading. Whether it chooses the right place is up for debate…but the style on display along the way is well worth a look. Perhaps two. Just to see if it adds up the second time around.
Scare Value
Figuring out what’s going on in Aberrance is part of its appeal. When it all comes together…I’m not sure how much sense everything actually made. You can, and the movie does, explain that problem away…but it doesn’t smooth over some of the story’s more frustrating moments. Still…this is a great looking film with committed performances and a consistently interesting tone. Worth a look.
3/5
Aberrance Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from VUDU and Amazon
