Erkhmee and his wife Selenge make their way to an old cabin in the wilderness of Mongolia for reasons that remain unclear to them at first. The tensions that begin to rise can be attributed to Selenge’s discovery of a dead cat that she finds in a garbage bin; her behavior begins to puzzle him. Even before the couple is notified to pack their bags, Erkhmee is informed by his landlord that a cranky neighbor will intrude on them. To every ones’ surprise, things soon get serious, and it becomes apparent that Erkhmee is abusive and treats his wife poorly. This turns out to be false. With the introduction of Sanaa and other friends, things get messier, especially since the neighbor won’t stop shouting. Violence begins to engross everything, especially with the arrival of a physician who further complicates the scenario.
No one would think that Baatar Batsukh was a DP before sitting in the director’s chair, because the best feature of the film is Batsukh’s cinematography and general design of the film. In that respect, Batsukh fully exploits the mountain forest geography, making it snow to efficiently create a sense of disorientation, captivity, and finally, dread. All of these images, he incorporates into his film, along with tracking shots, camera shake, “fogginess,” but more importantly, voyeurism from the neighbor which adds uneasiness to the situation, helps him tremendously in that regard. Lastly, the color palette and the injection of red at times are quite appealing, which only adds to the artistic visuals employed throughout the film and some of the scenes will most surely make the viewers remember “A Tale of Two Sisters” which I believe is one of the many films highly recommended by the director.
The movie was not a thriller in a strict sense, so the ending was a bit disappointing, when Batsukh tries his best to pay tribute to Aronofsky with a storyline centered around ‘Who’s the abuser and who is the victim,’ and finally, the purpose of the other characters. The way Selenge is presented does work in that category Selenge Chadraabal, who played the leading role, occasionally seems to be reminding of the mother from ‘Moebius’ but only during the period she goes insane on screen. However, everything collected was literally turns to the other and that does not make much sense to begin with, the senses were beginning to warp and fracture, Wilkerson would be hundred percent accurate and touching the subtleties of cinematic creation. In that case, and without a doubt, of which there are too many in the films of this genre, I believe they go too further than the realm of realism.
Yes, they do work in some aspects especially the first element of the film where it provides the expectation of a psychological drama or borderline romance, but as for editing in this film, which is done by Zoljargal Erdenekhuyag, the length of the movie was cut down to a measly 75 minutes, While the length does add to the story portrayed through imagery, there aren’t a lot of scenes other than the cuts that were effective and cohesive.
Conversely, and in an attempt to build upon the acting skills of Chadraabal, most of the actors manage to give pretty solid performances, portraying their ambivalence convincingly. Yalalt Namsrai as the neighbor in particular, is able to point out that there is something seriously off about him, with his courteous demeanor right from the start of the film but Oyundary Jamsranjav has a quite constant aura of enigma as the Doctor.
On the whole, “Aberrance” has commendable cinematography, acting, and goes down as one of the few Mongolian horror films and so is worthwhile. The narrative and the general writing leaves much to be desired, as the film in general has its own set of problems.
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