Aberrance was directed by Baatar Batsukh and written by Baatar Batsukh, Byambasuren Ganbat, Trevor Doyle, Alex Khan, and Erdene Orosoo. That is a lot of writing credits, and the funny thing is this isn’t particularly dialogue-heavy. If you’re concerned there may be too many cooks in the kitchen, let me assure you the writing feels cohesive from start to finish. In Aberrance Erkhme (played by Erkhembayar Ganbat) takes his wife Selenge (played by Selenge Chadraabal) on a remote getaway against her will. When their new neighbor sees how poorly she’s treated, he begins to investigate.

The acting is very good. Most of the characters are intentionally unexplored for the sake of mystery. The only character with any real depth from the jump is Erkhme. The character relationships fare better as Erkhme’s relationships with Selenge and the neighbor are fairly complicated. The dialogue is good.

Aberrance is seventy-four minutes long. The pacing works well. The cinematography was impressive. The camera comes off as very playful even during grim circumstances. The editing and the visuals are appealing and have a lot of character. The uniqueness of the visuals does begin to wane as things head towards a conclusion, and it becomes more standard.

I have two major issues with Aberrance. First, I got ahead of things. It sacrifices so much to create this mystery if you’re ahead of it the story doesn’t offer you much. The second issue is complicated. Let’s talk about From Dusk Til Dawn. From Dusk Til Dawn is about a heist that leads to a last stand against vampires. The vampires are an intrinsic part of the story. The first hour is a crime thriller, and then the vampires take center stage for forty minutes. Imagine if the vampires didn’t take center stage until the last fifteen minutes. Now most of it is a crime thriller, and when the vampires are finally revealed you have to ask yourself, “Do they matter at this point?” If you were to remove the vampires entirely it would still work as a stand-alone crime thriller. There are no vampires in Aberrance, but there are plot points built into the story that feel like nothing would be lost without them because of how little time is given to them. They don’t feel justified. I said the pacing works, and it does, but I also feel like so much could have been improved with more time. The “cat and mouse” moments could have been more thrilling. They didn’t develop the characters too much because they wanted to maintain the mystery, but the truth is revealed well before the resolution, so they could have used more time between the reveal and the resolution to further develop some of these characters. Finally, they could have created the time to implement some plot points in a way that makes them feel impactful as opposed to something that feels like it could be thrown away.

There aren’t a lot of practical effects. The blood is unrealistic, but it works when Aberrance is surreal or playful. There is a tiny bit of nudity. It isn’t anything outrageous or too revealing. The pacing and the mystery in Aberrance both proved to be double-edged swords. The mystery will be more effective for some people than it was for me, although I do think a great mystery isn’t reliant on the mystery itself to be great. The result is still a decent experience overall.

7 out of 10