An axe appears on screen early in Aberrance, a teasing reminder that the “Chekhov’s gun” rule also applies to skull-splitting, bone-chopping murder implements. Sure enough, there is plenty of bloody slaughter in this finely crafted thriller, but otherwise slasher cliches are impressively thin on the ground in Baatar Batsukh’s gripping, visually striking debut feature. Making its international debut at Oldenburg Film Festival this week, this twist-heavy shocker should find a wider global audience thanks to its slick execution, genre-friendly format and marketable novelty value as one of Mongolia’s first exportable horror movies.
Basukh comes to directing from cinematography, most notably shooting Mongolia’s 2019 Oscar submission The Steed, which won multiple festival prizes including Oldenburg’s Spirit of Cinema Award. The director is also a huge fan of cult US director Darren Aronofsky, dedicating Aberrance to him in the closing credits, which helps explain his film’s stylistic homages and faint narrative echoes of Aronofsky’s feverish psycho-horror curio Mother! (2017) Of course, this modestly budgeted production is not in the same league in terms of originality and ambition, but it does confirm Basukh as a skilled visual stylist and master of tightly wound suspense.
A thirty-something couple arrive at a remote wooden house deep in the snowy Mongolia hinterlands. The stern, watchful Erkhmee (Erkhembayar Ganbat) appears cautiously delighted when nervy Selenge (Selenge Chadraabal) voices her approval, but there are evidently serious tensions simmering below the calm surface. Her body marked with mysterious bruises, Selenge paints blood-drenched landscapes, smashes windows and begs Erkhmee to release her from this domestic prison. While he force-feeds her pills for some nebulous purpose, she quietly rejects and conceals them. When the pair’s snooping neighbour (Yalalt Namsrai) begins to sense something is amiss, he calls the police. But Erkhmee persuades the officers to leave, possibly with a bribe, raising the risk of violent reprisal against the voyeur next door.
Basukh deftly keeps viewers guessing about who holds the real power in this volatile set-up. Is Selenge the victim of domestic abuse, or even kidnapping? Or maybe a crime witness forced into an undercover protection scheme? Is the burly, sullen Erkhmee bullying brute or patient, caring husband to a woman suffering mental breakdown? There are even teasing hints of more supernatural, paranormal explanations here. Midway through, Aberrance seems to finally reveal its secrets with an awkward visit from the couple’s jet-setting friends (Badamtsetseg Batmunkh, Bayarsanaa Batchuluun) and an emergency call to Selenge’s doctor (Oyundary Jamsranjav). But Basukh is toying with audience expectations here, lulling us with a comforting sense of closure before pulling the rug away completely.
In its final act, Aberrance shifts into a whole new register for a deranged crescendo of betrayals, jarring reversals, secret agendas and bloodthirsty rampages through the snowy forest. Refreshingly for a horror-adjacent film, the fast-paced narrative repeatedly sidesteps familiar genre tropes, piling on the shock twists right up until the end credits. With hindsight, some of the characters appear to have previously behaved in baffling ways given the nefarious motives that eventually come to light, but Basukh mostly keeps the plot’s internal logic streamlined and tightly controlled.
Aberrance is a very good-looking film. Working two jobs as his own cinematographer, Basukh’s visual training shows in almost every shot, with imaginative use of body-mounted cameras, beautifully framed interior spaces, painterly lighting choices and a vivid, saturated colour palette. A real-time car-rolling crash stunt and a handful of hallucinatory, Kubrick-tinged nightmare sequences are particular stand-outs. Sound design is also strongly deployed, with howling winds and ticking clocks serving as sinister motifs. Lean, suspenseful and consistently surprising, this is a fine debut, an elevated genre movie for people who dislike genre movies.
Director, screenwriter, cinematography: Baatar Batsukh
Cast: Selenge Chadraabal, Erkhembayar Ganbat, Yalalt Namsrai, Oyundary Jamsranjavm, Badamtsetseg Batmunkh, Bayarsanaa Batchuluun
Editing: Zoljargal Erdenekhuya
Producers: Trevor Doyle, Alexa Khan
Art direction, production design: Altanshagai Gantumur
Music: Ochsuren Davaasuren, Jargal Oyunerdene
Production companies, world sales: Three Flames Pictures (US)
Venue: Oldenburg International Film Festival
In Mongolian
76 minutes
