Hey gang, Valkor here. And i'll just put it out there – if you don't know already, I'm hooked on really bad films. Why? I'm not really sure. But what I do know is that in my mind, I believe I'm performing a civic duty of warning you guys about the truly bad films that lurk the shelves and digital plane; that's right I sit through the worse so you don't have to. This next title – Aberration DVD, isn't Solid State bad, but it's still pretty bad. Spoilers ahead, but for a film like this you'll appreciate knowing… and knowing is half the… well you know.
Aberration centers on high school student Christy (Gwendolyn Garver), who finds out that she's a dreamer like her father was before her. What is a dreamer? She's a medium or a person that can communicate with the spirit world as well as see into the future. And they in turn enter her world, especially when they have some unfinished business and need to be vindicated. Lately Christy has been having disturbing dreams and on top of that she's haunted by the ghost of a little boy. Furthermore, her dreams are coming to fruition as her classmates and friends start dropping and the prime suspect is her classmate Kyle (Kristian Capalik), who is also beyond obsessed with her. It's all up to Christy to put the pieces together, to discover who is behind the murders before more of her friends are killed.
Spoiler: The killer is Kyle's former friend Elliot (Cal Thomas) who wants to see Kyle framed for the murders and in doing so, he figures he can win the heart of Christy, whom he has always had his eye on.
What really caught my attention about Aberration was after the credits ended, at the bottom the film, there's a copyright of 2006. It took seven years to get this film out there, but after watching it, if it were never released… I'd completely understand.
The Good:
I will say one thing about Aberration – the production values are insanely high for an indie film. Seriously, there are tons of indie films out there now that wish they could make use of an entire town (Waupaca) and its entire population. From the well choreographed hockey match, the use of the town's jail and high school, it's pretty damn impressive to say the least. But that's about the only positive thing I can say about the film because we then move on to…
The Bad:
Wow… just where do I begin? For starters, the idea of Christy being this spirit talker doesn't play off all that well. I mean once it's revealed the type of person she is, it's never fully explored again. We don't get Christy coming to terms with her newfound ability, only moments when it comes into play and then the story continues. We're taken into her past through flashbacks and the haunting kid pops up here and there, but that's it. And because you're dealing with a film that isn't sure whether it wants to be a horror or a thriller, the overall presentation feels broken and all over the place - it simply doesn't flow all that well. Then there's the kid who haunts Christy through the entire film; he's actually Elliot's younger brother Charlie (Austin Kieler) whom Elliot killed when they were kids because Charlie touched his things. Why is that relevant? Other than that incident being the source Elliot's anger issues (and the dude is constantly angry), he's really not relevant and the story could have been developed without him or the entire spirit aspect of the film, focusing more on the love triangle between the three main characters. Maybe, just maybe Aberration would have been a little better. But in the end it's very, very boring; it's not very suspenseful, the violence is pretty tame, the whole spirit aspect never really develops and the acting is mad cheesy. Oh and the actors look way too old to be playing high school teenagers.
The Ugly:
That end song "Shadow"; it's laughably bad.
Aberration is available now, and while it took seven years to be put out there… maybe it's better if it were left on the shelf. It's a very bland horror/thriller that's only good for putting insomniacs to sleep. And out of TOV 5 stars, I'm giving Aberration DVD a 1.5.
