Describing the plot of Dreams Of Aberrance is almost a futile exercise. Director Miko Drake’s black and white experimental film does not have a plot in the traditional fashion. Things happen to be certain, and a narrative of sorts does emerge, but explaining it in any way does not do the act of experiencing the film any justice.
So, with that rather large caveat, here’s the best way I can explain Dreams Of Aberrance. A literal waking nightmare, things start in the woods, as a rectangular box of static signals strange happenings. The camera cranes up and down, zooming on fallen tree branches or babbling brooks. Static boxes continue to appear, and in the first five-minutes, the movie lives up to its title.
“The camera cranes up and down, zooming on fallen tree branches or babbling brooks.”
It continues to do so as the setting moves to a seemingly abandoned house. Here though, there is a person pseudo-guiding the camera through it. Then back to the woods, only now a person is present. A different person is stalking them, and images of black-gloved hands loom large in some scenes. Intercut throughout all of this is a silhouette figure dancing among stringed lights.
"…...explaining it in any way does not do the act of experiencing the film any justice."
