A suspense-free indie flick supernatural horror offering that pretty much serves as on-the-job training for all involved, Aberration is lacking across the board, both technically and narratively.

Caught up between high school frenemies Elliott (Cal Thomas) and Kyle (Kristian Capalik), Christy (Gwendolyn Garver) is a normal-ish teenage girl, but she also hides a secret — namely, that she’s plagued by terrifying visions of a ghostly, sunken-eyed young boy (Austin Kieler) who is decidedly not Haley Joel Osment. When one of her dreams comes true and a classmate turns up dead, Christy begins to suspect that her only hope of survival is to uncover the truth behind a mystery that has shrouded her entire town in terror.

Director Douglas Elford-Argent, working from a script by Wendy Elford-Argent, leans heavily on clichéd modes of stimulus goosing, to little effect. He and cinematographer Marc Menet drag out the official Simon West Colored Filters Starter Kit™, but it comes across as empty and showy rather than part of some unified visual theory for the material. And that material, by the way, so lacks in escalating tension that it leaves many of the actors herein to founder about, clearly out of their element.

Housed in a regular Amaray case, Aberration comes to DVD presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, with a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound audio track and optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. Naturally it also includes chapter stops, but there are otherwise no supplemental materials on the release. D- (Movie) D (Disc)