The Vault is a 2015 film from Mongolia directed by B. Tsogt-Erdene.
It's a haunted house story. A family—wife Kherlen, husband Galsaan, and daughter Saruul—move into a brick house in the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar. It's a pretty humble dwelling that lacks running water, but it's a step up from the yurts that many Mongolians live in.
What they don't know is that their little house is built over a portion of the city's graveyard. And there's a ghost who is none too happy about the family of living people moving in.
Tropes:
- Downer Ending: An ending that is a heck of a lot darker than ghost films like Poltergeist that obviously inspired this movie. By the end of the film, Batjargal is dead of the wounds he suffered in the vault. Kherlen dies of a slashed throat after her possessed sister Oyun, comes after her with a knife. Oyun, no longer possessed, falls out of an upper floor of the house to her death. Little Saruul is trapped in some alternate dimension forever. Galsaan is arrested for the murder of his family and apparently killed himself by grabbing the cop's gun. And Galsaan is arrested just before he can drop the match to burn down the house, implying that some other family may come to live there eventually.
- Dutch Angle: In the scene where a possessed Oyun comes at her sister-in-law with a knife, the camera keeps tilting from one angle to another.
- Exorcist Head: Tsengel the ghost turns her head 180 degrees to stare at Galsaan.
- Finger-Twitching Revival: Batjargal's fingers twitch as he wakes up in the hospital. Subverted in that he's actually dying, as shown by the flatline on the EKG hooked up to him. He "wakes up" as he's possessed by the ghost.
- Hollywood Darkness: The vault under the house is underground with no lights, but somehow there's enough ambient light for Galsaan and his brother Batjargal to look around.
- Indian Burial Ground: Not an Indian burial ground, but a shot at the beginning of the movie shows a government plan to turn the cemetery on the outskirts of the city into a park. It's eventually revealed that the little brick house was built over a grave.
- Jump Cut: Jump cuts are used several times to indicate tension or unease, like when the ghost tells Kherlen that her daughter is in the vault.
- Kubrick Stare: Tsengel, being a lot shorter than the adults, directs a lot of creepy Kubrick stares at them.
- Orbital Shot: Around Kherlen and Galsaan as they are outside, desperately calling for the missing Tsengel.
- Product Placement: The Time-Passes Montage makes sure to show the audience that the family ate at a particular chicken restaurant and they bought Sketchers brand shoes in the mall.
- Repeat Cut: The shot where Oyun falls out an upper window of the building to her death is shown numerous times.
- Staggered Zoom: There's a staggered zoom onto Saruul when Galsaan sees her in a weird, unnatural pose on the bed, as the ghost is first manifesting itself in the house.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: Saruul befriends Tsengel, a very creepy little girl straight out of Korean horror. Tsengel turns out to be a ghost, presumably of someone buried in the vault.
- Title Drop: "The vault" turns out to be a void space under the house, accessible by ladder. It seems that it was some sort of burial vault back in the day, as shown by the skulls under the dirt. Kherlen tells her husband to not go down there.
