Baskin

If you are tired of modern horror films filled with cheap and forced jump scares constructed in a way of muting down the sounds and then throwing an explosion of loud noises in your face to try to scare you, and are rather interested in watching a film filled with tension, dreadful atmosphere, interesting characters, symbolism and pure nightmare images look no further. Baskin (aka Police Raid) is a Turkish horror film directed by Can Evrol (in his directorial debut) and is based on short horror film of the same name. Story follows a group of police officers who stumble upon a Black Mass in an abandoned building. Sure, probably not an original scenario. You might feel like you probably seen this before, but it is the approach and execution that allows this film to rise above most of today's horror films. Tension is always present in Baskin, and it's dark and dreadful atmosphere builds all around you and won't let go so closing your eyes will mean nothing but surrender. Also, instead of a group of stupid, drunk and naked teens, this time we have a group of mature, experienced police officers and seeing them being overwhelmed with terror is even more frightening. There is a scene in which one of those police officers enters a room only to behold scenery so terrifying he loses his mind and starts screaming. There were no jump scares, just genuine terror. Maybe the last 20 minutes were kinda disappointing compared to the first half of the film, but Baskin is still overall a strong horror ride. If you are not a fan of violent and gory films, better skip this one. But if you're open minded and enjoy all types of horror movies you should definitely pay a visit to this hellish nightmare.

I'd had my eye on this movie for over a year. Constantly checking to see if, when, and where it was getting released. The first trailer for it immediately hooked me, and I needed to see this movie. Now I finally have, and I can safely say the wait was worth it. With what little reviews are even out there at this point, critics and keyboard warriors are complaining that Baskin is 'low on plot'. Hearing that as a complaint really grinds my gears. See, there are some movies that are just devoid of enough creativity to generate an interesting plot, and then there are other movies like Baskin, that are that way by design. If you don't like the movie... fine. But, it's REALLY well made.

The 'low on plot' complaint gets more absurd the more I think about it because so many masterful and classic movies have threadbare plots and nobody even bats an eyelash. In fact, they praise how it does so much with so little. Where's THAT love for Baskin? Writer and director Can Evernol has crafted a wonderfully nightmarish movie that seems to understand the very fabric of a bad dream- a dream you keep trying to wake up from and can't. Baskin makes enough sense from scene to scene that you can follow the narrative as a movie, but there are enough plot threads and details that stick out to give the movie a thoroughly dreamlike quality.

It dives in and out of deeper dream realms, characters deliver spooky speeches about fate and death. The camera fetishizes details that look irrelevant, so your eyes are drawn in, scouring the scene for clues or hints or something lurking in the shadows. Every scene is atmospheric and moody, giving the movie an uneasy vibe even when not much is really happening. The movie has a simple plot, but that doesn't mean it's a simple movie. It leaves a lot open to your imagination, but not in the way you might think. That concept when married to horror movies usually means that the killers or the monster isn't ever really seen, or that all the gory stuff happens off screen. Neither is true of Baskin.

It lets you use your imagination when it comes to the story. There's obviously a much bigger and more complex history to the antagonists of this movie, and thinking about what that might be is just as unnerving and scary as watching them kill their victims. And, speaking of victims, by the time our protagonists, a team of five police officers, happen to stumble across their lair, an old abandoned police station- we can clearly see they've been at this for a while. This small cult has killed dozens and dozens of people in extremely brutal and ritualistic manners. Also, I've got to give props to the filmmakers for creating one of the most disturbing looking cults I've ever seen.

Especially the perfect casting of the cult leader in Mehmet Cerrahoglu. Now, obviously, that name won't mean much to most audiences because this is Mehmet's first and only screen credit. But... oh my god. His performance was deeply unsettling and extremely disturbing. I can see a bright (or dark..?) future for him in horror movies. He's like a new Michael Berryman, and I say that with as much love and fondness for this genre and the actors in it as humanly possible. He stole the whole show away from the well established leads up to that point. Mehmet had dynamic and chilling on screen presence.

A lot of Can Evernol's inspirations are readily apparent to genre fans. Clive Barker, Eli Roth, David Lynch, and Nicolas Winding Refn- to name just a few. He manages to blend an eerie Euro art-house vibe with a hardcore splatter flick vibe. Actually, no- scratch that. He doesn't blend them- he does something a lot riskier. The first half of the movie is eerie Euro art-house cinema, and the second half of the movie smashes in, rubbing our faces in the anxiety inducing, gross- out, extreme gore, of your (above) average splatter flick. Baskin might not be the bloodiest or most insane movie ever, but just because I- as a genre fan, am jaded as hell, doesn't mean I can't recognize it for the demented and wild ride that it is.

It's a sick and haunting movie that is more concerned with moods and instantly disturbing imagery than it is with backstory and plotting. The necessary story bits are told through the characters and their interactions, and that was fine to me. I liked that aspect of the movie. Baskin succeeds overall, but excels in leaving you with memorable images of things the average person wouldn't ever want to see, let alone have it stuck in their head. Baskin doesn't look cheap, or low budget. It's immersive and gritty, and it's readily apparent flaws can be chalked up to differing tastes and opinions. Some people like more plot-heavy horror movies, so obviously they might be let down by Baskin a bit, but that doesn't mean it's thin plot is a flaw.

In retrospect, the movie does feel rather small. It only really has three locations, a restaurant, a highway, and the old not-so-abandoned police station. What makes it feel small is how little actually happens in each location. The movie milks each second it can out of every setting it has, and it's surprisingly effective. In lesser hands, this movie would've been an absolute misfire. But, as is, it's a slick and well made piece of gore-splatter cinema. It's moody cinematography, vibrant colors, and synth heavy score bring to mind an extra bloody and Satanic spun Wrong Turn by way of Nicolas Winding Refn. I couldn't say that like it's a bad thing even if I tried. Baskin is destined for overnight cult status, and genre immortality. I loved it.

Came across this title while browsing on IMDb. Read very positive reviews by regular posters in the cinema board section.

The movie starts very promising. Cops chatting n dining in some very creepy motel. The atmosphere is creepy. The chat goes on. A lil boring in the beginning but the patience pays off very well once they get to the abandoned building when hell is truly unleashed.

Its like a Freudian, giving way to a claustrophobic sense of approaching dread of darkness and of death.

The set lighting is extremely poor (may b the low budget n debut direction).

Some of the sequences have less of an impact than they would have if we were able to see more of what was going.

Thankfully it wasn't shot in hand held shaky cam stuff.

The dark, desaturated cinematography is perfectly suited to this aesthetic and adds to the grime.

The movie is very surrealistic, like a trip to hell n back.

When the end credit rolls, u feel like u jus awoke from a mind-*uckin nightmare.

Curious to see what its director will do next.

Fans of Clive Barker, Lucio Fulci, David Lynch, Dario Argento n Wes Craven will definitely enjoy this movie.

The actor who played Baba has an extremely unique look, like a true Satan waiting in hell.

A twisted, surreal & nightmarish journey into the bottomless depths of hell, Baskin is an extremely disturbing, utterly unusual & overly ambitious tale that feels like something that came straight out of the abyss and, thanks to its stomach-churning violence & gore as well as multitudes of themes & symbolisms, it isn't an easy film to decipher in one sitting.

The story of Baskin follows a squad of five police officers who, after dining in a restaurant, receive a distress call from a nearby town and head there to investigate the issue. But once they reach the crime scene, an abandoned building that used to be a police station during the Ottoman era, they find themselves inexplicably trapped in a world of madness & suffering.

Co-written & directed by Can Evrenol in what is his feature film debut, Baskin is adapted from his short film of the same name and is one phantasmagorical ride from start to finish that's as bizarre as it is bewildering. The plot is filled with flashbacks & dream sequences and in between lies some real nasty stuff as well that's definitely not for the easily-distressed.

Each frame of it is instilled with a foreboding sense of doom and its dilapidated sets, sophisticated yet eerie camera-work, shaded colour tones, steady pace & stimulating score, all contribute greatly in enhancing its overall impact, and is all the more amplified by the gruesome brutality that Evrenol puts on the screen, for the level of violence that's on display here is absolutely sickening.

Performances are good even if the characters aren't that well-defined. More than individual inputs, it's the chemistry between the five actors that makes their characters believable. But nobody even holds a candle to the performance that comes later in the story from a first-time actor. Playing the antagonist, Mehmet Cerrahoglu chips in with a show-stealing work and makes for one intimidating villain.

On an overall scale, Baskin is one of the most shocking, disturbing & emotionally upsetting films of the year that's drenched in dread, revels in suffering & bathes in body horror. The labyrinth-like structure of its plot does go over the head sometimes but there is still an intriguing quality to it that keeps the interest alive until the very end. A convoluted mess but also an undeniably powerful experience, this Turkish horror about five cops who inadvertently wander into hell isn't for everyone. Enter at your own risk.

I saw the premise of the film and was interested. Adding to my interest was the fact that the film was foreign. I was curious what a Turkish horror movie would look like.

The movie starts out with an amazing film score that sets this tone for an early 80s euro giallo style.

It takes a while for the Horror to begin as we watch a group of cops go through some strange events before the real deal goes down.

And when the horror sneaks up to ya, it's very freaky and deranged, almost torture porn like. It made me squirm in my seat.

I must admit that overall I thought the movie was far too corny. It could be the culture gap, or it could be the Tarantino like built up to the horror with a lot of dialog, that may have been more interesting in the native language.

Can't really say that I like it all that much, though it made me uncomfortable, it was not in a scary way.