Baskin

We've seen the premise of going to Hell many times before, but few are as effective as 'Hellraiser' and 'Baskin'. While 'Baskin' is not trying to be another 'Hellraiser', one can't help but compare them. Both films depict hell as a horrible place of torture.

From the opening moment, Yavuz (Muharrem Bayrak) is depicted as an arrogant and rather crude guy, a policeman who abuses his authority. (He does undergo the most character development towards the end). He is one of five cops who are about to embark on a nightmare journey. The men are Yavuz, Apo, Seyfi, rookie Arda, and their boss Remzi. Arda is under Remizi's care since his father died.

Responding to a call for back-up, they head to Inceagac - a creepy and dangerous place. On their way, they hit a man on a dark stretch of road, and drive into a lake. Without transport or a working phone or radio - and with no sign of the person they hit - their nightmare is only just starting. They make their way on foot to Inceagac, where fellow police officers called for back-up.

If you intend having snacks with this movie, make sure you finish it before they enter the building in Inceagac - if you want to keep your food inside, that is! Once they enter the building, the film plunges you into hell from which there is no escape.

Just like 'Hellraiser' these scenes are disturbing, bloody and grotesque. This truly is the stuff nightmares are made of. The visuals and make-up effects are really good. 'Baskin' doesn't have the same good storyline and payoff as 'Hellraiser', but this is a very well made movie. Saying I liked the movie might make me sound sadistic considering its theme and nature, but yes, I actually enjoyed it.

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.

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.

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.

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.