When the freaky little man with the ceremonial knife promises to help you “open your heart,” it probably doesn’t mean what it should. There will be blood.
This astounding creature — one of the creepiest I’ve seen in recent horror cinema — comes along after the halfway point in “Baskin.” That’s when the movie shifts from being a vaguely unsettling suspense picture to a flat-out depiction of hell.
Unpleasantness abounds in this torture-horror film from Turkey. There’s one aspect of its storytelling that is intriguing, though, despite the grisly images on display.
We begin with a group of policemen, joshing around late at night. After annoying a couple of diner cooks, they take off in their police van — and strange things start happening.
Is there a naked person out there in the woods? Why are all these frogs around? And why does everybody get spooked when a police call comes in from a remote part of the countryside where dark events are rumored to have happened?
Our squad of officers heads into an abandoned old building, led by a young cop named Arda (Gorkem Kasal) and his older protector, Remzi (Ergun Kuyucu). What they find is … oh boy . Not good. Not good at all.
I’ll spare you the details, but in the basement (let’s just call it a dungeon) there’s a tribe of something-or-others who have been living down there doing nasty things. Their leader is named in the credits as “Baba,” or “the father.”
He’s played by a very unusual actor named Mehmet Cerrahoglu, in his first film role. He looks a little like Rick Moranis after a nuclear explosion, and I suspect we’ll be seeing him in future horror outings.
Director Can Evrenol’s method here is to borrow from other gorefests while amping up the tension. Certainly the film boasts clever art direction and music — this seems like an audition piece for Hollywood.
The aspect that makes “Baskin” a little intriguing is the way Evrenol plays with Arda’s tendency to suffer bad dreams, which makes us question what we’re watching.
But not much fresh material comes out of that. And everything gets washed away in the blood-red tide of gore and guts. Open your heart, and the rest will follow — blech.
“Baskin” 2 stars
This torture-horror flick from Turkey has a couple of interesting ideas and strong design, but eventually everything gets washed away in a blood-red tide of gore and guts. Heckuva villain, though. In Turkish, with English subtitles.
Rating: Not rated; probably R for violence, nudity
Showing: Grand Illusion theater
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