Turkish cinema has long had a reputation for ripping off Hollywood properties: both Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam (Turkish Star Wars) and 3 Dev Adam (Turkish Spider-Man) have become cult sensations with the midnight movie crowd. To call Baskin, the new film from Turkish director Can Evrenol, a ripoff would be doing it a disservice but it certainly takes a cue from the Cannon Group way of mashing together disparate film genres, taking its cues from the manly cinema of Michael Mann, the lighting and colors of Dario Argento, and the psychosexual weirdness of the works of Clive Barker.
Baskin features a unit of coppers on night patrol that get a mysterious call to investigate a creepy abandoned building. Against the better judgement of anyone in the audience, the squad splits up and… well, you know how these things go. Baskin (which is Turkish for “police raid” and has nothing to do with ice cream) is a gooey, gory, thrill ride featuring terrifying practical effects and a truly creepy villain. The film recalls some of the best direct-to-video trash of the late ’80s and early ’90s without being derivative or falling into “throwback cinema.”
Baskin comes to VOD and New York on March 25th. The film will open in Los Angeles on April 1st.