Movies
[Review] ‘Baskin’ is an Inventive and Terrifying Trip to Hell!
Baskin (pronounced bah-skeen, not like the ice cream company), the new horror film from first-time feature-film director Can Evrenol, had its U.S. premiere this weekend as one of the Midnight Screenings at Fantastic Fest this weekend, and it satisfied every craving I had for a midnight movie. It is a visceral experience and one that I will not soon forget.The film centers around a group of Turkish policemen who are called to a remote house in a nearby town to assist some other members of the police force. They are not given a reason for the call, just that the policemen need assistance. Once they arrive at the house, they quickly realize that they have just entered through a portal into Hell.
Baskin takes its time to get going, but it’s never boring. The first half of the film slowly lets the audience get to know its main cast of characters. Evrenol doesn’t sugar-coat the policemen. Some are kind and some are douchebags but they all feel like real people. Evrenol takes his time, slowly building the tension with haunting imagery and some truly stunning effects for such a low budget film. The man knows how to direct, which is made all the more impressive when you know that it’s his first feature film (he has filmed a few short films, which he has also brought to Fantastic Fest in the past).
It probably isn’t until the 45-minute mark that the characters reach the abandoned building, but once they do shit really hits the fan. Evrenol’s version of Hell is like Silent Hill meets Hellraiser, and it’s glorious. The climax of the film features an extended ritual sequence that is sure to send chills down anyone’s spine.
My only real complaint with the film is that I think it could have gone further with its grotesquerie. This isn’t to say the film isn’t grotesque. There is a lot of incredibly disturbing imagery on display here. I just think I’ve been desensitized to violence so seeing someone be forced to have doggy-style sex with a naked woman who sports a bloody ram’s skull for a head doesn’t qualify as “going there” for me. Also, I wouldn’t have minded if Baskin’s final act had been about 15 minutes longer (the whole film runs 97 minutes but feels much shorter).
Baskin is everything I wanted As Above, So Below to be. It delivered on promises that that film did not. It’s not a perfect film, but for an experimental film from a first-time director, it’s incredibly strong and should be seen by a wide audience. It’s one of the best representations of Hell since Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and I loved every second of it.
Exclusives
‘Lady Death’ Exclusive First Look – Kiah Roache-Turner’s New World War II Action-Horror Movie
The director of fan favorites including Wyrmwood and Beast of War, director Kiah Roache-Turner is back with World War II action-horror film Lady Death, and we’ve got the first look.
Lady Death is currently in production outside Adelaide, South Australia, we’ve learned. The upcoming horror movie, it’s interesting to note, lives in the same heightened, epic and gore-splattered WWII universe as Kiah Roache-Turner’s recent shark attack movie Beast of War!
Masha Basman stars as ‘Lady Death’ with Robert Maaser as ‘Hans Bothman.’
In Lady Death, a crack team of British Commandos are forced into an unholy alliance, when lost in a primeval forest on the Eastern Front, with Soviet sniper, the legendary ‘Lady Death’ (newcomer Masha Basman), and two demented SS officers – and twins – played in gleeful dual roles by German actor Robert Maaser (Blood & Gold, Ballerina).
Together the unlikely team must navigate the perils of the forest, including its most ferocious residents: wolves, born of an ancient bloodline, horrifically outsized, led by a giant alpha and remorselessly hunting as a pack. Only with Lady Death – herself an apex predator, and inspired by the real-life heroine Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who notched some 309 Nazi kills during the war – do the team have any chance of surviving the forested hellscape.
Kiah Roache-Turner tells Bloody Disgusting, “There’s something wonderfully cinematic about throwing a legendary sniper, a squad of commandos, Nazi villains and giant wolves into the same story and seeing what survives. Lady Death is exactly the sort of movie I love making — ambitious, dangerous, funny in all the wrong places and completely unafraid to get blood all over the screen.”
The cast includes newcomer Masha Basman as ‘Lyudmila’/’Lady Death’, Xavier Molyneux (Amazon’s Bloodaxe, Take My Hand) as ‘Billy’, Bart Edwards (Netflix’s The Witcher) as ‘Monty’, Robert Maaser (Ballerina, Blood & Gold) in dual roles as Nazi twins ‘Hans Bothman’ and ‘Gunner Mengele’, Jake Ryan (Netflix’s War Machine) as ‘Smiddy’, CJ Bloomfield (Mortal Kombat franchise, Furiosa) as ‘Butch’, George Pullar (Evil Dead Burn, Posthumous) as ‘Bird’ and Sam Parsonson (Beast of War, Fear Below) as ‘Cunningham.’
The movie is being produced by Blake Northfield and Michelle Krumm for Bronte Studios (Beast of War, Wyrmwood franchise). The production team includes Head Of Production, Sandra Tahmasby Baxter (Beast of War, Take My Hand, Wyrmwood – Apocalypse), director of photography Jonathan Baker (Talk to Me), production designer Rachael Gates (Wolf Creek: Legacy), SFX coordinator John Sanderson (Mortal Kombat, Wolf Creek: Legacy), stunt coordinator Danny Baldwin (Beast of War), hair, make-up and prosthetic designer Billie Weston (Apex, Elvis, Danger Close: Battle of Long Tan), costume designer Tracey Rose Sparke (Primitive War, Beast of War). Roache-Turner also edits all his movies.
Executive Producers include Bronte Studios, Kiah Roache-Turner, The Post Lounge, Todd Brown, Bart Edwards, Calum Gray, Max Pirkis, Jeff Harrison, Ari Harrison (Umbrella Entertainment), Chandler Heinz Laun and Jaswinder Singh Ahluwalia (Obsidian Creek Capital) and Laura Stejskal (Winter Tree Productions).
Australian SFX outfit MEG Studios (Apex, Talk to Me, Furiosa) is bringing the wolfpack to terrifying life, together with Resin (Mortal Kombat, The Bluff, Elvis, Hotel Mumbai), who are handling the film’s VFX.
Financing for the movie comes through Obsidian Creek Capital, and Hinterland, with support from the South Australia Film Corporation.
Check out a few first look images below and expect more real soon.
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