Review of Baskın (2013) by Chris M — 21 Jan 2017

Foreign Horror movie buffs - take notice! The Turkish deliver something of sickening worth. 'Baskin' (translated: 'police raid') is the story of five Turkish cops who respond to a distress call and end up in a sort of Hell on Earth.

One thing I enjoy about watching foreign movies is how the Rules change from region to region. Similar stories have wildly different turns based on their location.

Which is why I love foreign horror; if there are unwritten rules to Horror films, typically, Foreign horror certainly does NOT don't play by said rules:

Gotta love the French for delivering raw tension and brute violence;.

British horror for dark humor and scathing social satire.

Koreans bring the dramatic psychological scares,.

And the Japanese love their supernatural fright-fests.

And now we have the Turkish. While I am not familiar with anything coming from Turkey, this is one sick puppy.

We've probably seen a movie or two about unfortunate souls who take a wrong turn and end up in Hell, only this goes a step further.

Baskin starts out in an eerie setting with even more bizarre conversation (are Turkish men really this openly chummy with sex talk?). The tension mounts quickly, dealing with child trauma and dark memories, and soon our 5 protagonists find themselves spiraling into a waking nightmare.

This movie is less about jump-shocks and heavy on gore and outright queasiness. In fact, Baskin has some of the more disturbing scenes I've seen in some time. I'm not big on torture-horror but this is the occasional dose of Awesome.

There are a few moments of 'Eww...What the f*ck was THAT??".

Some of the psuedo-sexual monstrosities in 'Baskin' reminded me of Silent Hill, minus any sentimental back story. Again, not playing by the Rules. With foreign horror, there are no lessons to be learned, no morality tales, and usually, No one survives.

Recommended for genre fans. All others should steer clear of this :).