Making a Feature Film from a Short Film: A Conversation with Can Evrenol for BASKIN
Marking Turkish director Can Evrenol as the brightest talent on the international genre landscape, this homage to Hellraiser, Dario Argento and H.P. Lovecraft comes loaded with surreal chills, atmospheric dread, extreme gore and unsettling perversity.
A police squad respond to a backup call, little realising they’re about to stumble upon a nightmare cabal of subhuman cannibalistic freaks with a penchant for imaginative blood ceremonies... Throw in a driving techno-synth score and, as The Hollywood Reporter review commented, ‘fasten your entrails; it’s going to be a bumpy night’!
Ahead of the UK premiere screening of BASKIN at the Glasgow Film Festival, FrightFest ask the director Can Evrenol a few pertinent questions…
What were the challenges of elongating the BASKIN short film ideas into a full feature?
A brief history of Turkish genre cinema and the must-see movies virgins should see?
Please refer to the awesome award winning documentary "Remake, Remix, Rip-Off" (2014) for a brief history Turkish genre madness. Must see movies: "Man Who Saves The World aka Turkish Star Wars", "Tarkan vs Viking" and "Deathless Devil", tho be sure to have your fast forward button close. And last but not least "Dort Yanım Cehennem" whose english subttiles are done by Evrim Ersoy and I!
BASKIN is visually and narratively very ambitious for your first feature…
I guess it is a continuation of the same visual and narrative journey that I've been experimenting and progressing on through my short films. I'm learning as I go.
Lucio Fulci, HELLRAISER, ‘Hansel and Gretel’ … what were your other main inspirations for BASKIN?
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia, David Lynch, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Frontieres, Calvaire, Only God Forgives, Twilight Zone.
Ulas Pakkan’s electronic score really creates a fabulous mood. Was it always the idea to invoke an 80s vibe of creepy unease?
Yes it was actually. A mixture of that 80's feel and modern dark synth in the footsteps of Trent Reznor, Clint Mansell and Cliff Martinez.
BASKIN begins as an arthouse shocker and then turns hardcore gore – you seem to favour genre collisions and shifts?
It was always my intention to make a movie that begins a as a European arthouse festival film, slow, controlled and orchestrated. But as later progresses into the mad world of surreal horror and a visual attack on the audience. That's what I tried to experiment with Baskin.
BOOK TICKETS AT GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE
BASKIN screens as part of FrightFest Glasgow 2016 on Sat 27th Feb at the GFT Screen 1, 7.05pm. Can Evrenol will be in attendance.
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