Rating: C
Dir: Can Evrenol.
Star: Ergun Kuyucu, Muharrem Bayrak, Gorkem Kasal, Mehmet Cerrahoglu.
This is often touted as the Citizen Kane of Turkish horror. Which probably explains my sense of disappointment, because I found it less effective than most of the entries in the (far less well-known) Siccin franchise. There’s no doubt Evrenol has a good eye for imagery, but like Tumbbad, there is only so far that can take you. Especially in the absence of coherence. Truth be told, if I’d read the Wikipedia article first, which describes this as “surrealist horror,” I might well have passed entirely. That is not an inaccurate description either. It’s about a group of five policemen, who… Well, can we just quit at, “It’s about a group of five policemen”?
Because that’s close to the point after which I’ll be heading into conjecture. They get a call for backup from Inceagac, a town with a dark reputation. On the way in their van, weird occurrences take place, culminating in them ploughing into a figure in the middle of the road. The van careers off the road into a lake, though nobody is badly injured. They continue on foot, arriving at the local police station, only to discover… Look, I am really not comfortable going any further. Weirdness, such as a fellow officer in a near-catatonic state. A group of cultists, who capture the policemen, their leader (Cerrahoglu) subsequently torturing them until one of the group is able to break free and escape. OR DOES HE?!?!
Y’see, they all died in the car crash, and everything after that was their journey through the afterlife, to heaven or hell. Which would be a massive spoiler, if only I weren’t entirely making that up. OR AM I?!?! It certainly was my working hypothesis for much of the second half. I definitely had plenty of time to work on it, because until Mr. Cult Leader starts getting a bit stabby, this is a lot of creeping around and pulling of aghast faces. It does feel like it may have inspired the likes of 1978, which also had cops getting out of their depth when they cross paths with the occult. However, that had enough structure to bring you along. This goes from 0 to WTF without real rhyme or reason.
Conversely, it definitely feels as if Evrenol was a big fan of Clive Barker. Most obviously, Hellraiser, though more in general tone than necessarily specific plot points. Perhaps a little Nightbreed, in terms of there being a hidden world just behind the curtain – and it’s probably not somewhere you want to visit. However, again, I found it too loosely constructed to work for me. I suspect it may work better for a local audience who are equipped to handle the heavy doses of Symbolism (with a capital S) which seem to infuse every frame. Me? I had no real clue, and consequently was left unable to do much except admire the Grand Guignol spectacle which breaks out in the third act.