I first heard about this film after it appeared at TIFF in 2015. I never got around to seeing it but when I finally got the chance, it was a bit of a letdown. The director does some really good things here and it does have the look and feel of The Neon Demon in a way (if Refn dropped acid and remade Neon Demon, it might look like this film).
There are five rather unsavoury and kind of morally bankrupt officers sitting around in a diner discussing stories of prostitution, bestiality and violent encounters, kind of like they were discussing what they had for dinner the night before. There's a level of humour to their stories and much of it is spoken about with complete equanimity. We definitely are not supposed to empathize with these men, in the least.
So when the stuff starts and people's guts are torn out and eyeballs are skewered and throats slit, it's horrific to watch but it's not like these men were likable to begin with so seeing these things happen to them isn't really horrifying.
Baskin has some really good set pieces and is directed and acted well. It looks good too. But it doesn't really explain itself all that well. As other reviewers have mentioned, I don't need everything spelled out for me, but none of this makes much sense.
For those confused about the frogs, if you look up the significance of frogs, they symbolize a cleansing, or a rebirth. This is pretty much what the Father character was looking to do with these men. He wanted to cleanse them of their sins and their lust for power. So the frogs were a clever symbolic piece here.
I, like most of you, have seen a ton of horror movies. I didn't find this one to be overly gory or hard to sit through. There is certainly some images of graphic torture but I've seen worse, much worse. I don't think this is any different than a litany of 70's and 80's horror. Hellraiser and Last House on the Left and Hostel were all worse, not mention films like Salo and Men Behind the Sun. This doesn't impugn the efforts here but it's just not the gore fest that I was lead to believe.
Baskin is interesting and it has some good ideas, but ultimately it isn't scary at all and it has a bit of a messy script.
6/10
There are five rather unsavoury and kind of morally bankrupt officers sitting around in a diner discussing stories of prostitution, bestiality and violent encounters, kind of like they were discussing what they had for dinner the night before. There's a level of humour to their stories and much of it is spoken about with complete equanimity. We definitely are not supposed to empathize with these men, in the least.
So when the stuff starts and people's guts are torn out and eyeballs are skewered and throats slit, it's horrific to watch but it's not like these men were likable to begin with so seeing these things happen to them isn't really horrifying.
Baskin has some really good set pieces and is directed and acted well. It looks good too. But it doesn't really explain itself all that well. As other reviewers have mentioned, I don't need everything spelled out for me, but none of this makes much sense.
For those confused about the frogs, if you look up the significance of frogs, they symbolize a cleansing, or a rebirth. This is pretty much what the Father character was looking to do with these men. He wanted to cleanse them of their sins and their lust for power. So the frogs were a clever symbolic piece here.
I, like most of you, have seen a ton of horror movies. I didn't find this one to be overly gory or hard to sit through. There is certainly some images of graphic torture but I've seen worse, much worse. I don't think this is any different than a litany of 70's and 80's horror. Hellraiser and Last House on the Left and Hostel were all worse, not mention films like Salo and Men Behind the Sun. This doesn't impugn the efforts here but it's just not the gore fest that I was lead to believe.
Baskin is interesting and it has some good ideas, but ultimately it isn't scary at all and it has a bit of a messy script.
6/10