Can Evrenol Selects
Can Evrenol is a Turkish filmmaker, whose work mainly focuses on dreams, sexuality and the social claustrophobia of family. While having no experience in any movie sets previously, Evrenol toured film festivals around the world with his short films, including his 2010 award winning short film "To My Mother and Father". His debut feature film “Baskin” became a mini cult classic, premiering at Toronto International Film Festival's "Midnight Madness" section, winning the Best New Director award at Fantastic Fest, and selling in over 40 countries. Can is best known for his work on indy arthouse horror films Baskın (2015), Housewife (2017), Saýara (2024) and the call-girl drama mini series Çıplak (2020), and most recently The Turkish Coffee Table (2025).
1) AUDITION
This is a film that truly changed me when I saw at the age of 19. I still don't know if there's a more suffocating, bleak, sadistic, yet romantic and poignant movie out there in the vaults of the midnight cinema. More than 2 decades have passed. I'm still searching.
2) DEEP RED
The epitome of 70's Italian horror. Like an oil painting that injects a colorful nightmare through your pupils. No film student should be eligible to graduate before seeing this film, twice.
3) THE INVITATION
Paranoia. Grief. Social claustrophobia. A most rewarding, powerful yet rather easy viewing - compared to the rest of the films on this list.
4) SEEDING OF A GHOST
What a sleazy, wtf, batshit crazy midnight movie experience! Definitely not for the easily offended. Your friends will not be the same people they once were, after you make them sit through this madness.
4) SHOCK
Another 70's Italian horror masterpiece. Perfectly blending off-beat cheesy occult mystery with some nightmare logic.
5) DRILLER KILLER
The definitive existential auteur serial killer entry in the notorious Video Nasty list that every film buff should know by heart. After so many years, what really stayed with me from this film, more than the image of the power drill, is the way Abel Ferrara eating that nasty pizza. Geez.
6) FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION: JAILHOUSE 41
A late discovery in my personal cinematic journey. Such beautiful cinematography, mad editing, and surreal Kwaidan-like set pieces, giving life to the ultimate femme fatale prison revenge story. Kill Bill, eat your heart out!
7) DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING
Sexuality. Violence. Catholic church. Murder. One of my all time favorite films. A flawed masterpiece. It has a demented beauty that is not easy to define. You either get Fulci, or you go watch Netflix and Disney+.
*not all titles are available in all territories
-
Audition
2001 · Japan · Directed by Takashi Miike
One of the most notorious J-horror films ever made, Takashi Miike’s Audition exploded onto the festival circuit at the turn of the century to a chorus of awards and praise. The film would catapult Miike to the international scene and pave the way for such...
-
Deep Red
From Dario Argento, maestro of the macabre and the man behind some the greatest excursions in Italian horror (Suspiria, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), comes Deep Red - arguably the ultimate giallo movie. One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings, Blow Up), looking up from the street be...
-
The Invitation
2016 • United States • Directed by Karyn Kusama
In this taut psychological thriller by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Jennifer's Body), the tension is palpable when Will shows up to his ex-wife Eden and new husband David's dinner party. The pair's tragic past haunts an equally spooky present: Amid Ede...
-
Seeding of a Ghost (Mandarin version)
1983 • Hong Kong • Directed by Richard Yeung Keun
Originally planned to be part three of the Shaw Brothers’ Black Magic trilogy, due to its over-the-top blood-splattering nature and gross-out shock levels, Seeding Of A Ghost ran into censorship problems and was released under a new moniker. It’s...
-
Shock
1977 • Italy • Directed by Mario Bava
In a career spanning four decades and encompassing virtually every genre under the sun, Mario Bava inspired multiple generations of filmmakers, from Dario Argento to Martin Scorsese and Tim Burton. Best remembered for his gothic horror movies, for his final ...
-
The Driller Killer
1979 • United States • Directed by Abel Ferrara
In career that has encompassed such controversial classics as Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant and Welcome to New York, none of Abel Ferrara’s films have quite managed to match the shock, extremity and downright notorious nature of The Driller Killer. Ferrar...
-
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41
1972 • Japan • Directed by Shun'ya Itô
After spending a year in solitary confinement, Matsu escapes from prison with six more convicts, followed by the guards who are led by a vengeful warden who wants her dead at all costs.
-
Don't Torture a Duckling
1972 • Italy • Directed by Lucio Fulci
From Lucio Fulci, the godfather of gore (City of the Living Dead, The House by the Cemetery), comes one of the most powerful and unsettling giallo thrillers ever produced: his 1972 masterpiece, Don't Torture a Duckling.
When the sleepy rural village of Acc...
