Processes of Abjection: Toward a Marxist Theory of Horror

Abstract

The gruesome mis-en-scène of Turkish filmmaker Can Evrenol’s surrealist horror film Baskin lends itself both to a psychoanalytic perspective that draws upon an abject taxonomy of disgusting objects and a Marxist analysis of the film’s formal representation of processes of socio-economic abjection and racialization. The film is set in modern-day Turkey and follows the protagonist, Arda, and his fellow police officers as they face a night of horror. After a violent altercation with a restaurant owner and his son, the five officers drive to a distress call from a police station in the fictionalized Inceağaç region. On their way to the station