This is the movie that put Turkish B movies on the map. Apparently, Turkey is lax when it comes to copyright infringement laws, so their movies tend to blatantly steal from American cinema. However, the way they adapt the material can often be straight-up nutty (as anyone who’s seen 3 Giant Men can attest). That said, Killing in Istanbul is quite simply a fantastic hodgepodge of horror, crime, and superhero movies.
Kilink (Yildirim Gencer) is a dastardly supervillain who wears a skintight skeleton leotard and skull mask. He was a popular character in Italian comics, but something tells me that nobody bothered to pay for the rights to feature him in this movie. Kilink kills a professor and steals his formula, which will allow him to rule the world. While the professor’s son mourns over his grave, a wizard appears and grants him the power to turn into a superhero (uh… who’s name is… uh… “Superhero”) whenever he says the magic word, “Shazam”! He then battles Kilink to avenge his father’s death and save the world.
What I love about this movie is the way it simultaneously steals from other sources but manages to find a way to completely make it its own. Yes, it blatantly rips off the Captain Marvel serial. However, the costumed hero is actually a mash-up of Superman and Batman. Speaking of serials, Kilink himself is basically a riff on the old Crimson Ghost serial. Instead of a skull head and hooded body, he wears a skintight outfight that feels equal parts scary and sexy. The way he seduces women in particular is kind of creepy. Oh, and the theme song is just needle drops on old James Bond soundtracks, which adds to the fun.
The movie’s biggest asset is that it moves like lightning. That has something to do with the choppy print, but it often feels like someone took all the dull parts out and just left in the good stuff. Not only do the fight scenes occur at a zippy pace, the dialogue scenes whizz by too. The breakneck action also helps the film harken back to the old timey serial days, except you don’t have to wait a week to see how Kilink (who is really more of the main character after all) will get out of his latest jam.
Oh, and the scenes where “Superhero” flies are fucking terrible. And by “fucking terrible” I mean “I loved every second of it”.
Some may be put off by the non-ending, but that’s okay because the sequel, Kilink vs the Flying Man picks things up right where this one left off.
AKA: Kilink in Istanbul.
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