Ooooh boy, this one I’m very excited for. In July of 2022, this experimental horror film written and directed by Kyle Edward Ball made waves at Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. Soon after, pirated versions were being watched all over the internet — a bad move from those who did not pay to see the film, but a good move for publicity. Y’see, this film legitimately came off as one of the scariest films of all time. Skinamarink, a word most of us would pair with childhood memories and the cutesy song, took those same memories and brought out a fear that we wanted to leave behind: your own house in the wee hours of the night. Skinamarink is the story of two siblings wanting to watch some late-night cartoons, but instead find their house completely turned against them.
I had first heard of Skinamarink as the trailer was making its rounds on the internet and there was a big debacle about pirating. I myself was not one to pirate the movie but was highly interested, so I at least looked at the trailer to see if the hype was warranted.
I was literally shook. I made the mistake of watching it at night, and for the first time in a long time, I was scared. Scared to turn the lights off. Scared to go upstairs to bed. Scared to put my son to bed with his blue projector lights on. I have an overactive imagination when it comes to horror movies, and this triggered something primal in me, a fear response that still makes my heart race. With such praise and demand for its release to the general public, the decision was made for a limited theatrical run on the first Friday the 13th of the new year (very apropos). I of course, got myself some tickets. I thought, if the trailer scared me this bad, I wonder how the movie will be. And the answer is this.
The short answer is: it was good. I liked it quite a bit.
The long answer is that for all the good it does, it does have flaws. For one, it’s too loud and I was definitely in need of more subtitles when it came to demonic-sounding grunts that was actually dialog. Two, I get that the vibe is similar to waking up in the middle of the night and having this terrifying experience, but my eyes had the hardest time adjusting to the constant static filter being used. I also thought it was slightly too long — good for people who like slow burns, but bad for those who like to get to the point.
While those problems were annoying, they did not take away from Skinamarink‘s overall “goodness.” The just-off-camera angles ensured we saw enough to get our brains creating the horror for ourselves (brilliant idea). There were lulls where I felt relatively safe, followed by moments of absolute nail-biting terror. My heart couldn’t rest because there was so much back and forth.
And I knew I was in trouble (i.e., about to get the shit scared out of me) when I recognized some of the 90s decor that my family most definitely had in our house. Skinamarink was clearly made for a certain age, and Ball nailed it. The kids were the hardest part to watch, not because they were bad — they were actually amazing actors — but because of their ages. I already “recognized” the home from my own childhood, but having two kids around the age of my own kid go through such a frightening experience made me all the more anxious.
Skinamarink is labeled an “experimental” horror film, and I think that is correct labeling. It is experimental in aesthetic, but also in subtext, plot, all of the above. Sure, it had some tried and true jumpscares, but it relied mostly on that fear we all have, fear of becoming a child again and experiencing things we don’t understand, the Dark for example. I can see why some people may not like it, but that’s the point of an experiment: to try something new and see if it sticks. I’m so glad to see movies like Skinamarink come out of the festival circuit and crowd-funded realms, and think that Skinamarink will be touted as a game changer of the genre.
What did you think of Skinamarink? let us know in the comments! Skinamarink will be available to stream on Shudder later in 2023.
Want to see more of Kyle Edward Ball’s work? Check out his channel, Bitesized Nightmares, on YouTube!
