Skinamarink

The new film "Skinamarink" is an experimental horror movie by Kyle Edward Ball in his feature debut. It runs for about 100 minutes and consists of grainy shots and audio of a dark house. It's exciting to see something so low budget and experimental get a run in theaters, it managed to rack up $890,000 over the MLK weekend with an unknown director and a budget of $15,000. The film features many old cartoons that are in the public domain such as "Bimbo's Initiation" and a few lines of dialog with inconsistent subtitles. 

I went into this film knowing vaguely what it would be.

The movie had been blowing up on Tiktok, particularly in horror communities, but I hadn’t heard of it until the day before I got tickets. It’s viral presence on Tiktok lead to pirating the movie before its release date had even occurred. I’m personally against pirating indie films, and the experience was much better in the theatre for this movie. The darkness and lack of distraction led to an eerie and unsettling vibe, not easily achieved otherwise.

If you’re looking for an easy to follow story, I don’t think this is the film for you. If you’re willing to try something new and let yourself focus on the atmosphere, you’re going to love it. All big scares genuinely caught me off guard, and I pride myself in being good at knowing when one is coming. The entire film felt like watching someone else’s bad nightmare. Or waking up in a dark house as a kid. The anxious environment made for an interesting 100 minutes, but I do believe it was a little much with the length.

The ending, without spoiling much, was creepy as anything. Looking into the static and vaguely making out what is happening worked particularly well at this part. The vague nature of this film leaves plenty of room for theories. From the film taking place in Hell, a doll house, or in a coma, the internet is full of people trying to make sense of this abstract analog horror.

It’s interesting to note that many are calling “Skinamarink” this generation’s Blair Witch. Although I absolutely loved this movie, I hesitate to claim the pop culture legacy so early on. Hopefully, this will bring some new and interesting experiments in the horror genre, but maybe it won’t change anything about it. The horror genre today is saturated with high-budget, hi-definition, clean-cut horror movies, especially when geared towards younger audiences. It is as if directors and writers have forgotten what can truly illicit the most primal human emotion of fear, the unknown. The scariest part of “Skinamarink” is the plethora of confusion and unanswered questions. It was done well in “Rosemary’s Baby”, but “Skinamarink” is an incredible example of the use of vagueness to create a sense of dread. Because nothing can scare you more than what your own mind can create.



 

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