T.His experimental lo-fi horror debut was a minor viral sensation last year after it was accidentally leaked online. A TikTok user called it “the scariest movie ever.” Critics called for comparisons to The Blair Witch Project and David Lynch’s Eraserhead. I must admit that I was underwhelmed, feeling that Skinamarink was a little undeserving of his newly acquired cult status.
That said, there’s definitely something magical, almost séance-like in the way Canadian filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball evokes a childhood fear of the dark. The primal fear of waking up in the middle of the night at an early age, your imagination tricks you into turning the hallway to Mom and Dad’s room into a terrifying no man’s land where monsters lurk.
The film is set in 1995, presumably by Ball and his cinematographer Jamie McRae giving it an eerie analog feel and filming in grainy nighttime vision. made a movie in 4-year-old Kevin (Lucas Paul) and his older sister Kaylee (Dali-Rose Tetro) wake up to a home where their parents are missing. Seen through the eyes of the children in the dark, the house seems to come alive. The railing looms and sticks out at a terrifying angle.
These images may rock you back to your childhood. . It’s atmospheric, and it’s made even more sinister with the arrival of the bogeyman. “So I took her mouth.” Is he an intruder, or, more infuriatingly, their father? At this point, we give Kaylee a haunting look. Without it, you can’t see the faces of the children, just the occasional pajama-clad leg running around.
Skinamarink has an interesting origin story. Ball started with his YouTube channel, collecting nightmares that people shared in the comment box and turning it into a short film. Skinamarink’s inspiration was a recurring nightmare. Different people describe the same dream. The result is an impressive feat of technical achievement, but it’s also pretty repetitive: I doubt there are more ideas than a 10-minute short. In the end, I was more bored than scared.