Every once and again we get a fresh approach at horror. I’m not just talking about compelling and chilling narrative’s; I’m talking about an entirely new way of assembling a film. Director Kyle Edward Ball did exactly that with a budget of $15,000, and boy, oh boy does Skinamarink work by imprinting its terrifying, claustrophobic wiring directly onto your brain.
Skinamarink feels very unsafe right from the get-go. From the film’s intro, there is an immense sinking feeling. An unsettling mood is brought about by the knowledge that you are about to spend the next hour or hour and a half in the hands of a film that is designed to poke holes through your nerves.
Skinamarink takes us directly into the home of a family on a night in which some unfortunate kids wake up into a living nightmare. They wake to the shocking reality of their windows and doors having disappeared along with their father. This leaves the kiddos alone in the house full of a wave of supernatural events and voices from the other side. From start to finish these kids are haunted. But, it’s their youthful innocence and inability to understand the true depth of the danger that they are in that leads to the film’s biggest scares.
For example, in one of the film’s most terrifying sequences, a voice pretending to be the kids father asks one of the young boys to “come upstairs”. This is done in POV and the scene takes its time, ultimately allowing the space needed to scare the hell out of the entire audience. The entire Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar in Austin was squirming in their seats.
The film gives us a beaten-down and gritty version of Poltergeist, with a lot more claustrophobia and existentialism at work. The film uses a 1980s video camera effect to achieve its ghoulishly gorgeous aesthetic. These dark corridors and empty rooms add to the overall formula. Watching these poor kiddos have to navigate living alone with no way out of the house or any sort of parental comfort is entirely disturbing and is illustrated by way of toys and dirty dishes being left scattered about. I am beyond curious how the directors got some of this on film using these kids. They have a real authentic approach to their acting. In fact, it doesn’t feel like you are watching actors so much as it is a supernatural voyeur experience.
Skinamarink is an entirely well-executed horror experience that digs its way under your skin. The film is Home Alone by way of David Lynch at his most nightmarish. From beginning to chilling ending the film never lets up and exercises no caution in its objective mission to scare the hell out of you.
Skinamarink is now playing in select theaters including Alamo Drafthouse locations. Try to watch this one with a big crowd, its fun to watch the audience squirm on this one.
