Skinamarink (2023)

Skinamarink is an experimental horror film with two children haunted by an entity.

The film was written and directed by Kyle Edward Ball. He certainly made some odd choices for his experiment. More than ninety percent of the shots were at around a forty-five-degree angle up or down. So you're constantly looking at feet and legs or corners and tops of doors. You never see the entity that is causing all the issues that are going on and that's more of a writing element than it was a directorial choice.

In terms of writing, there is a ton of symbolism. The film plays with the idea that what if the childhood trauma of your parent's divorce was physically manifested. For instance, the doors and windows disappear with an audio clue and a visual blip. The father and mother can't stand to face their children. That phrase could mean that parents have a hard time justifying their selfishness to their children, but also the movie physically has the parents with their backs to them and they don't stand up from the bed. There are more examples but I enjoyed the symbolism throughout since the film isn't traditional.

I would normally talk about the acting but there really wasn't any.

A horror movie is judged by how scary or unnerving it is. It was certainly unnerving but jump scares don't help as audiences have grown to hate cheap jump scares. The film has a handful and two genuinely unnerving moments.

Shudder distributes the movie and I've been a subscriber to their "Horror-only Netflix" for a while now. To be honest it was one of the reasons I went to see the movie.

This film wasn't made for a broad audience and I'd never want to watch it again. Throughout the movie, you're squinting your eyes trying to see what horror elements are there, and for the most part, there's nothing. I look forward to what Ball does next and his writing-directing was the best feature of the film. That being said I can't recommend this film. People were walking out. The film should come with a warning about its experimental nature. It's pretty bad, D+.

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