Director Kyle Edward Bell's unconventional horror film, Skinamarink, has been calling me for a while, and while I have read very mixed reviews, I was interested in checking it out for myself.
What Is It About?
It was the year 1995, and in a home lived two young siblings named Kevin (Lucas Paul) and Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault).
One evening, they noticed that a door had vanished from the house, and before long, a window followed suit, and then, their parents disappeared without a trace.
As more and more items began to disappear or appear in unexpected places, the children found themselves transfixed by the flickering images of cartoons on the television, completely unaware of the sinister presence lurking within their home.
My Thoughts
I am struggling to find what to write about this movie, but it's fair to say I did not like it at all though.
Clocking in at 100 minutes, Skinamarink felt like a total chore to finish, but I made it through to the end somehow.
The film might have worked as a movie short, very short in fact, but as a feature length film, it's a borefest.
While I said before it has got many mixed reviews, it does also seem to have found a cult like following too, and while I appreciate new things being tried, especially on a low budget like this film had, I just did not connect with it at all,
Half the movie feels like the camera focusing on one particular part of the house for what feels like forever, and I kept wondering what I was supposed to be looking for or at.
It's more of an experience than a story I suppose, I am just not sure what sort of experience it is. It asks the viewer for a lot of interpretation, which is difficult when not much is happening.
The childlike horrors of being alone and the feeling of being scared in the darkness in that situation could have been done in so many different and better ways without it being as boring and pretentious as this.
I wish I could have vibed with this one, but I got nothing, but if you did get something out of this movie, I am jealous, as not many films I watch and then completely regret after, but Skinamarink is one of them.
It is a film that tries just a bit too hard to be different, and comes across as incredibly pretentious and dull and I am not sure I have wasted my time more when watching a film.
The premise was interesting, the execution most certainly was not.
I would rate this film 5% on my horror movie nerd-o-meter.
What did you think of the movie? Let me know your thoughts in the comments or connect with me on my horror twitter and horror Instagram pages.
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Read read some more horror content while you're here.