Skinamarink Review: A Lovingly Celebrated Disappointment

Skinamarink is...interesting to say the least. This is a horror film that isn't afraid to utilize primarily unconventional camera angles in a poorly lit house with a television repeatedly playing cartoons for over a half an hour. All of this before delivering its first jump scare to effectively try to startle the audience. There is absolutely no denying that this is an admirably attempted and creatively experimental film that aims to bring something visually different from the mainstream norm. However, in its praiseworthy conceptual endeavor, it also drastically challenges the audience’s patience. Guys, I won't sugar coat it. I literally almost fell asleep about 7 times throughout my viewing despite choosing the ideal setting to watch it (a conveniently stormy evening in a darkly lit living room by myself). 

After happily celebrating what I considered to be (and still do) one of the best horror movie trailers of the modern age, I went into this with admittedly high expectations. The trailer immediately sold me on its genuinely creepy and deeply unsettling atmosphere coming across as a recently discovered 70's found footage horror gem. Sadly, although the film does in fact include many of the elements as advertised, there’s just no getting around how I felt about it at the end of the day. To put it simply, Skinamarink was downright boring for a large portion of my experience watching it. My eyes were frequently engaging in an epic battle of trying to stay open as my mind occasionally wandered around just like the camera and protagonist does. 

I was constantly contemplating about where my expectations were going in and whether or not it was worth sticking through to the very end. Being that this is categorized as a horror film, the first question that I imagine will be on the minds of those who haven’t seen it yet is whether or not it's scary. Well, for me personally with my history of exploring this genre for over 2 decades now, I'd say Skinamarink is more so a sleep inducing venture with an unrelentingly dread heavy atmosphere. For one thing, the film grain smothering aesthetics and static heavy sound design certainly gives off a creepy vibe that is hard to shake off during and after the film. 

The sound of children whispering in an echoey filtered voice alongside the fact that the actors' faces and settings are never vividly established onscreen is noticeably disorienting. Cinematically speaking, this is as "non-mainstream" as you can get with a film that boldly decides to force the audience in awkward perspectives in a single home environment drowned in film grain noise and shadows. Speaking as someone who has always subscribed to the classic idea of "less is more" with horror films, director Kyle Edward Ball takes this sensibility and goes to the absolute extreme with it. This is evident by the countless of extensive lingering shots of pure darkness for what feels like hours on end. Sometimes it's kinda creepy encouraging the audience's attention while other instances resulted in exhaustive dreariness.

And though I wouldn't consider this a particularly terrifying film, I do have to admit that there were a few moments that got a reaction out of me. There's a pretty distressing scene with a 911 emergency phone call and a child in apparent need of medical assistance that slightly got under my skin. All of this is done primarily through subtitles and murky sounding dialogue which effectively added this grounded and almost depressingly dark impression. There's also a scene that involves a child being instructed to look under the bed that perfectly fed on the film's unyielding anticipation building. And finally, closer towards the end, there's a visually thought provoking POV shot of someone being pulled away from the setting into somewhere unknown which I thought was genuinely eerie.

That being said, the best way that I can describe my overall experience would be to illustrate it like stepping into someone’s twisted fever dream and questioning if it’s safe to get some shut eye in while I’m there. It's eerie, it's strange, but it's not too scary to discourage from falling asleep. I’d love to say that it’s entirely nightmare fuel and one of the creepiest movies that I've ever seen in a very long time, but the truth of the matter is that it glaringly dragged on for my taste. This movie is about an hour too long, and although I’m always first to celebrate experimental artistic sensibilities, I can't honestly say that there’s anything here that warrants such a long runtime.

Come to think of it, I'm starting to realize just how much more effective this would’ve played as a segment in the V/H/S/ franchise or any other respected horror anthology series instead of a future length release. I kept wondering if Shudder (where you can currently watch the movie) had an overly grainy alternate version of the film where I’m sadly missing out on all the creepy visuals and standout scenes. Sadly, from what I’m seeing from articles online, there really isn’t anything that I missed. What I saw was exactly what the movie intended to be. And what I got was something refreshingly unique that played with the imagination, but didn't necessarily make for an enjoyable watch. 

On the bright side, I’m absolutely filled with joy to see more filmmakers being able to make experimental genre projects like this and release them on streaming platforms and theaters for a wider audience. Whether or not I enjoyed the film, there's no denying its creative ambitions and the potential that it has to encourage studios to explore more original IPs. Skinamarink is one of those films that I’m happy that I saw just for the sake of conversation and film variety expansion on my part as a lover of art. However, I couldn’t with a clear conscience recommend this to anyone unless they’re really open to exploring different cinematic experiences. This one will truly challenge your patience and willingness to see a filmmaker's vision through to the end. 

Rating: 3/10