Review of Skinamarink (2023) by Injureddriver — 12 Jul 2023

Well, it's definitely safe to say that I've never seen another movie like Skinamarink. I didn't know much about the movie going into it other than a lot of people hated it and some people said they liked it.

I saw the Blu-ray steelbook on sale at Walmart and decided to pick it up and give it a try. I'm glad I did because honestly this was an experience like I've never had watching a movie. It's very experimental in the way that it's shot and the way that the story is told.

You really don't see any of the characters faces throughout the entire film, and much of the dialogue is so inaudible that it's given to you with subtitles. Much of the film is just focused on the negative spaces within the house.

Whenever a character is in a camera shot you usually only see their legs or maybe the back of their head. The rest of the time the camera is looking at corners in a hallway, the top of door frames, a pitch black hallway, a stuffed animal hiding in the darkness underneath the couch, Lego sets on a rug, or TV playing old classic cartoons.

I think the majority of people will find this movie absolutely boring, however I think there are certain horror fans who will understand what this movie is trying to do and be absolutely terrified by it.

I consume a lot of horror content, and I don't find much of it to be "scary", but rather just thrilling, or chilling, or disturbing... but not "scary". The last movie I watched that actually somewhat frightened me was Oculus.

.. That is until Skinamarink. What this movie does is cause you to question what you're seeing when the camera is focused down a dark hallway and the film grain is going absolutely wild. Your mind starts to fill in the blanks and you start to wonder if there's actually something moving, or something staring back at you, just behind the veil of blackness on the screen.

Don't misunderstand me, plenty of creepy things do happen in the movie that are perfectly visible, however there is so much of a focus on the black negative space within the house, and your mind starts to fill in the blanks.

This is not a jump scare movie, this is a psychological stress test. It's less of a popcorn flick that makes you jump in your seat and closer to your mind stretching thin during the peak of a bad acid trip.

I'm a 33 year old adult who is pretty desensitized to scary movies. Very few horror movies have me freaked out after I finish watching the movie... Honest to God this one did. I watched it by myself late at night in my apartment alone, and when it was all over and I turned off my TV, I found myself checking the corners of my apartment as they sat in blackness while I attempted to go to bed.

What the director attempted to achieve with the unconventional filming and story presentation absolutely worked on me. Will most audiences get it? Will most audiences make it past the first 20 minutes before turning it off in boredom? Probably not.