Title: Skinamarink
Director(s): Kyle Edward Ball
Year: 2022
Producer(s): Dylan Pearce
Starring: Jaime Hill, Dali Rose Tetreault, Lucas Paul, Ross Paul
These are the written notes during my watch of Skinamarink on Feb 22, 2023.
– Angles.
– A child’s height? Too high or very low (eye level)
– Atmosphere and sound design
– This would be cool or more effective as analog horror on youtube; especially with sound design… (Local 58, The Mandela Catalog, Gemini Home Entertainment, The Backrooms) UPDATE: the director does have a YT channel!
– Definitely a slow burn
– Shadow thing?
– A chair on the ceiling?
– What’s real? Disappearing and reappearing
– Me at the doll on the ceiling: “Ma’am?”
– Grainess = analog horror
– Did the parents go “poof?” Where did they go? Who took them?
– Is the mom on the ceiling? I don’t know why that image keeps coming into my head.
– “I want to play” HOW ABOUT NO! NOT IN MY HOUSE! Go outside.
– Oh there’s blood? I don’t like that.
– Sounds of screams, crying, distress, breathing heavy…
– Abuse? Cyclical. Kids are endangered, not safe, vulnerable
– Cartoons as escape/coping
– The toy phone makes those creepy eyes??
– “Cut with a knife” “feel sick” age 4
– 572 days???
– Never ending cycle
– Photos of kids with missing heads = Frances Bacon vibes
Now that it has been DAYS and I’ve had my own thoughts/theories, plus read others ideas (including Film Theory and Ryan Hollinger on youtube), I can see why it is a very opinionated film. Either you enjoyed it or you didn’t like it and I can see both sides. Personally, I liked it and because there was a big mystery around it and open ended theories made me appreciate it more. I also think because of those qualities, people didn’t like it. It was too slow or nothing really happened or you want to be entertained with major jump scares, no questions left unanswered, etc.
My personal opinion is that it felt very unsafe, especially for the children who at those young ages interpret and see neglect or abuse around them and it manifests into “monsters”. Especially with certain lines like “i took her mouth” or “why are you whispering” and “look under the bed”. And the visuals of the mother looking beaten or dead, the photos of children missing their heads, it just feels like nothing and no one is safe. And 572 days… days of what? The skinamarink happening? The cycle continues? Like you can interpret this movie in so many ways because it feels more grounded in reality than supernatural (not to say that the supernatural doesn’t play a part, because it does) but this isn’t a haunting or anything. 
It’s a story that takes place in one location (as far as we know) and we just watch this family kind of crumble and deteriorate. No good/happy ending or fully realized conclusion, just… sad. And the biggest question of it all is WHERE DID THE DAD GO?
Uh huh.
So what is Skinamarink? A being? A phenomenon? Like an experience… you are experiencing (a) skinamarink.
Head to Shudder if you want to check out this very polarizing horror feature.
Shots of Horror 