Skinamarink, 2022.
Written and Directed by Kyle Edward Ball.
Starring Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault, Ross Paul, and Jaime Hill.
SYNOPSIS:
Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.
Writer/director Kyle Edward Ball’s crowdfunded horror festival hit turned viral TikTok sensation Skinamarink deserves credit for its particular, stylized vision and unwavering commitment to that approach. Reflecting its 1990s time period, Jamie McRae’s shrouded-in-darkness cinematography is also obfuscated by excessive grain resembling a broken-down VHS tape.
As a result, there are numerous instances of seeing figures and shadows that might be a manifestation of one’s imagination, especially since the film likes to linger on these shots, which are frequently accompanied by loud noises and creepy distorted voices. There’s also no shame in admitting to briefly rewinding certain stretches (a digital screening link was provided for review) to make certain something unsettlingly mysterious was there or if it’s all in one’s head.
In that regard, Skinamarink succeeds, but only for about the length of a standard TikTok video and nowhere near enough to sustain its 100-minute running time. That’s one way of saying that for as much as I tried to get on Kyle Edward Ball’s wavelength, searching for hidden details in the pitch-black images and piecing together its abstract narrative (with almost no dialogue), long stretches became excruciatingly tedious.
Siblings Kevin and Kaylee (Lucas Paul and Dali Rose Tetreault) begin to experience supernatural weirdness coming to the realization that their parents are missing, excelling at portraying fear and confusion. The doors and windows of the home have vanished, with the film showing us real-time shifts of the walls. The many objects scattered on the floor are also manipulated, as are the cartoons on TV (the latter gradually becomes more unsettling as it repeats on a loop.)
There’s no denying that Kyle Edward Ball has a plethora of ideas to elicit nightmare fuel (although they don’t appear to be his, but rather stories of terrifying dreams from his YouTube viewers smashed into one movie), but they all seem to boil down to recycling the same cheap trick that nothing is as it appears to be. This becomes doubly tiresome because of the running time and the constant jumping back and forth between the same rooms. At times it feels like the same attempts at scares are repeatedly utilized beat for beat.
Kyle Edward Ball also seems to be under the impression that because these are young children in potential danger (roughly 4 years old each), there doesn’t need to be any characterization beyond vague themes. Ironically, the most tension comes when there are voices, whether a father talking about his son’s injury that left him unharmed or a likely demonic presence encouraging self-harm. Another standout scene involves a call to the police, bringing some much-needed urgency and thrills to the proceedings beyond observing spooky changes to the house, but that is also short-lived.
Skinamarink probably works better as a short, as there’s not much beyond a unique atmosphere. The attempted horror is in service of practically nothing, dragging on until its dull total conclusion.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
