You’re in bed, you just woke up from a sudden sound you can’t exactly remember, but it almost scared you to death. You’re staring up at the ceiling, you don’t want to go back to sleep, if you go to sleep, whatever made that sound might get you. You carefully and slowly get out of bed, the only thing you hear being the creaks of the floorboards as you sneak out of your room. In the hallway, there’s nothing but pitch-black darkness. Can your parents hear you out of bed? Are your parents awake? Are they alive?
I only heard about ‘Skinamarink’ through whispers, I first heard about it in a CACS class as a few of us discussed our favorite horror films, ‘Mad God’ was mentioned, ‘Colour Out Of Space’, but I had never heard of ‘Skinamarink’. So last night, I watched it, and it’s still in my mind.
Let’s get one thing clear: Not everyone is going to like this film, and chances are, most of you won’t, but the film is one of the most interesting and otherworldly films I’ve seen, only matching ‘Mulholland Drive’ in mysterious for me.
‘Skinamarink’ begins with a child being injured and taken to the hospital, when they return, the father disappears. The two children, Kevin and Kaylee, soon find their house changing extraordinarily, doors and walls are disappearing and the only other person in the house with them is a paranormal entity. If you want the true ‘Skinamarink’ experience, don’t you dare read the plot on Wikipedia, be as confused as you can.
My interpretation is that the film is about child abuse. In the first scene, when the father and child come home from the hospital, the father simply calls the mother and tells her “he had a fall”. I like to imagine the rest of the film is the children getting their wish of not having a father but soon having to face a nightmare with no one but themselves.
The film uses childhood paranoia heavily, the dark imagination we find ourselves with when we woke up at night, when we were just 5 years old, too scared to get out of bed and ask to sleep in our parents’ bed, facing a wall and bookshelves that just morph. We’re just 5 years old, everything we see is reality. It’s filmed with grain so thick, you’d probably need a machete to cut through it, but it all works. If you don’t mind staring at a screen for a hundred minutes and you’re ready to either embrace the weirdness or investigate every element as if it leads to the Zodiac Killer’s identity, this movie is for you. ‘Skinamarink’ is very clearly an arthouse horror film, as long as you’re in it, you’ll be on edge, you’ll be creeped out and it’ll blow your mind.
Just be ready for the longest night of your life.
Mason’s Rating: 4 stars! See It Tonight!
Image: IFC Films/Shudder