If you haven’t seen it, Skinamarink is a new Canadian micro-budget experimental horror movie on Shudder. If words strung together in that order aren’t very appealing, I can understand your hesitation. Experimental horror tends to mean either so fucked up that it’s just not worth watching or so absolutely weird that it’s just not worth watching.
Skinamarink falls into the latter category, albeit worth watching. You should watch it. If not for the horror, then for the 70+ minutes of shots of the corners of walls and ceilings. It’s kind of like watching House Hunters if the cameraman had become possessed by a demon that loved crown molding.
This might not be selling the movie.
Here’s what Skinamarink is about: A brother and sister are trapped in a house in which all the windows and exits have disappeared. Most of the movie is them comfortably, and then uncomfortably, waiting for someone to come rescue them. As they stay in the house, more things disappear and get weirder. After that is spoiler territory.
All good horror movies thrive on vibes, but Skinamarink’s main appeal is the vibes. You’re disconcerted by the house because it’s so banal and so menacing at the same time. Almost every angle in the movie is shot from close to the ground, giving the whole home a threatening feel. Lingering images of open doors with nothing but darkness inside. The fuzziness of the camera. Watching Skinamarink almost feels like walking at night through a strange house at night.
It’s hard to even discern who or what the “villain” is in Skinamarink. Like a lot of weird horror, the situation doesn’t have a cause - it just is. The fact it’s inexplicable is what makes it scary. “We’re afraid of the unknown” is a cliche, but it’s also one that often doesn’t satisfy people. In a horror film, we like to make that unknown into known. We want to find out the tragic story of the evil ghost knocking shit off of shelves. If we don’t find out why the slasher was slashing, we feel robbed of some sort of cathartic conclusion.
Skinamarink only gives the most blurry narrative outline of who or what might be responsible. The movie lends itself to theories, albeit ones that require pretty big leaps of logic based on the almost nonexistent context clues. Hell, most of the movie we only hear characters talking just off camera. We barely even see the two kids outside of a couple shots - and only one or two show their faces.
It’s all oppressive and small. It’s vibes horror. It’s a horror I like. The unknowable nature of existence. A power outside of our own that can’t just be revealed to be the owner of the abandoned amusement park all along. There’s something deeply troubling about it. It’s the same feeling I get looking at the ocean at night. Something bigger and more dangerous exists, and I’ll never see it even if I feel it.
It also reminds me of a lot of horror games, and especially P.T. True, P.T. was a demo of a canceled game. But who gives a shit? It’s also one of the best horror games made on its own - because of its limited nature and because of its vibes. It has a smidge more traditional horror in it - turning around and being attacked by a ghost will do that to you. But the feeling of walking through an endlessly repeating house is one of dread. You know something bad has happened and will happen but you don’t know what the former is or when the latter will come.
I’m not the first person to consider the idea of vibes horror. But lord do I love it.
Skinamarink is going to annoy a lot of people, and for good reason. It’s intentionally slow. It’s intentionally quiet. It’s somewhat unclear on the rules of its own world. But that’s also what makes it so disturbing. And the use of children you can barely see pushes the viewers to become a proxy for the characters - much like playing a video game from the first person perspective while your hero talks. We are in the vibes. We are part of it.
Anyway.
Skinamarink.
Good movie.