Skinamarink's soundtrack mostly consists of disassociated voices, ones which shift spatially at random. The score from those cartoons is the only music we ever hear in the film. But mostly we're staring at walls and ceilings, at toys spilled and plays of light, at a staticky TV screen showing the same old cartoon on relentless repeat. Kevin is glimpsed from the side at one especially vulnerable moment.

At least, they're never straight on we see plenty of the backs of heads. You want elevated horror? Skinamarink's got your elevated horror.Įxpanding his 2021 short film 'Heck' (opens in a new tab) from thirty minutes into the full-length feature that stands before us today, Ball set down a few strict limitations for himself in his world-building – rules that set the stage right up front for just how out there this movie truly is.įirst and foremost, Skinamarink never reveals a single character's face. Heck, it makes the acclaimed so-called 'elevated horror' canon of the last decade - movies like The Witch, Midsommar, and Get Out - seem like very special episodes of a Chuck Lorre sitcom in comparison. It has more in common with David Lynch's bizarre 'Rabbits' (opens in a new tab) short film series than it does the campy mainstream slays of the kid-centered horror hit M3GAN. Skinamarink is really an experimental art film done up in Paranormal Activity clothing. Their dad is nowhere to be found, and some unseen presence begins to whisper at them from the dark. Named after the familiar childhood gibberish song (opens in a new tab), Skinamarink is the story of two young siblings, four-year-old Kevin (Lucas Paul) and six-year-old Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault), who get left alone at home one night.

The answers he received inspired his debut feature Skinamarink, a deeply unnerving waking nightmare that's crept its way like a cursed object into a few hundred theaters this weekend. Do you remember any of your nightmares from when you were a kid? That’s the question that director Kyle Edward Ball put forth on Reddit a few years back.

Owning the Game by Kaylee Rose