Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
According to Robert Scucci
| Published
The most effective horror films play into our fear of the unknown, and I can’t think of a film that evokes feelings of unease like it does in 2022. Skinmark. Almost no dialogue—and even fewer shots that are actually centered and well-lit— Skinmark it sets an atmosphere that’s hard to shake, even days after the end credits roll. Inspired by the analog horror movement slowly dominating the YouTube scene (The Mandela Catalogue and Not across the road are prime examples that will ruin your life) Skinmark boasts a similar aesthetic to some of the offbeat web series floating around, but has the odd ability to hold its own as a feature film.
Now that I think about it, “unusual” is the perfect way to describe it Skinmark.
Skinamarink’s plot is irrelevant
I may be exaggerating when I say that Skinamarink’s the plot doesn’t matter that much, but I can safely say that its storytelling isn’t nearly as important as its cinematography.
Writer/director Kyle Edward Ball tells his story through feelings, images, and sparsely placed night bumps, rather than taking a more conventional approach involving dialogue or narrative composed in any form of exposition. Skinamarink’s the sense of terror is shown, not told, through random mysterious shots of ceilings, off-center shots of the interior of the house, minimal dialogue between two terrified children hiding in a house that slowly morphs into different shapes, and a disembodied voice trying to make them manipulated into doing their bidding by impersonating their parents.
A bare bones story
Skinmark focuses on a 4-year-old boy named Kevin (Lucas Paul) and his 6-year-old sister Kaylee (DaliRose Tetreault). When he overheard a phone call from their father (Ross Paul), it became clear that Kevin had suffered a head injury after falling down the stairs during a sleepwalking episode. Dad assures everyone he talks to on the phone that Kevin is fine and doesn’t need to go to the hospital.
From this point onwards Skinmark it exists in a liminal space between this world and some unknown place you probably won’t want to visit anytime soon.
Kevin and Kaylee wake up in the middle of the night to strange noises in the house. They decide it’s best to stick together and venture downstairs to the family room to watch cartoons together. The brother and sister try to stay calm, even though they know they are not alone – that someone or something is watching them. The door disappears and reappears, and Kaylee is lured upstairs, where both her mother (Jaime Hill) and father speak in mysterious, monotone voices, telling her to either look under the bed or close her eyes.
Again he sought refuge below, the house within Skinmark continues to play tricks on Kevin and Kaylee.
Perspective is everything
Filmed on a budget of just $15,000, Skinmark it has no special effects. With most scenes lit only by a glowing TV screen (according to Ball) and an inordinate amount of off-center shots complementing the visuals of the film, I liken the viewing experience to a bout of sleep paralysis when you dream of a malevolent voice or figure in your room but are unable to take action against it. As the metallic taste of sleep lingers in your mouth, you try to shake off the nightmare, but the more you try to resist it, the more aggressively it suppresses your fears.
Streaming Skinamarink
Set in 1995, Skinmark evokes feelings of abandonment alone at home with your siblings for the first time while your parents go out to dinner with friends. Suddenly, the running fridge motor takes on a life of its own, and as you know, it wasn’t actually the fridge, but an ax murderer trying to get into your house through the crawl space. That glowing red dot in the corner of the entertainment center that you see every day is now a blinking demonic eye that won’t break its otherworldly gaze with you.
While Ball’s directorial debut is certainly open to interpretation, and I have my own thoughts about the film’s ending, which I won’t say here to avoid spoilers, the one thing I can tell you for sure is that this movie will stay with you for days. .
Just for its atmosphere, Skinmark deserves a fair amount of credit for being one of the scariest movies I’ve seen in a very long time. If you are ready to experience dreamlike horrors Skinmark offers, you can stream the title on Hulu as of this writing.
