A new take on a horror movie that left thousands petrified
By Tamanna Gera
For some, horror movies are a pre-bedtime activity. For others, they can be a great challenge to get through. Whether based on a true story or a purely imaginative scenario brought to cinematic life, horror movies have been a craze in the world of cinema since the 1920s, with popular works such as Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man and many more.
A few years ago, director Kyle Edward Ball crafted a unique take on horror–a genre where such experiments can be an epic hit or miss. Yet, his creation turned into a phenomenon, leading to sold-out screenings in numerous cinemas across North America. Labelled as one of the scariest horror films by many who have watched it from film critics to general audiences, Skinamarink’s journey to widespread acclaim is as intriguing as the movie itself.
Skinamarink made its official debut on June 13, 2023. However, this date was a year earlier than expected as clips from the original film leaked online, forcing Ball to bump up the release date. The name Skinamarink comes from the title of a children’s song many Canadians may be familiar with.
Skinamarink a-dink a-dink
Skidamarink a-doo
I love you
Skinamarink a-dink a-dink
Skidamarink a-doo
I love you
I love you in the morning
And in the afternoon
I love you in the evening
And underneath the moon
Skinamarink a-dink a-dink
Skinamarink a-doo
I love you
The idea for this horror film all started back on YouTube on Ball’s channel called “Bitesized Nightmares” where he created various short films depicting the nightmares of his commenters. It was from there that he noticed that the nightmares were “eerily similar.” Many of these commenters described scenarios of a child being alone in their home with some sort of monster lurking in the shadows.
Being inspired by these stories, Ball decided he wanted to offer a window into the nightmares of others while incorporating his own fears into this film. He set his first horror movie in an old dark house engorged with terrors and scares.
In just seven days, the film was set to action in Ball’s childhood home in Edmonton. According to an article from CBC News, Ball said that his parents were overwhelmed with this decision but ensured that the location was kept private to avoid hordes of horror film enthusiasts.
The film was shot from the perspective of two young children, six-year-old Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault) and four-year-old Kevin (Lucas Paul). Skinamarink is roughly 100 minutes in length, and only 10 minutes of this film includes footage of people. The rest is made up of various static shots from the children’s perspective of the house, such as blank walls, the staticky old television, flickering shadows and more.
This film technique, known as ergodic cinema, rarely ever works because of the lack of people and words spoken, but Ball managed to use it to shoot a horror film masterpiece.
Surprisingly, the absence of characters felt barely noticeable, showing how eerie emptiness and the fear of the unknown can be. This technique was also used by Canadian director David Lynch and his acclaimed film Mulholland Drive (2001).
The focus on the absence was to follow the idea of how “the scariest things are the things you don’t see,” as dissipated in Ball’s viewers’ nightmares. The odd noises and movements captured in the film follow the build-up of suspense that people often feel in their nightmares: the atmosphere of an empty setting with the feeling of impending doom. The fear of the unknown is the theme Ball focused on when creating this film.
Ball said his goal was to create a sense of uncanny apprehension, “as if Satan directed a movie and got an AI to edit it.” The randomness and eerie distortions that occur in the film, followed by the unexpected jump scares, convey Satan’s desire to terrify the living hell out of people without them even expecting it.
The classic jump-scares in the film are based on the early classic internet horror video scares, such as the infamous “What’s wrong with this picture?” trend from the late 1990s, where people are shown an image that might appear normal at first but contains unsettling and creepy details after a closer look. This theme follows a build-up of suspense and dread and then jump-scares the viewer unexpectedly after continuous glimpses of unsettling activity.
The film was set to be themed as a 1970s horror film, hence why the entire movie consists of constant sounds of grainy humming and static noises. The film was written and directed entirely by Ball, allowing him to be meticulous with the small details. To create this film, Ball used an old CRT television to enhance the “olden time” feeling. Ball spent three months editing the film himself, working intensely on the jump scares he created.
This film was a very different watch from your typical horror film of surviving against a demon who has taken possession of an individual, as seen in films like The Exorcist or The Conjuring. It maintained an old and grainy effect to create an eerie cinematic setting for viewers. The various types of shots, switching from wide-shot scenes to close-up scenes, created an unsettling vibe that fits perfectly into Ball’s intended vision of experiencing a nightmare.
Skinamarink definitely lives up to its name, transforming a children’s song into a horror-infused cinematic piece. I have never seen a horror movie mainly consisting of vivid shots of the features of a house, emphasizing how ordinary objects like toys and TV can be the scariest things there. Although the film was quite slow at the beginning, as the repetition of shots of the house became somewhat monotonous, it slowly transformed once the plot picked up. The movie maintains its suspense throughout the whole watch, making the jump scares even more frightening.
Overall, I wouldn’t really call this the “scariest film of all time.” While it is suspenseful and creepy, when it comes to being scary and terrifying, the concept used for this film may not be the best to create this sensation. I definitely recommend this to all horror movie fans who are in dire need of a new horror watch.
You can check the film out on streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime, Mubi, Kanopy and more.
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