Flawed, frustrating flick a real mystery
Confusion reigns in oddball horror
It’s been a good while since I’ve been this annoyed watching a movie – a fact made even more frustrating as Skinamarink arrived on horror streaming service Shudder amid a lot of fanfare.
The plot – and I use that term loosely – sees two children wake up in the middle of the night to discover their dad is missing, and all of the windows and doors in their home have vanished.
Sounds cool, right? Unfortunately, for most of the hour and 40 minutes running time it’s virtually impossible to tell what is going on.
Debut feature-length flick writerdirector Kyle Edward Ball chooses an experimental filming style using fuzzy images and strangely angled camera shots where a lot of action takes place off screen.
What little lighting there is predominately comes from television screens and while at times it all lends the movie a creepy, old-school VHS vibe, I had a hard time maintaining interest in developments.
It’s an assault on the senses – and not in a good way – and there are lengthy scenes where the camera remains static and you find yourself wondering what you are watching.
I am all for original, risk-taking filmmaking but when it doesn’t work, it all feels rather pretentious rather than exciting.
On the rare occasions when we can clearly see or hear them, youngsters Lucas Paul (Kevin) and Dali Rose Tetreault (Kaylee) impress as kids stuck in a living nightmare.
There are a couple of really effective startling scares too and the film’s final image is as chilling as it is mystifying.
And that’s another one of Ball’s debut’s biggest fatal flaws; confusion reigns. Ideally you shouldn’t have to do Google searches after a movie to get the gist of what was going on, but that’s exactly what I found myself doing when the credits rolled.
Flawed, frustrating and occasionally frightening, Skinamarink is an exasperating watch that leaves you feeling cold and empty on the inside.
●Have you seen Skinamarink? If so, what are your thoughts on the film? Am I being too harsh on it?
Pop me an email at ian.bunting@ reachplc.com and I will pass on your comments – and any movie or TV show recommendations you have – to your fellow readers.