Portal to childhood nightmares

Kyle Edward Ball unpacks the mystique of his viral horror film, ‘Skinamarink.’

“Skinamarink,” the runaway success story of the moment, is at once the stuff of literal nightmares and every indie filmmaker’s dream: a $15,000 chiller that’s earned $1.8 million in theaters in a matter of weeks.

And, love it or hate it, polarizing reactions have made writer-director Kyle Edward Ball’s experimental debut feature — in which two young siblings wake up in the middle of the night to find their father gone, the doors and windows missing and a malevolent entity in the shadows — cinema’s lat

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Playing: Streaming on Shudder; also in limited theatrical release

IFC Films “SKINAMARINK” was made for just $15,000 and has become horror’s latest word-of-mouth sensation, thanks to TikTok and other social media platforms.