SKINAMARINK (2023) Minimalist horror

[Lorne Marshall]

And to be fair to the main movie being profiled, SKINAMARINK is the only one that I fast-forwarded through parts, so perhaps I need to suck it up and try to watch it from start to finish, to experience it in its entirety.

[Lorne Marshall]

I really like Last and First Men but I've read the book and like weird shit.

I know the book is considered a sci-fi classic, so I should maybe someday give that a shot.

[Lorne Marshall]

Actually there's very little on there that's even NSFW-level (except perhaps a few of the old Jess Franco reviews), so please feel free to click through without fear.

Ben, it wasn't as much fear preventing me from reading the review as it was the website requiring me to sign in, since I don't have an account.

[BW Haggar]

BW, Blogger website wanted me to sign in to verify my age and because "This post contains sensitive content which may be inappropriate for some users." Really? That's hard to believe.

I'm really sorry about that Lorne - it's just some annoying and inconsistent blogger crap which I've had to put up with ever since some lovely person flagged the blog as "inappropriate" a few years back (instantly wiping out most of its traffic in the process).

Actually there's very little on there that's even NSFW-level (except perhaps a few of the old Jess Franco reviews), so please feel free to click through without fear.

Oh, and please do call me Ben by the way - the 'BW' initials are just kind of a gag which I should have thought through better when picking user names. : )

[Lorne Marshall]

'Enys Men' worked for me (review here)...

BW, Blogger website wanted me to sign in to verify my age and because "This post contains sensitive content which may be inappropriate for some users." Really? That's hard to believe.

[BW Haggar]

This, LAST AND FIRST MEN and ENYS MEN make up what I view as a particularly awful trinity of films I watched in 2023. I found them to be irriitating and tedious. I suppose each one could be viewed as an experimental film of sorts. I challenged a few friends to try to view any of these and make it past 10 minutes. Now, to be clear, there are many, many other titles I watched last year that were way worse in terms of productions values, etc. But no others had me screaming "Make it stop!" more than this trio.

'Enys Men' worked for me (review here), but it's certainly not a film I'd recommend to everyone, or that I can really defend in any objective fashion.

In a way, I think it's probably become a victim of the hype it received from the BFI and certain critics, promising a level of reward that a weird and insular 16mm indie film simply can't deliver.

[Randy G]

This, LAST AND FIRST MEN and ENYS MEN make up what I view as a particularly awful trinity of films I watched in 2023. I found them to be irriitating and tedious. I suppose each one could be viewed as an experimental film of sorts. I challenged a few friends to try to view any of these and make it past 10 minutes. Now, to be clear, there are many, many other titles I watched last year that were way worse in terms of productions values, etc. But no others had me screaming "Make it stop!" more than this trio.

I really like Last and First Men but I've read the book and like weird shit.

[Lorne Marshall]

This, LAST AND FIRST MEN and ENYS MEN make up what I view as a particularly awful trinity of films I watched in 2023. I found them to be irriitating and tedious. I suppose each one could be viewed as an experimental film of sorts. I challenged a few friends to try to view any of these and make it past 10 minutes. Now, to be clear, there are many, many other titles I watched last year that were way worse in terms of productions values, etc. But no others had me screaming "Make it stop!" more than this trio.

[Newt Cox]

More an installation than a conventional feature, I suspect this is best viewed stoned in a theatre.

Watched it Stoned in a pitch black room.

[Ian Jane]

This movie confused me and made me want to take a nap. I'd much rather listen to Sunn O)))!

[Randy G]

More an installation than a conventional feature, I suspect this is best viewed stoned in a theatre.

[Newt Cox]

I saw it last year and yea way way too long. If it had been 20 to 30 minutes it would have worked for me. Being what 1 hour 30 minutes I kept checking the running time to see when it was over. Sure tiny parts were creepy but most of it was me going ok yea look at that corner of the room for 15 minutes with almost nothing happening.

[Vincent Dawn Jr]

Uncharacteristically, I bowed to the hype and attempted to watch this a few months back. After about 20 minutes or so, I hit fast forward, trying to find a moment on the screen where the camera wasn't aimed at the top of a door, or down at the carpet. I recall a scene at the very end that was spooky, but for the most part I found this devoid of any artistic value or merit.

This is the epitome of self-indulgent art. Kind of like a film version of Sunn O)))

[Matt H.]

I watched this really early in the morning a few months back and I think that's the ideal time to watch it. I admired it more than anything. As others have mentioned, this has no business being 100 minutes long and there's no way in hell I'd ever sit through it again. Interesting, though.

[JoeS]

SKINAMARINK (2023) Full marks to Writer-Director Kyle Edward Ball. He came up with a concept and doggedly keeps to it, with virtually no concessions to his viewers. SKINAMARINK (named after a similarly titled old nursery rhyme) is an experimental arthouse horror project. Two little kids, Kevin (Lucas Paul) and his sister Haylee (Dali R. Tetrault) wander around their family home in 1995. Their parents (Ross Paul and Jaime Hill) are in their bedroom. They see a few visions, and, possibly, some violence. And, that's it as far as any real 'plot' is concerned.

From the outset, Ball and his Cinematographer Jamie McRae plunge the viewer in what looks like a battered old 70s grindhouse 35mm film print transfered to VHS tape (the viewer sees a few discarded cassettes strewn around for good measure). Almost all of the movie's credits are at the opening as well. The camera is intentionally almost never aimed at anything in particular - walls, ceilings, stairs, doors, feet and hands. Occassionally, one of the kids or parents is seen full body -- as if by accident. Much of the source lighting is either from a very low wattage night lite, flashlight or the glow from a TV. For minutes on end, the viewer can't make out anything but videotape noise. The dialogue is all hushed and whispered, with some it subtitled (its often so unintelligibe that many will want to turn on the closed captions). The movie must have been high near impossible to watch in a dingy theater with bad projection (Hint: turn off all the lights when watching it at home).

So, what is SKINAMARINK? It's proabably best to take it as a conceptual piece to simply experience. Boredom is part of the viewer's journey. If you get on its bead, one can find themselves mesmerized in an almost hypnotic state as you stare into the abyss. It's like a 60s Andy Warhol art film - almost daring one to turn away or off completely. It makes other minimalism movies like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY look like the latest entry in the Fast & Furious franchise by comparison.

There are tiny hints at a possible “plotline”. A nod here or there to POLTERGEIST and THE SHINING. Maybe a murder. Potentially, a portal to another dimenstion. Most likely, it's a representation of some form of 'Dream Logic', but the more concrete one wants to make of it, the less enjoyable it becomes. Why would a widescreen film be captured on old VHS? Why are there a couple of jump scares? If it's someone's dream, why would they be staring at the floorboards or a piece of empty carpet? Why does the POV shift from objective to subjective (not to mention from one entity to another)? Why are some edits smooth and others seemingly random?

In many ways, SKINAMARINK might have been more effective as a short rather than at 100 minutes (of course, as noted, the tedium is part of the message). It will be interesting to see what Ball does with a more narrative feature. For now, SKINAMARINK stands as both a fascinating and an enervating exercise -- often concurrently.


SKINAMARINK is currently available to stream on Hulu, Shudder and AMC+ - also for rental.