You know that feeling when you were 8 and you were deathly afraid to get out of bed at night because you didn't know what was out there in the darkness. This movie perfectly replicates that feeling, better than any other horror movie I've ever seen. It made me scared to get up at night for like 2 days...
Saw this movie in a lightly crowded theatre with my roommates. Calling myself an “unscareable” person. That night I hid in my denim jacket like a child hiding under his blanket. Skinamarink is one of the very few horror movies that has genuinely made me lose sleep, making me feel fear that was almost nostalgic. Like a child scared of the dark. Fantastic film, I hope it sets a trend of horror film making.
@@Delta-Boss its aight not to watch scary movies bro, definitely think you're both right here. Anyone who says they are unscarable usually dont like scary movies, and therefore does not watch them
Not sure if your aware delta but there’s a ton of analog horror series that are genuinely amazing here on TH-cam. Probably one of the more popular ones is Mandela catalogue!!
An actual experience watching alone. I thought nothing could genuinely surprise me or make me have nightmares like a kid again. This movie made me avoid sleeping for a night or two
@@ultraheaven8968 Well, many people have different opinions. And I think insulting people for theirs is not that good. For me personally, I tried to watch the movie but it seemed too boring in the beginning to continue through the rest, though I was very disturbed when I saw a montage of the scariest scenes online. I think it's the directed the way it is to relive those moments when you were a child in your dark room and couldn't sleep and were forced to just stare in your dark room until you eventually pass out. though I feel like if it were just a short film, it would've been better.
@@ultraheaven8968 What the fuck are you doing here? You're in the comments of a video for a channel that specifically is for giving a short breakdown of movies in a way that relieves the tension of actually watching them. Also, just say the word pussy.
"Can you show me something happy?" And the thing shows itself. It's happy. It's happy that these children are suffering. It's happy that it is making them suffer. I think this is true horror. The most quintessential and encompassing form of it. Helplessness in the face of not a predator, an evil human, a weapon, a natural disaster, or others. It is helplessness in the face of a thing, vague and diluted, yet has complete control and sovereignty, whose only wish is to make whoever is in its grasp suffer.
Why I haven't nor will watch this movie is that it seems to be pointless. With The Witch, Midsommar, Hereditary, etc. there's a point. The trauma of a broken family, the isolation of New England colonists, the power a cult can have over a vulnerable individual. But Skinamarink sounds like... horror for the sake of horror. These are children, lost. No one to help them. Toys to a demon. Humiliating them eternally. No way out, solitude, pain. Trapped within loops and corridors of darkness. The demon even separates them. Kills Kevin in repeat. Takes the girl's face away. Makes Kevin take his eye out. Never ending suffering. Something a child cannot even comprehend. A monster that corrupts every part of their being. It's honestly nauseating.
@@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ I don't think skinamarink lacks a narrative. There's plenty of theories out there that say it's a commentary on broken homes. An absent mother, the kids demonise her, etc.
@@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ I hate to be the "uhm achktuyallyyy" guy but the creator has stated that there IS indeed a "point" to the whole movie, he just won't tell anyone because he believes leaving one to speculate leaves more of an impact than simply pulling back the curtain. Many people have taken up his challenge to speculate on the true nature of the movie, and even Film Theory has weighed in on it, speculating that the whole thing is just a nightmare Kevin is having because of a brain tumor and the whole thing is symbolic of the horror of watching a loved one slowly suffer and die with nobody being able to do much about it. Though many have speculated very different things, with me weighing in that the demon is actually supposed to BE the kids' mom, that they and the dad had separated from due to being abusive and controlling, and the movie is a supernatural version of "what if an abusive mother took back her kids out of pettiness and then proceeded to alternate between neglecting them and fucking with them", which is another mundane tragedy that happens out there in the world. I could go on about the theories here, but I think you get the idea. Skinamarink is very much a movie with a point, just like those other films. It's just up to you to figure out what that point is. I'd argue that that's a bit different from horror for horror's sake.
Bruh did you watch the movie or just this video? When Kevin asked to watch something happy, it showed him a door. An escape that will never come. It showing its "face" happened quite a few scenes and a serious length of time after.
When I heard the “put the knife in your eye” phrase, I sat up straight as a board and shouted “No!”, it could be because it’s children in the place of adults being hurt, but I’ve never felt such guttural dread having children being threatened or hearing them scream and cry. I love horror films, I can watch just about anything, but this film made me feel so unbelievably helpless, and made me want to scoop up those kids and love of them.
It’s a primal protective instinct in all of us, everyone has it, this instinct to protect children Of course, some diverge from it, and they choose to hurt children, but most people have that instinct that makes us hate seeing children in discomfort and pain If Skinamarink had the kids in a house they could possibly escape from, I guarantee many of us would wish to be in universe to save them, but without doors and windows, adults out of universe and in universe are really only left with the ability to watch as innocent children are tortured and tormented by a demon That “Put the knife in your eye” moment also got a reaction out of me. I didn’t say no, I said “Stop” Then I heard the kid crying and said “Leave them alone!” Out of all the people we deem worthy of protection and least worthy of harm, kids rank high, if not highest on the list
@@logeyperogi1805I don‘t, fuck them kids! Most people would find a crying child annoying and not feel some “primal instinct” to help the kid. We’re not neanderthals.
I think this movie is brilliant. It’s vagueness can come off as a movie with no deeper meaning, just being creepy to be creepy, but I think there’s a whole message within. These kids are trapped in their own house with their parental figure (guardian) gone, meanwhile being tormented by a demon. As stated, this has been going on for almost 2 years now, which would make anybody go crazy. The kids, instead, maintain their kid like innocence. I think this is a story about child abuse and how something like that can make the victims feel trapped, unprotected, and tormented in an endless cycle.
Their dad may have disappeared when he started drinking, and the violence is a result of him lashing out at them when they need to be parented. Theres no father because he's been replaced by a demon.
@@Ben.Byng17 i definitely felt that. maybe because it's so immersive and transports you to a childlike state but everything I see of this movie terrifies me and actually makes me want to cry. i don't know. it's like the sadness and helplessness of hearing your mum getting beaten from the other room while you try to sleep. or being home alone when someone should be there but no one is there to take care of you anymore.
@@alexsadlex2314 It’s funny, for a film that sounds so mundane when described, it genuinely always surprises me how effective it is to witness. You described it quite evocatively. I think it’s the closeness of the shots and the setting. As a kid there often isn’t much in your consciousness outside of a lot of low-angle closeups of the rooms of your house. I think seeing a view like that - uncommon among other films but genuinely very familiar perspectives from childhood - you don’t have to add much horror for that very arresting feeling you described to take effect. To then carry through the very applicable childhood trauma metaphors really sells the relatability of the horror.
I watched this back when it first came out, and loved it. I will say, I hate when people say “you just don’t get it,” when comes to some pretentious crap. But I think it sort of applies here, though it’s not that you don’t get, but that it’s simply not one everyone can connect to. When I was little, I would sometimes wake up in the night, often if I was staying at a friends or relatives, and have this feeling. It’s an anxious, unwelcoming, drab, dry, and dreadful feeling that I can’t describe in more words than that, and I hadn’t felt it again until and since I watched this movie. But this movie captured that for me, then brought me into it with that feeling. So I felt like I was literally there, experiencing this nightmare with that child. That’s not easy to do, and it’s what made it brilliant, imo.
Agreed. I feel like the wording has a condescending tone which is why it sounds pretentious, but I think this movie makes it difficult not to say. Not from an art/indie/hipster standpoint, but from a fear standpoint. Some people legitimately were just never really afraid of the dark or didn't have traumatic childhood nightmares/experiences. In that case they really don't get it because the horror just can't click with them. They just see it as a slow, boring movie.
Something I really liked about part of this movie is that it didn't feel like there was a monster or ghost for a portion of it. It felt like the house itself was the malicious entity. Some of the shots in this movie make the house look almost vicious. It's really cool.
The idea that an artificial construct can be sentient I've always found fascinating It has no concept of how to exist or behave and suddenly finds itself aware of its own existence where concepts of good and evil and even communication are completely alien to it Perhaps its treatment of the children is how it interprets interaction
The face slowly appearing is probably my favorite part, because I’ve seen the same thing happen for real countless times as a kid in a dark room. It’s so vague and distorted your brain is constantly making modifications and trying to figure out who it is That or 572 days appearing, along with the shot of the room with the pile of toys slowly expanding, and the house in the void.
This movie scared the hell out of me. I know it won't hit everyone the same, but this was so many childhood fears rolled into one package for me. It took me right back into the headspace of a scared child that left their room late at night to get a glass of water. It's the definition of not for everyone but I love it.
My theory is that the boy is stuck inside his own mind. In the beginning of the movie, the boy suffered an accident after an episode of sleepwalking. It is said he was taken to the hospital and brought back home. But I wondered, in what condition? How is he trapped inside the house where his parents are gone? Methinks the boy is trapped in a Pseudocoma, Locked-In Syndrome, a prisoner inside his own mind.
I think the phone scene got me the most, especially how it looked like eyes while the flashlight was turned off, it was so shocking to me and when the phone went off I literally screamed
By ending the movie with such a non-ending, having focussed on the demons face as the last thing we really see it makes it feel like the movie is not over. It never ended, you just go to bed at night and get to think about the face you saw in the dark and maybe, if you keep staring into your lightless bedroom... You will see it again
honestly the scene where kevin is on the phone with the 911 operator was the most terrifying one to me because help was right there but there was no way for them to get to him
@@justjayceeok99the leading theory, or the one that I believe, is that after Kevin hit his head in the beginning, he went into a coma, and that’s the reason why the parents left and the doors disappear. also, that’s why Kaylee sort of dies, because he’s all alone now. the operator was fake, it was just the entity taunting him.
Great video, never considered the “not letting the viewer relax” aspect of the ending. I certainly felt jarred by the ending, but I wish the rest of the movie was as directly unsettling as the last few minutes. I didn’t appreciate the jump scares because the movie didn’t need them - the atmosphere was enough! That phone is freaky tho.
I am a seasoned horror fan, not much phases me. I used to have a huge fear of the dark, but haven't had issues in a long time, especially in my current apartment. I saw this movie in theaters, and then I literally couldn't sleep for 2 nights because I was so terrified to turn off my lights. This movie is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, and I'm so impressed with it
I've found that the people who love this movie have a very active imagination. Since the movie doesn't feed you a lot of information, your own mind fills in the blanks. People whose imagination is not so great tend to feel the movie had nothing to scare them with. They need the jump scare, the scary images in order to get that horror feeling... I mean the dread in knowing what this entity did to those children for 572 days, knowing there was no escape sent shivers down my spine...while a person with no imagination just saw two kids being spooked by nothing. At least, that's my humble opinion.
exactly what I thought. I found myself thinking about every little detail in each scene, wondering why I was being shown each frame and what might be of significance in each, not because I'm intelligent, just because I have a very vivid imagination. When there isn't anything substantial to visually take in in a frame, there's time to imagine whatever it might be that comes next or reflect on what was shown previously, and for the type of people who simply watch exactly what's on the screen, only taking in information that is spoon fed via dialogue or imagery or audio, I can imagine why they might not like the film.
You remind me of a copypasta. "To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick and Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existencial catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Rick and Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand."
@@denaaulianurulannisa4294last line was said by John Skinamarink, he said "it's skinamarinking time" and then he skinamarinked all over the kids. Truly one of the movies ever made.
Someone said it best: if you had a messed up childhood, you'll really click with this film; if you had a great childhood, this film will make no sense to you..
Man my childhood wasn’t that fucked up as far as “fucked up” childhoods go, I have some medical issues so I went to the hospital a lot, had 13 doctors at one point. My parents got divorced when I was six and neither of them was all that stable, but I always understood that the shit my parents did that fucked me up came from a dear for my well being and a lick of understanding of my and their mental health difficulties. I was never hit or physically abused, and they were less controlling than other strict parents, I was never deprived of food or anything I needed but my mom was overbearing and my dad co dependant. However, this movie still hit me like a ton of bricks
First of all, nice to see you here mike :D Second, i had a great childhood but with some early experiences with some horror scenes, i was so scared of the dark. I didn't watch the movie and probably won't, because only seeing these scenes here reminded me of that time and i couldn't really watch them haha. I'm sure it will click with me so i can't sleep for a week without light
In Skinamarink 2, the demon makes Kevin learn The Trooper by the tab book (the movie would get banned globally after 1st screening for realistic and extremely graphic depiction of violence towards children)
I watched this movie alone at night while my partner was out of town and that night I had to sleep with the lights on for fear of seeing that dreaded face. I had to rid my room of any possible dark corner, and even now, thinking about this film makes my stomach tight. I also love how the film gets you used to seeing feet and legs when interacting with humans, so much so that when I saw the top of Kaylee's forehead in a shot, it petrified me. Skinamarink lulls you into a bored, dream-like state while slowing sinking its claws into you. I'll never forget this film, and am scared to watch it again, but I feel inevitably drawn to do that soon.
Agreed! The fact that nothing is happening for most of the movie made the scares that much more intense for me. I will say I found the movie much less scary on second viewing
Skinamarink is the definition of love it or hate it, or in this case, be scared shitless or not be scared at all. We don't all have the exact same fears so it doesn't resonate with everyone, but with who it resonates, it resonates hard.
tbh for me it was love it AND hate it. There's so many great things about it, but I also think it's not particularly well executed. I think it achieves some things it sets out to do extremely well, and falls well short of others. It's such a unique and frustrating movie, and I think there's a lot to say about it.
@genericusername546 true, it was too drawn out, nothing at all happening, very hard watch for me. I get the idea of it all, I just think it was amateur and needed more elements of true film making
I don't know if this was intentional or not but with the combination of the darkness and film grain I'd always think when watching certain scenes I'd see some form of movement from the demon due to the film grain added it felt like my mind was playing tricks with me kinda like when you're trying to go to sleep and look in the dark parts of your room and think you saw movement. It's really creepy.
Yeah I'm sure that was intentional especially with the face appearing in it at the end, where you're looking for something the whole film in the grain and then in the end you finally see it.
The director has officially stated that the grain, instead of the darkness alone, playing tricks on the test audiences was a happy accident and is more than happy with the result, but it was not intentional.
Watched this movie alone at him at midnight, in the dark. I wasn't terrified like the others but it was one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. Pure desperation. I've grown up in a broken household and Skinamarink really resonated with me. That pure feeling of helplessness, the inability to escape that nearly drove me to suicide when I was a teen. Being a child sucks. You have no agency whatsoever.
I think of Skinamarink as a true experience. Me and my friend watched it at his place and both ended up coming in and out of consciousness (sleeping) watching the film. It wears you down, and pulls you into states of exhaustion as you peer into the static-y void waiting and trying to piece together fragments of meaning. By the end you only have snippets of some vague semblance of understanding and just...nothing...no answer, no reason, no resolution, just a palpable sense of despair, anguish and futility. It's like waking up from a long and unsettling dream. Afterwards my friend and I tried to make sense of the film, talking about it, filling in the parts that the other missed, so in a lot of ways we felt that like the characters, we experienced this long feeling of hanging in an upsetting and disorienting fog.
@ImpatientPlatypus You had to see it in theaters, imo. The camcorder static turned into a wall you had to strain to peer through at times, when blown up on such a large screen. Scariest movie since Hereditary imo
I watched this movie home alone in my dark bedroom and I have to say atmosphere truly makes this movie something special because at the end of the movie you're left alone in the dark with this thing you really never get to properly see. I haven't watched a horror movie in a long while that made me squint my eyes and cringe with anxiety. I absolutely loved it and I felt like it struck a primal fear in me from when I was a kid already worried I would be left to fend for myself let alone with some entity who takes away any means of escape. It was also a really sad one too because I really feel for these kids because they didn't deserve any of it and the skinamarink does whatever it wants just because it wants to and that in it of itself is truly horrifying :((
I watched this alone at night with the lights off after recently starting to live on my own. I realized shortly into the movie, that my room and apartment has blue walls and white trim, just like many rooms shown in skinamarink. The cherry on top of the horror sundae.
I watched this movie on my laptop alone late at night, and even though I saw it coming, the phone scene scared me so bad I had to catch my breath for almost a full minute after. Something about this film scared me in a visceral way, I felt like my childhood fear of the dark had been significantly heightened for several days after I watched it. I know this movie doesn't hit for everyone, but when it hits, it hits hard.
many people wont understand and enjoy this film and that’s extremely unfortunate. this film really captures the horror of our imagination when we witness the unknown. great video
I completely understood it- and it still was bad. What else is there to understand about staring at a dark wall for dozens of minutes with ominous cartoon sounds playing? You act like you need imagination to truly “get” this film, but there’s nothing more to understand about seeing a face in the darkness after 130 minutes of looking at a wall. Maybe i’m just not as unsettled by the darkness as you are, but I found all of those shots utterly dull and pointless.
I think for this movie to work(at least for me) you have to devote yourself to the experience. No outside distractions or anything like that, you must solely devote yourself to the movie and immerse yourself in it. When you do that this movie is legitimately a long and dreadful panic attack. The last scene is genuinely jarring if you are deeply immersed in it. The problem these days is nobody has the attention span to really watch something like this.
I have undiagnosed aphantasia that ive been reckoning with for a while. Its really something unnerving to know in the infinite black of your mind, you're unable to grasp an image however comforting. Part of the reason this worked so well for me was that the ambiguity translated to "filling the void". Sometimes i wake up at night from a nightmare, because apparently the lack of visual imagination is made up for by vivid dreaming, and it's like i can still see the visuals through my open eyes, consciously. This movie was like that, but for ninety minutes and absolutely hypnotic. I was both intrigued and so terrified i had to have the blanket in my face for 60% of the runtime. The bedroom scene had me sweating.
Everyone has said it, but I have to also say it. When you get up in the middle of the night as a kid, the house can feel unfamiliar. Like, it's not the home you know or feel welcome/safe in. It makes you cautious to just get a drink of water. Trapping the kids in their home, blanketed in darkness and no view of the outside, forever alone from their parents they relied on, needed, they're helpless to the horror. It was perfect for me!
Watched it with my friends, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, while my friends complained the whole movie saying it was boring, and when it was gonna end. I really loved this film because I was an easily scared kid when I was young and watching this film made me feel like that child again.
watched it in the theatre with my girl, she tends to fall asleep but she surprisingly stayed awake lol. Loved the face jumpscare, really got me even though I usually don't scare easily.
This movie was pretty much my worst fear showing itself. It reminded me of the Twilight Zone movie during the story about the little boy who had powers. When he speaks of his real sister you find out that that she no longer speaks bc shes missing her mouth. Her face is shown for a couple seconds mindlessly watching a creepy black and white cartoon. Although this part wasnt meant to be super scary it was one of the best scenes in any sort of horror/ thriller movie. It combined an unsettling with an even more unsettling fate and paired it with childish elements on account of the cartoon playing in the background. Paradoxes similar to this in film always makes it memorable.
"Twilight Zone movie during the story about the little boy who had powers" - The director actually cited that movie as one of the inspirations for Skinamarink.
I put myself in the movie based on things from my past. Seeing things in the dark was common for me. I've had some supernatural experience too as a preteen. The sound design helped keep me in a constant state of dread. Just seeing these clips again made the hairs stick up on my neck.
This movie brought back my childhood fear of being home alone late at night, my parents still not home from their night out. I had no idea when or if they’d be back, and the darkness of the house (I often forgot to turn on lights myself when night fell) made the anxiety so much worse.
I'm glad you found value in it. I gave up after a while of watching the kids wandering around a house, and nothing happening. BUT... I see folks appreciating it, so I honestly am glad there are folks out there who dug it.
This movie was so damn scary. Just watching the clips that you showed makes me uncomfortable. Its even worse when you usually have to care for kids, and then you see the movie, which has the children getting tortured for some entities enjoyment.
Personal opinion: While this movie was pretty decent I never felt like the actual movie was going anywhere or had any sense of direction of what it was attempting to do or what it was trying to portray.
5:40 After seeing this I might not watch the movie now. I had an extremely terrifying sleep paralysis where a woman with a veil is standing at the foot of my bed and this dark, grainy scene is how she exactly looks like. Indistinguishable. Even still her face is as dark as a black hole like she's censoring it. That was a traumatic memory for me.
I really love the style, and the couple of times things actually happen are pretty effective, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it could’ve been about half as long and been even more effective for me. I didn’t find enough to be threatened by, so it acted for me more like an asmr in a dark house with the tv on. Engaging in the same way Michael Snow’s Wavelength is, but I would prefer Skinamarink to Wavelength.
Yeah I felt pretty much the same about it couldve been half as long. I far preferred his short film that later became this feature length I think that was around 30mins which felt like the sweetspot for this style imo.
Yes! Finally! This movie is extremely ubderappreciated, I like how in the movie they show how scary it can be growing up in a abusive suburban American society and how your own home can be the scariest most dangerous place on earth.
Skinamarink is the only film I have seen that made me stop the movie entirely and just scream "NO" over and over and over again at the screen because of the sheer amount of tension it caused me
Skinamarink stuck with me because it reminded me of the first nightmare I ever remember having: I was maybe four or five years old. I remember being completely alone in my home, no mom or dad or brother. The power is out, it's completely dark except for what the moon illuminates. I see my tricycle at the end of the hallway and it begins to roll towards me on it's own, and I somehow instinctively know it wants to hurt me. That's what Skinamarink makes me think of.
I've often thought about the various aspects that come together to make a truly scary movie. While it varies from audience member to audience member, a truly scary movie (IMOH) blurs the line between what is and what could be. That's what makes horror such a great genre. On one end of the spectrum, there's monsters (The Host 2006), space clowns (KKFOS 1988), and a car tire named Robert who makes people explode (Rubber 2010). A multitude of sub-genres that all have their own respective strengths and qualities that make them memorable and speculative to "what could be". Whilst on the other end, there's a more cryptic or as Tray stated: "ambiguous" feeling to certain horror movies. What comes to mind when I think of these horror movies are films like Mother!, Midsommar, and The Blair Witch Project. Skinamarink does an excellent job of blurring that line of what is and what could be. While the overall plot revolves around the two children in the movie, it's easy to let the mind wander in this film. Tray did a great job covering the various shots of room corners, open/closed doors, and dark hallways creating the overall atmosphere. The atmosphere combined with tension usually leads to a jump-scare in most horror movies nowadays. It's refreshing to see a film that allows you to create your own nightmare as it stretches your breath throughout the movie. Everyone is different though, which is what makes Skinamarink so polarizing. Some people don't want to sit through an hour of minimal dialogue and odd ambient sounds to find no apparent path in the end. Some people just want the hook, line, and sinker which is completely fine. But to the people who love this format, it creates a truly ominous and overwhelmingly scary experience. What do you see or stare at when you fall asleep every night? What can you vividly remember when you were a young child going to sleep at night? I know _what it is_ I'm staring at, but _what could be_ beyond the dark pitch-black hallway? It's the blurred line of reality and what scares you in life that makes a scary movie well, scary...
This is absolutely the truth lol I took edibles the other day before I saw longlegs & after and was paranoid I would see Nicolas Cage as long legs the entire night lol
Ngl Mandela isn’t scary for me and feels rather cliche but the horror here actually kinda traumatized me which extremely unusual… it’s terrifyingly silent.
What I loved about Skinamarink is that it perfectly captures how it feels to have nightmare; not fast-paced or over quickly, but long and plodding and very deeply unnerving and frightening throughout.
When I first watched this movie I fully immersed myself. It was dark out and I put on headphones. Multiple times I had to go to the back of my room and look away from my screen. It thoroughly terrified me
I just watched this movie. it’s very effective at what it does. I wanted to protect that boy. I have a 3 year old son and this just really gutted me. And the ambiguous face at the end drew an audible gasp from me when it said “go to sleep”. At times the film feels like a test of patience yet something kept me wanting to keep watching. Even if it was just helpless and dreadful. Why do I love films like these? lol
I feel like this movie reminds me of analog horror. It sorta plays on the terrifying-unknown-unbeatable-cosmic-threat trope, and I love it. Those kinds of things are good for building suspense and making someone genuinely scared.
Btw have you ever listened to the companion album by Poe that she made specifically to tie in with the book?? She's the author's sister and her album Haunted is honestly such a gem and ties perfectly with the books themes
The first time I watched this movie was in a basement with two of my friends who were very critical of everything happening, expecting it to be an average horror experience. They spent more time trying to analyze than they did actually soaking in the dread the movie was building, which really ruined the experience for them. I on the other hand did not sleep that night and rewatched the film the next two days because I was stunned by it's ability to create so much anxiety with such simplistic story telling. It is, in my opinion, a perfect representation of how to create a dreadful atmosphere that is palpable and stays with you after experiencing!
Gets me that so many people are complaining about being bored or the movie is too long. How the hell do they think the kids feel? Thats the whole purpose.
Following why this movie is also terrifying, it's also why games like FNAF are always deemed horrifying in some way, because you're played in a situation where you can barely act, where you have barely any info, and the many noises happening. If you play the game right, you will never get a jumpscare to relieve your tension, only getting a temporary relief of the cheering at the end of the nightshift before you're placed in the same exact situation where your tension will quickly build back up.
The first two seconds of that video, I thought you were going to depict the whole scene with the Fisher Price telephone. Goes to show how much that film scared me.
Many times during this movie I found myself muttering “no no no” over and over again and covering my ears. Absolutely made me revert into a frightened child. Bravo
As a person who doesn't get scared by horrors and even whatches some of them as "comfort movies" I am very pleased to announce that Skinamarink was the first horror in years that made me cover my face and watch it through my fingers. I had goosebumps throughout most of it, it has became my top 1 horror movie since, I love how ambiguous, unsettling, atmospheric and beautiful it is
I watch this movie with my girlfriend, and it's true that its not for everyone because it scared me real good. Once I found out that it was based on the common nightmare that people encounters, it just hit me because this nightmare i have when I got really sick and when I sleep, I see a dream like the tv one, repeating, the white noise and occasionally a beep with a rainbow strip on the screen , the thump, and the view to the dark hallway all in one dream. This nightmare happens since I was a kid, although I don't usually dream and have nightmares anymore now that I'm old. The movie bring out my hidden trauma and often always says that the kids are very brave for their calmness because I once been there when I was a kid.
I just watched this last night. The pace was so slow that I was fighting falling asleep. Every so often, I would force my eyes open. Well, one time when I forced my eyes open was the scene with the sister's featureless face. By the way, I was watching it by myself, in the dark, and at night. By the time the toy phone seen came, when the toy disappeared and the eyes remained, with the loud phone ringing sound, I pushed myself into my mattress, like it wasn't even there. It was awesome.
this is terrifying, like a nightmare i would have had. being trapped. unable to escape and unknowing of what is happening and as a child you have less understanding. as was until recently a minor ,imagining waking up to my parents not there would probably still freak me out. i have always been terrified of being alone and honestly this movie would probably keep me up at night clutching on to my war hammer so... im never gonna watch it fuck that i dont need all that lmao. (edit: I'm not overreacting my parents never leave the house without letting me know and they both work at home so yeah..)
Ugh, this movie just absolutely gets to me. Having two kids that are close to the age of the kids in the movie made it even more unsettling for me throughout. Seeing that 572 days caption towards the end was the final straw for me, it just drained all the hope out of me when I saw that, it made me want to cry! This whole movie just made me want to hold my kids and never let go, very well done!
People who've seen this movie know it's a game changer, and nothing works out of context. You have to watch and take in every second of the stills in order for everything to work, and i LOVE that. I know Kyle Ball was working on another film, and i'm not sure he can top this, but he's clearly got an incredible for the unsettling, and i can't wait to see what he does next.
That face, the moment I feel like I have the facial features down, it shifts into something else so I can never be satisfied with the way the face looks.
I couldn't sleep for about a week with the lights off after watching this movie, and with the addition to living alone at the time I watched it made me more anxious even when the lights were on. This movie made me appreciate the atmosphere building it did and just the constant dread it gave from the waiting game of jumpscares and letting your mind do the work to scare you.
I didn’t think this movie scared me until my nightmares started. After watching it, my nightmares started to look like this movie and have the same empty, nostalgic fear. No movie has ever done that to me and I applaud the filmmaker for creating a new kind of horror.
I remember as a kid, my digital clock was bright enough to cast shadows across my popcorn ceiling at night, and it made a scary face that stared directly at my bed. Skinamarink gave me a similar feeling to that uneasy feeling as a kid when you see shadows in the dark.
I can totally see why this movie wouldnt work for people but damn, i was terrified by it. Had trouble sleeping and being in the dark for a couple weeks.
I’ve never seen this movie, but when you showed the demon asking the boy to come upstairs has been in my mind the past week since I watched this review. Pretty horrifying
What makes this movie terrifying is how relatable it is. We've all had that fear of the unknown, but putting it in the perspective of when you were a child makes it hit different
Interesting, your sentiment pretty much resonates with what I feel is great about Skinamarink. Normally, in horror media, jump scares serve as culminations to the build-up tension beforehand, they serve as a relief from suspense. Skinamarink, on the other hand, has atmosphere and cinematography so brooding and, for lack of better word, vacant, that what few scares there are don't work to break the tension. They grant no carharsis, and neither does the finale. It's an incredibly mentally taxing movie to watch, specifically because it breaks the conventions and, by extent, your expectations as a viewer. Scares do not indicate that the scary moment is over; instead, they indicate that the situation only got worse.
saw this in theatres with my boyfriend, and i gripped his arm so hard and screamed - actually screamed - when the blood shot out of the corner of the room and you could hear screaming. i've never been so terrified in my life, and i wasn't even seeing what was going on around the corner. the tension and atmosphere in this movie were godlike.
what I love about skinamarink is that it perfectly encapsulates being a child and just..... absorbing whats around you, you dont really think about all the times as a 2-8 year old you just sit and... stare at the corner of the wall, or at the back of a couch playing with your toys, I have a very specific memory this movie dredged up I would have never ever thought of again if this film wasnt made, my childhood home we had 3 acres and a pasture, in the pasture we had a fire pit and during summer we would do campfires often, the layout of my house the kitchen was connected to the piano room which then went to the front deck and from the front deck it was about a 200 foot walk to the pasture where the campfire was, I remember being around 7 or 8 and being in the kitchen, my brothers, sisters, and parents were out at the campfire and I had gone back to the house in order to play my ps2, I finished my game and wanted to go back to the campfire, I walked to the kitchen and noticed the piano room and the back deck didnt have their lights on, and the thing that sucked about the piano room was the light was back by the sliding glass door leading outside, I could see the campfire and my entire family about 210-220 feet away but everything inbetween was pure darkness, and just the paralyzing fear I had in that moment of just how vulnerable I was going to be in that 200 feet is still the most scared I ever remember being i stood there for about 20 minutes crying until my dad came into the house to go to bed btw and this movie perfectly encapsulates that moment I felt all those years ago
Wrong Skinamarink 2: attack of the Skinamarink Where Kevin said "that's a nice argument Skinamarink, how about you back it up with a source." And then the Skinamarink said "Source? I made it the Fridge up!" (Take the F from fridge and you get the uh oh word, had to censor it)
Very interesting lore wise this film seems. How many days have the kids been stuck there for??? And is Kevin taken to his own limbo by the demon at the end? Horrific and super grim
As a Canadian, I knew instantly from the title that the filmmakers were from Canada and were around the same age as me. How many other fans of Sharon, Lois, and Bram are here?
You know that feeling when you were 8 and you were deathly afraid to get out of bed at night because you didn't know what was out there in the darkness. This movie perfectly replicates that feeling, better than any other horror movie I've ever seen. It made me scared to get up at night for like 2 days...
Just watched it, it didn’t have the same scared as a child affect. Probably because I got anxiety and always anxious.
Absolutely agree. I think it may have been the scariest movie I have ever seen!
Going to the bathroom at night as a kid was an adventure every time, self suggestion was so strong your mind constantly played tricks on you
Yep, and that’s why I love it, no other movie has captured the fear of being a little kid and needing to get up at night
So you guys got over the fear huh? How do i do that
Saw this movie in a lightly crowded theatre with my roommates. Calling myself an “unscareable” person. That night I hid in my denim jacket like a child hiding under his blanket. Skinamarink is one of the very few horror movies that has genuinely made me lose sleep, making me feel fear that was almost nostalgic. Like a child scared of the dark. Fantastic film, I hope it sets a trend of horror film making.
Must’ve never seen anything scary then lmao. How could you have possibly been that scared of this movie?!
@@Weeb32460 Bro is critiquing my experience with a horror movie💀
Prolly thinks The Conjuring is scary
@@Weeb32460 horror is one of the most perspective things. different people are scared of different things
@@Delta-Boss its aight not to watch scary movies bro, definitely think you're both right here. Anyone who says they are unscarable usually dont like scary movies, and therefore does not watch them
Not sure if your aware delta but there’s a ton of analog horror series that are genuinely amazing here on TH-cam. Probably one of the more popular ones is Mandela catalogue!!
An actual experience watching alone. I thought nothing could genuinely surprise me or make me have nightmares like a kid again.
This movie made me avoid sleeping for a night or two
🐱y
@@ultraheaven8968 Well, many people have different opinions. And I think insulting people for theirs is not that good. For me personally, I tried to watch the movie but it seemed too boring in the beginning to continue through the rest, though I was very disturbed when I saw a montage of the scariest scenes online. I think it's the directed the way it is to relive those moments when you were a child in your dark room and couldn't sleep and were forced to just stare in your dark room until you eventually pass out. though I feel like if it were just a short film, it would've been better.
@@ultraheaven8968Why do you tell us your name?
Saw this movie when I had covid, I was really tired but was super cased scared of dosing off during it cause I wouldn’t know what would happen to me
@@ultraheaven8968 What the fuck are you doing here? You're in the comments of a video for a channel that specifically is for giving a short breakdown of movies in a way that relieves the tension of actually watching them. Also, just say the word pussy.
I love Skinamarink, it shows how you don't need tons of crazy effects or a huge budget to make genuinely scary film
Agreed!
@@trayclancy do you do video request?
This movie wasn’t scary at all.
@@Weeb32460"weeb" in ur name = failure
@Weeb32460 not just your name yoyr profile says a bug story lmfao
"Can you show me something happy?" And the thing shows itself. It's happy. It's happy that these children are suffering. It's happy that it is making them suffer.
I think this is true horror. The most quintessential and encompassing form of it. Helplessness in the face of not a predator, an evil human, a weapon, a natural disaster, or others. It is helplessness in the face of a thing, vague and diluted, yet has complete control and sovereignty, whose only wish is to make whoever is in its grasp suffer.
This is the scariest comment😭
Why I haven't nor will watch this movie is that it seems to be pointless.
With The Witch, Midsommar, Hereditary, etc. there's a point.
The trauma of a broken family, the isolation of New England colonists, the power a cult can have over a vulnerable individual.
But Skinamarink sounds like... horror for the sake of horror.
These are children, lost. No one to help them. Toys to a demon. Humiliating them eternally. No way out, solitude, pain.
Trapped within loops and corridors of darkness. The demon even separates them.
Kills Kevin in repeat.
Takes the girl's face away. Makes Kevin take his eye out.
Never ending suffering. Something a child cannot even comprehend.
A monster that corrupts every part of their being.
It's honestly nauseating.
@@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ I don't think skinamarink lacks a narrative. There's plenty of theories out there that say it's a commentary on broken homes. An absent mother, the kids demonise her, etc.
@@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ I hate to be the "uhm achktuyallyyy" guy but the creator has stated that there IS indeed a "point" to the whole movie, he just won't tell anyone because he believes leaving one to speculate leaves more of an impact than simply pulling back the curtain. Many people have taken up his challenge to speculate on the true nature of the movie, and even Film Theory has weighed in on it, speculating that the whole thing is just a nightmare Kevin is having because of a brain tumor and the whole thing is symbolic of the horror of watching a loved one slowly suffer and die with nobody being able to do much about it.
Though many have speculated very different things, with me weighing in that the demon is actually supposed to BE the kids' mom, that they and the dad had separated from due to being abusive and controlling, and the movie is a supernatural version of "what if an abusive mother took back her kids out of pettiness and then proceeded to alternate between neglecting them and fucking with them", which is another mundane tragedy that happens out there in the world.
I could go on about the theories here, but I think you get the idea. Skinamarink is very much a movie with a point, just like those other films. It's just up to you to figure out what that point is. I'd argue that that's a bit different from horror for horror's sake.
Bruh did you watch the movie or just this video? When Kevin asked to watch something happy, it showed him a door. An escape that will never come. It showing its "face" happened quite a few scenes and a serious length of time after.
When I heard the “put the knife in your eye” phrase, I sat up straight as a board and shouted “No!”, it could be because it’s children in the place of adults being hurt, but I’ve never felt such guttural dread having children being threatened or hearing them scream and cry.
I love horror films, I can watch just about anything, but this film made me feel so unbelievably helpless, and made me want to scoop up those kids and love of them.
I feel this!
This is the reason I had to come back and finish the movie later. I'm an avid horror fan. But I can't STAND kids getting hurt.
It’s a primal protective instinct in all of us, everyone has it, this instinct to protect children
Of course, some diverge from it, and they choose to hurt children, but most people have that instinct that makes us hate seeing children in discomfort and pain
If Skinamarink had the kids in a house they could possibly escape from, I guarantee many of us would wish to be in universe to save them, but without doors and windows, adults out of universe and in universe are really only left with the ability to watch as innocent children are tortured and tormented by a demon
That “Put the knife in your eye” moment also got a reaction out of me. I didn’t say no, I said “Stop”
Then I heard the kid crying and said “Leave them alone!”
Out of all the people we deem worthy of protection and least worthy of harm, kids rank high, if not highest on the list
@@logeyperogi1805I don‘t, fuck them kids! Most people would find a crying child annoying and not feel some “primal instinct” to help the kid. We’re not neanderthals.
I laughed so hard
I think this movie is brilliant. It’s vagueness can come off as a movie with no deeper meaning, just being creepy to be creepy, but I think there’s a whole message within. These kids are trapped in their own house with their parental figure (guardian) gone, meanwhile being tormented by a demon. As stated, this has been going on for almost 2 years now, which would make anybody go crazy. The kids, instead, maintain their kid like innocence. I think this is a story about child abuse and how something like that can make the victims feel trapped, unprotected, and tormented in an endless cycle.
Their dad may have disappeared when he started drinking, and the violence is a result of him lashing out at them when they need to be parented. Theres no father because he's been replaced by a demon.
They were trapped for 2 years?
Edit: just saw the part where he mentions 572 days
Very interesting take
@@Ben.Byng17 i definitely felt that. maybe because it's so immersive and transports you to a childlike state but everything I see of this movie terrifies me and actually makes me want to cry. i don't know. it's like the sadness and helplessness of hearing your mum getting beaten from the other room while you try to sleep. or being home alone when someone should be there but no one is there to take care of you anymore.
@@alexsadlex2314 It’s funny, for a film that sounds so mundane when described, it genuinely always surprises me how effective it is to witness. You described it quite evocatively.
I think it’s the closeness of the shots and the setting. As a kid there often isn’t much in your consciousness outside of a lot of low-angle closeups of the rooms of your house. I think seeing a view like that - uncommon among other films but genuinely very familiar perspectives from childhood - you don’t have to add much horror for that very arresting feeling you described to take effect. To then carry through the very applicable childhood trauma metaphors really sells the relatability of the horror.
I watched this back when it first came out, and loved it.
I will say, I hate when people say “you just don’t get it,” when comes to some pretentious crap.
But I think it sort of applies here, though it’s not that you don’t get, but that it’s simply not one everyone can connect to.
When I was little, I would sometimes wake up in the night, often if I was staying at a friends or relatives, and have this feeling. It’s an anxious, unwelcoming, drab, dry, and dreadful feeling that I can’t describe in more words than that, and I hadn’t felt it again until and since I watched this movie. But this movie captured that for me, then brought me into it with that feeling. So I felt like I was literally there, experiencing this nightmare with that child. That’s not easy to do, and it’s what made it brilliant, imo.
Well said!
Agreed. I feel like the wording has a condescending tone which is why it sounds pretentious, but I think this movie makes it difficult not to say. Not from an art/indie/hipster standpoint, but from a fear standpoint. Some people legitimately were just never really afraid of the dark or didn't have traumatic childhood nightmares/experiences. In that case they really don't get it because the horror just can't click with them. They just see it as a slow, boring movie.
@@ConnerTurmon amen
Yeah. This movie captures the feeling like no other and it kinda resparked my interest in making short horror films.
Well said. I loved this movie but I can 1000% understand why people didn’t like it or simple hate it. It’s def an acquired taste
Something I really liked about part of this movie is that it didn't feel like there was a monster or ghost for a portion of it. It felt like the house itself was the malicious entity. Some of the shots in this movie make the house look almost vicious. It's really cool.
Agreed
If you liked that aspect of the film you would definitely like The Shining, if you haven’t already seen it
The idea that an artificial construct can be sentient I've always found fascinating
It has no concept of how to exist or behave and suddenly finds itself aware of its own existence where concepts of good and evil and even communication are completely alien to it
Perhaps its treatment of the children is how it interprets interaction
The face slowly appearing is probably my favorite part, because I’ve seen the same thing happen for real countless times as a kid in a dark room. It’s so vague and distorted your brain is constantly making modifications and trying to figure out who it is
That or 572 days appearing, along with the shot of the room with the pile of toys slowly expanding, and the house in the void.
This movie scared the hell out of me. I know it won't hit everyone the same, but this was so many childhood fears rolled into one package for me. It took me right back into the headspace of a scared child that left their room late at night to get a glass of water. It's the definition of not for everyone but I love it.
My theory is that the boy is stuck inside his own mind. In the beginning of the movie, the boy suffered an accident after an episode of sleepwalking. It is said he was taken to the hospital and brought back home. But I wondered, in what condition? How is he trapped inside the house where his parents are gone? Methinks the boy is trapped in a Pseudocoma, Locked-In Syndrome, a prisoner inside his own mind.
That would make sense!
Like Flim Theory
I absolutely loved your take.
Really good one
@@rique3012💯
I think the phone scene got me the most, especially how it looked like eyes while the flashlight was turned off, it was so shocking to me and when the phone went off I literally screamed
By ending the movie with such a non-ending, having focussed on the demons face as the last thing we really see it makes it feel like the movie is not over. It never ended, you just go to bed at night and get to think about the face you saw in the dark and maybe, if you keep staring into your lightless bedroom...
You will see it again
Exactly
I didn’t have the intention of sleeping after this video…but now I’m really not sleeping
honestly the scene where kevin is on the phone with the 911 operator was the most terrifying one to me because help was right there but there was no way for them to get to him
if i remember correctly, I thought that scene was just the demon playing tricks on him. there was no actual person on the other line.
@@justjayceeok99yea
@@justjayceeok99the leading theory, or the one that I believe, is that after Kevin hit his head in the beginning, he went into a coma, and that’s the reason why the parents left and the doors disappear. also, that’s why Kaylee sort of dies, because he’s all alone now. the operator was fake, it was just the entity taunting him.
Great video, never considered the “not letting the viewer relax” aspect of the ending. I certainly felt jarred by the ending, but I wish the rest of the movie was as directly unsettling as the last few minutes. I didn’t appreciate the jump scares because the movie didn’t need them - the atmosphere was enough! That phone is freaky tho.
Thank you! And that’s very fair
I am a seasoned horror fan, not much phases me. I used to have a huge fear of the dark, but haven't had issues in a long time, especially in my current apartment. I saw this movie in theaters, and then I literally couldn't sleep for 2 nights because I was so terrified to turn off my lights. This movie is one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, and I'm so impressed with it
I've found that the people who love this movie have a very active imagination. Since the movie doesn't feed you a lot of information, your own mind fills in the blanks. People whose imagination is not so great tend to feel the movie had nothing to scare them with. They need the jump scare, the scary images in order to get that horror feeling...
I mean the dread in knowing what this entity did to those children for 572 days, knowing there was no escape sent shivers down my spine...while a person with no imagination just saw two kids being spooked by nothing. At least, that's my humble opinion.
exactly what I thought. I found myself thinking about every little detail in each scene, wondering why I was being shown each frame and what might be of significance in each, not because I'm intelligent, just because I have a very vivid imagination. When there isn't anything substantial to visually take in in a frame, there's time to imagine whatever it might be that comes next or reflect on what was shown previously, and for the type of people who simply watch exactly what's on the screen, only taking in information that is spoon fed via dialogue or imagery or audio, I can imagine why they might not like the film.
Matpat made a video about it. Terrifying
I have a prodigious imagination and was bored out of my skull after about half an hour.
@@hwlgrmmr just like matpat said, it's a movie that's very experimental and is not for everyone
You remind me of a copypasta.
"To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humor is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realize that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Rick and Morty truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Rick's existencial catchphrase "Wubba Lubba Dub Dub," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon's genius unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools... how I pity them. 😂 And yes by the way, I DO have a Rick and Morty tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- And even they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand."
"Go to sleep"
Ah, thanks, Skinamarink, I'll definitely do that right after watching this at midnight.
skinamarink actually made me cry after the little girl said the last lines of the movie
Sad stuff
What is the last line?
@@denaaulianurulannisa4294last line was said by John Skinamarink, he said "it's skinamarinking time" and then he skinamarinked all over the kids. Truly one of the movies ever made.
@@cinnamontoast1586"Kevin, we need to Skinamarink."
@@Man_Aslume "full speed kevin, into the wall.
The tunnel, i mean"
Someone said it best: if you had a messed up childhood, you'll really click with this film; if you had a great childhood, this film will make no sense to you..
Man my childhood wasn’t that fucked up as far as “fucked up” childhoods go, I have some medical issues so I went to the hospital a lot, had 13 doctors at one point. My parents got divorced when I was six and neither of them was all that stable, but I always understood that the shit my parents did that fucked me up came from a dear for my well being and a lick of understanding of my and their mental health difficulties. I was never hit or physically abused, and they were less controlling than other strict parents, I was never deprived of food or anything I needed but my mom was overbearing and my dad co dependant. However, this movie still hit me like a ton of bricks
First of all, nice to see you here mike :D
Second, i had a great childhood but with some early experiences with some horror scenes, i was so scared of the dark. I didn't watch the movie and probably won't, because only seeing these scenes here reminded me of that time and i couldn't really watch them haha. I'm sure it will click with me so i can't sleep for a week without light
In Skinamarink 2, the demon makes Kevin learn The Trooper by the tab book (the movie would get banned globally after 1st screening for realistic and extremely graphic depiction of violence towards children)
are you saying you have to have been murdered by a demon to “make sense” of this film?
Yeah a demon also took my doors as a kid that’s why i get this movie💀
I watched this movie alone at night while my partner was out of town and that night I had to sleep with the lights on for fear of seeing that dreaded face. I had to rid my room of any possible dark corner, and even now, thinking about this film makes my stomach tight. I also love how the film gets you used to seeing feet and legs when interacting with humans, so much so that when I saw the top of Kaylee's forehead in a shot, it petrified me. Skinamarink lulls you into a bored, dream-like state while slowing sinking its claws into you. I'll never forget this film, and am scared to watch it again, but I feel inevitably drawn to do that soon.
Agreed! The fact that nothing is happening for most of the movie made the scares that much more intense for me. I will say I found the movie much less scary on second viewing
Skinamarink is the definition of love it or hate it, or in this case, be scared shitless or not be scared at all. We don't all have the exact same fears so it doesn't resonate with everyone, but with who it resonates, it resonates hard.
Agreed!
tbh for me it was love it AND hate it. There's so many great things about it, but I also think it's not particularly well executed. I think it achieves some things it sets out to do extremely well, and falls well short of others. It's such a unique and frustrating movie, and I think there's a lot to say about it.
I saw this with a friend. She was bored as hell, I was entranced.
@genericusername546 true, it was too drawn out, nothing at all happening, very hard watch for me. I get the idea of it all, I just think it was amateur and needed more elements of true film making
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.
-H. P. Lovecraft
Some think it wasn't kevin asking the demon's name, but the demon asking the viewer theirs.
Honestly that’s what I thought as well. I decided to go with what the plot summaries said lol
@@trayclancy if it is the former, i can only assume that it asked kevin his name in the closet at the beginning, and he answered
Made that mistake! And I hated it, I kept seeing that faceless thing in the dark in my room when I tried to go to sleep afterwards
There's nothing to suggest the demon is self aware of the audience. It was the kid asking him its name.
Legends say that the demon is waiting for your name
I don't know if this was intentional or not but with the combination of the darkness and film grain I'd always think when watching certain scenes I'd see some form of movement from the demon due to the film grain added it felt like my mind was playing tricks with me kinda like when you're trying to go to sleep and look in the dark parts of your room and think you saw movement. It's really creepy.
I definitely think it’s intentional
Yeah I'm sure that was intentional especially with the face appearing in it at the end, where you're looking for something the whole film in the grain and then in the end you finally see it.
The director has officially stated that the grain, instead of the darkness alone, playing tricks on the test audiences was a happy accident and is more than happy with the result, but it was not intentional.
Watched this movie alone at him at midnight, in the dark. I wasn't terrified like the others but it was one of the saddest movies I've ever seen. Pure desperation. I've grown up in a broken household and Skinamarink really resonated with me. That pure feeling of helplessness, the inability to escape that nearly drove me to suicide when I was a teen. Being a child sucks. You have no agency whatsoever.
I think of Skinamarink as a true experience. Me and my friend watched it at his place and both ended up coming in and out of consciousness (sleeping) watching the film. It wears you down, and pulls you into states of exhaustion as you peer into the static-y void waiting and trying to piece together fragments of meaning. By the end you only have snippets of some vague semblance of understanding and just...nothing...no answer, no reason, no resolution, just a palpable sense of despair, anguish and futility.
It's like waking up from a long and unsettling dream. Afterwards my friend and I tried to make sense of the film, talking about it, filling in the parts that the other missed, so in a lot of ways we felt that like the characters, we experienced this long feeling of hanging in an upsetting and disorienting fog.
Mfs be saying “my ass was asleep during the movie” and try and say it’s a positive 😭 this shit is boring and not scary at all
@ImpatientPlatypus You had to see it in theaters, imo. The camcorder static turned into a wall you had to strain to peer through at times, when blown up on such a large screen. Scariest movie since Hereditary imo
I watched this movie home alone in my dark bedroom and I have to say atmosphere truly makes this movie something special because at the end of the movie you're left alone in the dark with this thing you really never get to properly see. I haven't watched a horror movie in a long while that made me squint my eyes and cringe with anxiety. I absolutely loved it and I felt like it struck a primal fear in me from when I was a kid already worried I would be left to fend for myself let alone with some entity who takes away any means of escape. It was also a really sad one too because I really feel for these kids because they didn't deserve any of it and the skinamarink does whatever it wants just because it wants to and that in it of itself is truly horrifying :((
Definitely a very dark and sad movie
I watched this alone at night with the lights off after recently starting to live on my own. I realized shortly into the movie, that my room and apartment has blue walls and white trim, just like many rooms shown in skinamarink. The cherry on top of the horror sundae.
Bruh 😭
I watched this movie on my laptop alone late at night, and even though I saw it coming, the phone scene scared me so bad I had to catch my breath for almost a full minute after. Something about this film scared me in a visceral way, I felt like my childhood fear of the dark had been significantly heightened for several days after I watched it. I know this movie doesn't hit for everyone, but when it hits, it hits hard.
many people wont understand and enjoy this film and that’s extremely unfortunate. this film really captures the horror of our imagination when we witness the unknown. great video
I understood it, but it could’ve been done far better.
Thank you! 🤝
After watching it, it definitely depends on the person, this movie’s so cool
I completely understood it- and it still was bad. What else is there to understand about staring at a dark wall for dozens of minutes with ominous cartoon sounds playing?
You act like you need imagination to truly “get” this film, but there’s nothing more to understand about seeing a face in the darkness after 130 minutes of looking at a wall.
Maybe i’m just not as unsettled by the darkness as you are, but I found all of those shots utterly dull and pointless.
@@unleashedbread6146 ya, it actually lulled me to sleep. It's got ASMR qualities to it that can be, for lack of a better word, soothing.
I think for this movie to work(at least for me) you have to devote yourself to the experience. No outside distractions or anything like that, you must solely devote yourself to the movie and immerse yourself in it. When you do that this movie is legitimately a long and dreadful panic attack. The last scene is genuinely jarring if you are deeply immersed in it. The problem these days is nobody has the attention span to really watch something like this.
perfectly put
Yeah, this movie is art. And not everyone has patience for artsy movies (I love them).
I have undiagnosed aphantasia that ive been reckoning with for a while. Its really something unnerving to know in the infinite black of your mind, you're unable to grasp an image however comforting. Part of the reason this worked so well for me was that the ambiguity translated to "filling the void". Sometimes i wake up at night from a nightmare, because apparently the lack of visual imagination is made up for by vivid dreaming, and it's like i can still see the visuals through my open eyes, consciously. This movie was like that, but for ninety minutes and absolutely hypnotic. I was both intrigued and so terrified i had to have the blanket in my face for 60% of the runtime. The bedroom scene had me sweating.
I almost chose the bedroom scene for this video
Everyone has said it, but I have to also say it.
When you get up in the middle of the night as a kid, the house can feel unfamiliar. Like, it's not the home you know or feel welcome/safe in. It makes you cautious to just get a drink of water.
Trapping the kids in their home, blanketed in darkness and no view of the outside, forever alone from their parents they relied on, needed, they're helpless to the horror.
It was perfect for me!
Watched it with my friends, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, while my friends complained the whole movie saying it was boring, and when it was gonna end. I really loved this film because I was an easily scared kid when I was young and watching this film made me feel like that child again.
Same lol
watched it in the theatre with my girl, she tends to fall asleep but she surprisingly stayed awake lol. Loved the face jumpscare, really got me even though I usually don't scare easily.
This movie was pretty much my worst fear showing itself. It reminded me of the Twilight Zone movie during the story about the little boy who had powers. When he speaks of his real sister you find out that that she no longer speaks bc shes missing her mouth. Her face is shown for a couple seconds mindlessly watching a creepy black and white cartoon. Although this part wasnt meant to be super scary it was one of the best scenes in any sort of horror/ thriller movie. It combined an unsettling with an even more unsettling fate and paired it with childish elements on account of the cartoon playing in the background. Paradoxes similar to this in film always makes it memorable.
I still really need to watch twin peaks
"Twilight Zone movie during the story about the little boy who had powers" - The director actually cited that movie as one of the inspirations for Skinamarink.
This is easily one of the most distressing film ever seen in my life. Absolute masterpiece.
I put myself in the movie based on things from my past. Seeing things in the dark was common for me. I've had some supernatural experience too as a preteen. The sound design helped keep me in a constant state of dread. Just seeing these clips again made the hairs stick up on my neck.
This movie brought back my childhood fear of being home alone late at night, my parents still not home from their night out. I had no idea when or if they’d be back, and the darkness of the house (I often forgot to turn on lights myself when night fell) made the anxiety so much worse.
I'm glad you found value in it. I gave up after a while of watching the kids wandering around a house, and nothing happening. BUT... I see folks appreciating it, so I honestly am glad there are folks out there who dug it.
This is a very nice perspective to have haha
This movie was so damn scary. Just watching the clips that you showed makes me uncomfortable. Its even worse when you usually have to care for kids, and then you see the movie, which has the children getting tortured for some entities enjoyment.
Personal opinion: While this movie was pretty decent I never felt like the actual movie was going anywhere or had any sense of direction of what it was attempting to do or what it was trying to portray.
bc the purpose was to be unsettling. the plot didnt matter. that was the directors take. he wants confusion and anxiety
I feel like a movie in this style would benifit from a cohesive plot if done right
@@scary_jere exactly you should be able to cause confusion and anxiety with a cohesive plot.
@@obumpywavenot really bro think about itsome of the most unsettling weird stuff is when it's a mystery and just doesn't make sense
@@kingKami7 I respect your opinion, I truly enjoyed the film I wish it was trying to convey a story instead of gaining anxiety of the movie.
5:40 After seeing this I might not watch the movie now. I had an extremely terrifying sleep paralysis where a woman with a veil is standing at the foot of my bed and this dark, grainy scene is how she exactly looks like. Indistinguishable. Even still her face is as dark as a black hole like she's censoring it. That was a traumatic memory for me.
I really love the style, and the couple of times things actually happen are pretty effective, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it could’ve been about half as long and been even more effective for me. I didn’t find enough to be threatened by, so it acted for me more like an asmr in a dark house with the tv on. Engaging in the same way Michael Snow’s Wavelength is, but I would prefer Skinamarink to Wavelength.
Yeah I felt pretty much the same about it couldve been half as long. I far preferred his short film that later became this feature length I think that was around 30mins which felt like the sweetspot for this style imo.
true, adhd generation needs condensed content
@@cronosdimitri4584 lol, no one with adhd probably got even two minutes into Skinamarink
Yes! Finally! This movie is extremely ubderappreciated, I like how in the movie they show how scary it can be growing up in a abusive suburban American society and how your own home can be the scariest most dangerous place on earth.
Skinamarink is the only film I have seen that made me stop the movie entirely and just scream "NO" over and over and over again at the screen because of the sheer amount of tension it caused me
😂😂
Skinamarink stuck with me because it reminded me of the first nightmare I ever remember having: I was maybe four or five years old. I remember being completely alone in my home, no mom or dad or brother. The power is out, it's completely dark except for what the moon illuminates. I see my tricycle at the end of the hallway and it begins to roll towards me on it's own, and I somehow instinctively know it wants to hurt me. That's what Skinamarink makes me think of.
I've often thought about the various aspects that come together to make a truly scary movie. While it varies from audience member to audience member, a truly scary movie (IMOH) blurs the line between what is and what could be. That's what makes horror such a great genre. On one end of the spectrum, there's monsters (The Host 2006), space clowns (KKFOS 1988), and a car tire named Robert who makes people explode (Rubber 2010). A multitude of sub-genres that all have their own respective strengths and qualities that make them memorable and speculative to "what could be". Whilst on the other end, there's a more cryptic or as Tray stated: "ambiguous" feeling to certain horror movies. What comes to mind when I think of these horror movies are films like Mother!, Midsommar, and The Blair Witch Project.
Skinamarink does an excellent job of blurring that line of what is and what could be. While the overall plot revolves around the two children in the movie, it's easy to let the mind wander in this film. Tray did a great job covering the various shots of room corners, open/closed doors, and dark hallways creating the overall atmosphere. The atmosphere combined with tension usually leads to a jump-scare in most horror movies nowadays. It's refreshing to see a film that allows you to create your own nightmare as it stretches your breath throughout the movie. Everyone is different though, which is what makes Skinamarink so polarizing. Some people don't want to sit through an hour of minimal dialogue and odd ambient sounds to find no apparent path in the end. Some people just want the hook, line, and sinker which is completely fine. But to the people who love this format, it creates a truly ominous and overwhelmingly scary experience. What do you see or stare at when you fall asleep every night? What can you vividly remember when you were a young child going to sleep at night? I know _what it is_ I'm staring at, but _what could be_ beyond the dark pitch-black hallway? It's the blurred line of reality and what scares you in life that makes a scary movie well, scary...
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Agreed
0:50 you forgot the edible,, if you really wanna maximize fear take an edible
🤝
This is absolutely the truth lol I took edibles the other day before I saw longlegs & after and was paranoid I would see Nicolas Cage as long legs the entire night lol
the long, dark scenes give me mandela catalogue vibes. very unsettling in my opinion. good video bro keep it up
Thanks bro! I need to watch the Mandela catalogue. Very new to analog horror
@@trayclancy yeah man it’s very well made for youtube horror, creeped me out so much when i first saw it
Ngl Mandela isn’t scary for me and feels rather cliche but the horror here actually kinda traumatized me which extremely unusual… it’s terrifyingly silent.
This movie was honestly one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. It brings out something primal in you, takes you back to being a child in the dark.
What I loved about Skinamarink is that it perfectly captures how it feels to have nightmare; not fast-paced or over quickly, but long and plodding and very deeply unnerving and frightening throughout.
I'm so happy you made this into a series man
Glad to hear! It was necessary 🤝
When I first watched this movie I fully immersed myself. It was dark out and I put on headphones. Multiple times I had to go to the back of my room and look away from my screen. It thoroughly terrified me
Great video! Skinamarink scared me in a way that I haven't felt since I was a kid. This was a really good analysis as to why I felt that way.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed
Im so glad that I am aware of this sub genre of horror, cus the fear I felt watching this movie, is one of a kind.
I just watched this movie. it’s very effective at what it does. I wanted to protect that boy. I have a 3 year old son and this just really gutted me. And the ambiguous face at the end drew an audible gasp from me when it said “go to sleep”.
At times the film feels like a test of patience yet something kept me wanting to keep watching. Even if it was just helpless and dreadful.
Why do I love films like these? lol
Definitely gets super slow but I yeah I think it was my curiosity that kept me watching
I feel like this movie reminds me of analog horror. It sorta plays on the terrifying-unknown-unbeatable-cosmic-threat trope, and I love it. Those kinds of things are good for building suspense and making someone genuinely scared.
Reminds me of House of Leaves. Didn't bother me immediately, but it lurks in the back of my head...
House of Leaves mentioned!!!!!
Btw have you ever listened to the companion album by Poe that she made specifically to tie in with the book??
She's the author's sister and her album Haunted is honestly such a gem and ties perfectly with the books themes
@@vi0let831 no! 100% need to find this
1:18 I'm a really big horror fan but this scene severely unsettled and filled me with dread and It's DAYTIME.
From what I’ve heard this movie sounds pretty good! We need more analog, digital and found footage horror movies!! Great video bro 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you!! 🙏🏾
Ikr I love found footage films like Blair witch project and cloverfield
@@Ashington_78bro fr 🔥🔥🔥 by any chance do you know any more? 🙃
The first time I watched this movie was in a basement with two of my friends who were very critical of everything happening, expecting it to be an average horror experience. They spent more time trying to analyze than they did actually soaking in the dread the movie was building, which really ruined the experience for them. I on the other hand did not sleep that night and rewatched the film the next two days because I was stunned by it's ability to create so much anxiety with such simplistic story telling. It is, in my opinion, a perfect representation of how to create a dreadful atmosphere that is palpable and stays with you after experiencing!
Gets me that so many people are complaining about being bored or the movie is too long.
How the hell do they think the kids feel? Thats the whole purpose.
Following why this movie is also terrifying, it's also why games like FNAF are always deemed horrifying in some way, because you're played in a situation where you can barely act, where you have barely any info, and the many noises happening. If you play the game right, you will never get a jumpscare to relieve your tension, only getting a temporary relief of the cheering at the end of the nightshift before you're placed in the same exact situation where your tension will quickly build back up.
Agreed!
The first two seconds of that video, I thought you were going to depict the whole scene with the Fisher Price telephone. Goes to show how much that film scared me.
Many times during this movie I found myself muttering “no no no” over and over again and covering my ears. Absolutely made me revert into a frightened child. Bravo
I was so uncomfortable watching it for the first time lol
bruh where have you been hiding this video was amazing im happy it got recommended, you truly get good horror
Lmaoo thank you!
As a person who doesn't get scared by horrors and even whatches some of them as "comfort movies" I am very pleased to announce that Skinamarink was the first horror in years that made me cover my face and watch it through my fingers. I had goosebumps throughout most of it, it has became my top 1 horror movie since, I love how ambiguous, unsettling, atmospheric and beautiful it is
Man, I fucking love your videos.
Me too
Thank you so much!
The "go to sleep" part feels like an abusive father who has been done playing with the kid after a while and got bored.
I watch this movie with my girlfriend, and it's true that its not for everyone because it scared me real good. Once I found out that it was based on the common nightmare that people encounters, it just hit me because this nightmare i have when I got really sick and when I sleep, I see a dream like the tv one, repeating, the white noise and occasionally a beep with a rainbow strip on the screen , the thump, and the view to the dark hallway all in one dream. This nightmare happens since I was a kid, although I don't usually dream and have nightmares anymore now that I'm old. The movie bring out my hidden trauma and often always says that the kids are very brave for their calmness because I once been there when I was a kid.
Definitely takes you back to those childhood fears
I just watched this last night. The pace was so slow that I was fighting falling asleep. Every so often, I would force my eyes open.
Well, one time when I forced my eyes open was the scene with the sister's featureless face. By the way, I was watching it by myself, in the dark, and at night.
By the time the toy phone seen came, when the toy disappeared and the eyes remained, with the loud phone ringing sound, I pushed myself into my mattress, like it wasn't even there.
It was awesome.
this is terrifying, like a nightmare i would have had. being trapped. unable to escape and unknowing of what is happening and as a child you have less understanding. as was until recently a minor ,imagining waking up to my parents not there would probably still freak me out. i have always been terrified of being alone and honestly this movie would probably keep me up at night clutching on to my war hammer so... im never gonna watch it fuck that i dont need all that lmao.
(edit: I'm not overreacting my parents never leave the house without letting me know and they both work at home so yeah..)
Yeah I’d probably pass on this one in that case
Ugh, this movie just absolutely gets to me. Having two kids that are close to the age of the kids in the movie made it even more unsettling for me throughout. Seeing that 572 days caption towards the end was the final straw for me, it just drained all the hope out of me when I saw that, it made me want to cry! This whole movie just made me want to hold my kids and never let go, very well done!
I always thought in that scene, the demon was actually asking *us* for our name. That's what really messed with me when I watched it.
I feel like it can be interpreted both ways honestly. That’s what I thought at first too
People who've seen this movie know it's a game changer, and nothing works out of context. You have to watch and take in every second of the stills in order for everything to work, and i LOVE that.
I know Kyle Ball was working on another film, and i'm not sure he can top this, but he's clearly got an incredible for the unsettling, and i can't wait to see what he does next.
This was a beautiful review of a movie I’ve never seen and you drew me in for the whole video. Bravo! As well as a masterpiece of a film!
Thank you!!! 🙏
as someone said on reddit: the 572 years at the end is actually referencing how long it feels like to stare at a wall for an hour and a half
That face, the moment I feel like I have the facial features down, it shifts into something else so I can never be satisfied with the way the face looks.
I couldn't sleep for about a week with the lights off after watching this movie, and with the addition to living alone at the time I watched it made me more anxious even when the lights were on. This movie made me appreciate the atmosphere building it did and just the constant dread it gave from the waiting game of jumpscares and letting your mind do the work to scare you.
This movie made me cry and cover half my face for half the movie.
I didn’t think this movie scared me until my nightmares started. After watching it, my nightmares started to look like this movie and have the same empty, nostalgic fear. No movie has ever done that to me and I applaud the filmmaker for creating a new kind of horror.
Keep up the excellent work!
I’ll do my best 🫡
I remember as a kid, my digital clock was bright enough to cast shadows across my popcorn ceiling at night, and it made a scary face that stared directly at my bed. Skinamarink gave me a similar feeling to that uneasy feeling as a kid when you see shadows in the dark.
I can totally see why this movie wouldnt work for people but damn, i was terrified by it. Had trouble sleeping and being in the dark for a couple weeks.
I’ve never seen this movie, but when you showed the demon asking the boy to come upstairs has been in my mind the past week since I watched this review. Pretty horrifying
When it got crazy, it was insane!! But boy I was getting a little bit bored of looking at walls and doorframes.
Yeah it’s definitely very dull at points lol
What makes this movie terrifying is how relatable it is. We've all had that fear of the unknown, but putting it in the perspective of when you were a child makes it hit different
Interesting, your sentiment pretty much resonates with what I feel is great about Skinamarink.
Normally, in horror media, jump scares serve as culminations to the build-up tension beforehand, they serve as a relief from suspense. Skinamarink, on the other hand, has atmosphere and cinematography so brooding and, for lack of better word, vacant, that what few scares there are don't work to break the tension. They grant no carharsis, and neither does the finale.
It's an incredibly mentally taxing movie to watch, specifically because it breaks the conventions and, by extent, your expectations as a viewer. Scares do not indicate that the scary moment is over; instead, they indicate that the situation only got worse.
Exactly. Couldn’t agree more
saw this in theatres with my boyfriend, and i gripped his arm so hard and screamed - actually screamed - when the blood shot out of the corner of the room and you could hear screaming. i've never been so terrified in my life, and i wasn't even seeing what was going on around the corner. the tension and atmosphere in this movie were godlike.
It totally captures that nightmare feeling. Either nightmare, or some hazy memory from childhood.
what I love about skinamarink is that it perfectly encapsulates being a child and just..... absorbing whats around you, you dont really think about all the times as a 2-8 year old you just sit and... stare at the corner of the wall, or at the back of a couch playing with your toys, I have a very specific memory this movie dredged up I would have never ever thought of again if this film wasnt made, my childhood home we had 3 acres and a pasture, in the pasture we had a fire pit and during summer we would do campfires often, the layout of my house the kitchen was connected to the piano room which then went to the front deck and from the front deck it was about a 200 foot walk to the pasture where the campfire was, I remember being around 7 or 8 and being in the kitchen, my brothers, sisters, and parents were out at the campfire and I had gone back to the house in order to play my ps2, I finished my game and wanted to go back to the campfire, I walked to the kitchen and noticed the piano room and the back deck didnt have their lights on, and the thing that sucked about the piano room was the light was back by the sliding glass door leading outside, I could see the campfire and my entire family about 210-220 feet away but everything inbetween was pure darkness, and just the paralyzing fear I had in that moment of just how vulnerable I was going to be in that 200 feet is still the most scared I ever remember being i stood there for about 20 minutes crying until my dad came into the house to go to bed btw and this movie perfectly encapsulates that moment I felt all those years ago
This feels like a backrooms type of setup ngl (kane pixels specifically)
Keep up the good work tray 👏🏾
I still need to watch that! I’m very new to analog horror lol.
And I’ll do my best 🫡
This is the horror I like. No jumpscares to relieve your stress, just pure terror. I crave for movies like this and Hereditary.
Most underrated horror movie of the year in my opinion
Dawg you can barely even call it a horror movie 💀what are you glazing for
I think it was overhyped by tiktok, but it's definitely the most experimental horror movie ever
@@reignFX. News flash: Person discovers what different opinions are
Wrong
Skinamarink 2: attack of the Skinamarink
Where Kevin said "that's a nice argument Skinamarink, how about you back it up with a source."
And then the Skinamarink said "Source? I made it the Fridge up!"
(Take the F from fridge and you get the uh oh word, had to censor it)
Dude I love your videos so much keep them coming!!
Will do! 🫡
Very interesting lore wise this film seems. How many days have the kids been stuck there for??? And is Kevin taken to his own limbo by the demon at the end? Horrific and super grim
As a Canadian, I knew instantly from the title that the filmmakers were from Canada and were around the same age as me. How many other fans of Sharon, Lois, and Bram are here?