According to some theories, the most common fears among human beings have been inherited from our ancestors. For example, the fear of the dark. It is believed that before discovering fire, at nightfall, the darkness became the perfect ally of wild creatures to hunt primitive humans.
That’s the reason why the fear of the dark is so primal, so human, and so common. Of course, we share other fears that over the years and in an evolutionary processsurvival instincts and our ability to recognize danger developed.
Skinamarink, a common nightmare
Kyle Edward Ball, the director of the viral tape Skinamarkfound that among subscribers to his YouTube channel about creepypastasthey shared the same nightmare: being a toddler, finding out your parents are gone, being home alone and facing a monster.
Really, if we think about it, there is nothing more terrifying than discover that your house, the only safe place, stopped being safe. And that the people who should protect you from the horrors are not there for whatever reasons. And so, those fears are strengthened until they become a shadow that lasts for years.
That was how this Canadian filmmaker came up with the idea of Skinamark, a film that was part of various festivals in 2022, which attracted so much attention that against all odds, it got a release date of January 2023. But before this happened, after participating in an online festival, someone stole the film and uploaded it to the internet.
Skinamarkcon its bizarre premise, disturbing visuals, and terrible audio (the latter on purpose), it became an internet phenomenon. Sort of like a high level creepypasta; Of course, it went viral. That motivated many to go to the movies, but something interesting happened.
And the thing is that the film is so experimental, that many people left the movie theater disoriented, for better and for worse. Skinamark divide opinions, and that’s okay. It is not a conventional horror film, not a bit, and that increases its value.
we had the opportunity to talk Kyle Edward Ball about the premiere of Skinamark in Mexicoand we asked him about that common nightmare, his own nightmare:
I really got into that idea when I was doing my YouTube series and people were commenting on the exact same nightmare they had in childhood.which is: I’m home, my parents are dead or missing, and there’s a monster and I have to deal with it. So I realized that it wasn’t just something that I went through. This is something we all go through and maybe I can build a movie around it and I did.
The director of Skinamarink on the history of the tape
La historia de Skinamarink
Skinamark is set in 1995. The only setting is a two-story house with a basement (In fact, the movie was filmed at the director’s parents’ house in Edmonton, Canada.) Here we “meet” Kevin a boy of about 5 years and his older sister Kylee.
Initially, we know that her father is home and that her mother has been away. But soon, his figure disappears. And also the windows and doors begin to disappear throughout the house. The children do not understand what is happening, but continue to watch TV, whose light is the only thing that illuminates the rooms.
This is how an evil entity, perhaps a monster, manifests itself in the house. Things that are on the floor like toys, stick to the walls. Her parents appear again, but they act strangely. The monster speaks to them and asks them to obeyOtherwise, there will be fatal consequences. Here we leave the trailer.
Skinamarink is inspired by creepypastas
As we told you, the director of Skinamark He has a YouTube channel where subscribers tell him their nightmares, and he makes videos under 10 minutes to recreate the atmosphere of those dreams (not the nightmares themselves, and this is important). That is what we know, in part, as creepypastas.
A clearer example is the work of Kane Parsons, a 17-year-old who created the series The Backroomswhich is characterized by the liminal spaces (corridors and empty rooms, whose only sound is the sound of the place, and the route of the same). Just as of date, Parsons will direct a movie of this for A24 and James Wan.
Going back to Kyle Edward Ball, we can say that Skinamark It is the best movie that has been made based on creepypastas, as it respects the most common elements of this horror narrative. such as the lack of dialogue, the “natural” sound, even of poor quality, and the liminal spaces.
Also the characters are usually diffuse, we never recognize them welland in SkinamarkFor example, we never get to see the faces of the children, only their dialogues (which also come in subtitles because the audio isn’t very good on purpose. The scariest thing about Skinamarkare the spaces: We don’t see the proportions of the house well, only the corners, some furniture and objects, and the floor.
Your own fears are reflected in Skinamarink
Sinamarink it is unclear and ambiguous, and that somehow makes the core of the film adapt to the fears of the audience. In other words, if our greatest fear is the dark, this movie is about that. If we had an intense fear of abandonment, Skinamark it’s about that. If we’re claustrophobic, this movie is definitely about that.
That is how Skinamarksaid by the director, does not pretend to explore the human mind, but only to tell a confusing story in which we constantly wonder what we would do in a situation in which, as in the tape, the windows and doors of our house begin to disappear.
However. Another interesting point about Skinamark es realizing that as adults watching the tape, we are quick to rationalize what is happeningand therefore, we expect a 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl to do the same as us, such as running away, not entering a room, or not following the orders of a monstrous voice.
But we just understand with the passage of time on the tape, that They are children, and their perception of danger is very different from ours.. When we talked with the director, regarding this he told us:
If I made a movie about two adults who were in a house where all the windows and doors disappearedFirst of all they would have a mental breakdown because they wouldn’t be able to process what happened. Something in their mind would snap and they’d think it’s a dream and then they would panic and they would immediately go for a hammer and try to break the walls.
Ball on the rationalization of fear in Skinamarink
Does the experience of watching a horror movie change at home?
To prepare to talk with the director of Skinamark, They sent us a screener of the movie. That means we saw it at home. It was at night and after the workday. We have to say that the experience was terrible in the good sense of the word.
Considering the eerie atmosphere of Skinamarkwhile we watched the tape we look for a safe space at home, recognizing any signs of danger, looking at the corners as they are presented to us in the film. There is an aura of insecurity in everything that happens.
Because? Because we see some children, alone, realize that something is not right. We say this because The ideal, always, is to see the movies in the cinema, since the experience obeys a dark room with the least number of distractions. So we wanted to ask the director of Skinamark what did you think of watching the tape at home as part of the experience in your story.
The best horror movies are very good in either of two places: in a big movie theater, with a giant screen and a shrill sound; or at home, alone, at 3 in the morning with the sound loud or with headphones on your small television, or your laptop and nothing in between.
That’s the wonderful thing about horror movies in general, is that they only exist on the two large margins together. I think it’s very interesting. The most beautiful thing about cinema is that it can bring you closer to the experience of watching a movie at home at 3 in the morning. You walk into the living room in the middle of the day with sunlight, and we walk into a dark room with a bunch of strangers, and we’re alone again.
Ball about the experience of watching Skinamarink in the cinema or at home
Despite its flaws, it’s a great movie.
As we said before, Skinamark is an experimental horror film. It is an exercise that has not been seen for many years, and for this reason (we believe) has been compared to titles like Blair’s wich. And yes, they have several aspects in common such as a found footage format, an innovative and disturbing narrative, and of course, a minimal budget.
But this experimentation always divides opinions, since we are used to seeing similar and functional formulas such as jump scares. So it is not strange to us that the same Skinamark resort to some of these elements that, we believe, are unnecessary considering the pace and atmosphere of the film. But it does not result in anything serious either and in reality, there are few.
Another “mistake” Skinamark is its duration. The movie is one hour and 40 minutes.somewhat extensive thinking about the development of events, the lack of dialogues and the visual imaginary that, being unclear and so widespread, can be repetitive.
