As the great John Carpenter once said, horror is a universal language. We are all born afraid. Fear can be attributed to a lot of every day actions. We get to work on time in fear of being late. We attend social events in fear of missing out. Even those who have supposedly mastered fear still feel afraid. Batman fights criminals in fear of letting down the memory of his parents and his city. But what is it that people generally fear the most? What is it that keeps us up at night looking at that dark corner of our bedrooms? The unknown.
No one understands this better than writer/director Kyle Edward Ball, with his recent experimental horror film Skiramarink (2022). The premise of this film is quite simple; two children wake up one night to find their father is missing and various objects around the house are mysteriously disappearing. Ball’s focus however is not on delivering a tightly cohesive story with developed characters. Instead, he creates a creepy atmosphere relying mainly on ambient sounds and images. Ball has a Youtube channel on which he makes commenters’ nightmares into short films, as well as uploading his 2020 short film Heck, as a proof of concept for Skinamarink. Through these short films Ball clearly pioneered his minimal directional style; using grainy found-footage style camera work, mysterious ambient background noises, and minimal use of dialogue or physical appearance of characters. Effectively, this outputs a ‘running up the stairs after switching the light off’ type feeling.
For general audiences, Skinamarink can best be described as a combination of Paranormal Activity (2007), The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Poltergeist (1982), though much more subtle. Skinamarink really breaks filmmaking down to its most basic components; a series of images and sounds, and maximises their effectiveness. Most of the film consists of dark, grainy shots of various rooms in the house, often from the perspective of the two kids. Superficially, that sounds exceedingly unappealing, but if you maintain an open mind and experience this film for what it is, it is unsettling unlike any other horror I’ve seen. There’s one scene where the dad tells one of the kids to look under the bed, and there’s nothing even there, but it provokes that child-like fear that everyone still feels into adulthood, creating an anxiety level which is through the roof. This film masterfully exposes childhood fears, as it deals with the removal of various sources of comfort we have as children. Throughout the film, old cartoons play on a TV to serve as a background comfort noise for the children, and various household objects (including doors, windows, and seemingly parents) disappear. This reminds us of the comfort we found in these things in childhood, and provokes the feelings of them being taken away with a lack of control. Of course, this film also frequently relies on that feeling of something lurking in the dark and lets our imagination run wild, but the most unsettling thing about this is the fact that whatever our imagination conjures up, it never comes. It keeps you in a perpetual state of tension and anxiety as you expect a jump scare to come to relieve the tension, but they often never do. I watched this film with a friend, and there was one shot of a corridor, and the slight outline of what we both agreed looked like a person, but the film never provides a clear answer, which is the most terrifying thing.
Enjoyment of a film can be defined as how effectively it stimulates our emotions. A good comedy will make us laugh, a good heartfelt drama will make us cry, and a good horror will make us afraid. Skinamarink proves a big budget with big scares isn’t a prerequisite to successful scares, effectively proving that over-relying on jump scares is an easy way to get an audience reaction. Nevertheless, I can understand why Skinamarink has polarised audiences, as it is very slow placed and spends a lot of time in the dark (literally). It would be perfect if it was a little bit shorter, and perhaps more concisely embedded its already skeletal story. As it stands, I hugely appreciate the different approach to the horror genre, as Kyle Edward Ball is clearly someone who has a love for the craft and understands what keeps people in suspense. It doesn’t spoon feed its audience with plot and predictable jumpscares, and relies heavily on the ‘feel, don’t think’ mentality. It is the type of film to inspire aspiring filmmakers (such as myself), as it shows all you need is a camera, a house, effective lighting, and good editing skills to create an effectively creepy film. If anything, Skinamarink demands multiple watches to piece together its story and fully appreciate the substance behind the tension.
G does Films 