*This is a spoiler-free review so feel free to read on!*
“Are you hiding?”
Skinamarink released in limited theaters on January 13th 2023. The film will later release on Shudder on February 2nd 2023. The experimental horror film stars Jaime Hill, Lucas Paul, Ross Paul, and Dali Rose Tetreault. It runs for approximately an hour and forty minutes.
Two young siblings wake up in the middle of the night to discover that their parents are missing and the windows and doors have disappeared mysteriously.
Here is the trailer:
Skinamarink creates a different kind of horror movie, focusing more on feelings of fear and a setting rather than a story. Is it worthy of your next watch? Let’s find out…
The Pros:
Tries something different…
I’m all for filmmakers trying something unique and different with their movies. The camera effects took me a while to get used to, but I actually kind of liked them. I felt like I had stumbled upon an old security VHS tape and was trying to piece together what I was seeing.
This film had a super low budget and that was apparent, but it did actually create some genuinely creepy moments and even one that actually made me jump so there’s that.
If you’re looking for a truly horrifying found-footage film, I’m not sure that you’ll get that here, but I appreciate the effort in this one. I’m just not sure that it translated that well at all…
The Cons:
So boring!
I think there was probably at least thirty minutes of the camera following around furniture. I was bored out of my mind and I was afraid to eat my popcorn in the theater because you could literally hear a pin drop. I think that this film could have been much shorter and only given us about five minutes of that material. There were actually people that got up and left in the middle of the movie so you may want to wait until this streams on Shudder so you can fast-forward to more of the creepy stuff.
The dialogue was so muffled and I’m not sure why we got subtitles during certain moments and it was absent in others. This didn’t make it scarier for me at all. I was just struggling to hear what was going on, which was super frustrating at times.
The ending of the movie was really bizarre and while I did look up several interpretations, I can’t say that it really helped fill in the blanks at all…
So am I in or out?
I’m 50/50 on this one…
Normally I would be out on this, but I appreciate what the filmmakers tried to accomplish and I’m always supportive of any kind of Indie film. This was a really cool concept, but I’m not sure where all the hype came from. There were a few flickers of potential, but I was hoping for a lot more.
I did like that phone though…
I hope you enjoyed the review and feel free to post your own thoughts and theories on Skinamarink in the comments section below. Thanks so much for reading and happy viewing!
Best,
Amy Koto, TV Fanatic Girl
THIS COMPETITION IS KILLER…
When former friends, Shay and Adriana team up to participate in a Halloween scavenger hunt with a cash prize, they temporarily put their differences aside to outsmart their opponents. However, they soon start to realize that a dangerous threat is playing their own version of the game, stalking them during each hunt.
Winning is now a necessity as their lives are at stake. As old wounds and memories re-surface, Shay and Adriana attempt to unmask the threat before the night is over, but soon learn that Scream Hunt is not done with them just yet…
Scream Hunt is available here!
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