Skinamarink
To present something new, or at least in a manner seldom seen before, is a risk. Audiences have certain expectations when it comes to narratives, and inferring a story is harder than telling one. Skinamarink is a film that lives in corners, in the darkness, in the scary parts where we don’t want to look. Under the bed has nothing on this.
The narrative as it is follows two young children, played by Lucas Paul and Dali Rose Tetreault, who find their parents missing. The windows and doors in the house have vanished. They set up to sleep downstairs, in front of the TV, then when they feel it is morning they get up, make breakfast, and fill their time drawing and playing, though it is all subdued as they are obviously unsettled. What progresses is a slow nightmare exploring the perception of fear.
Skinamarink is a film of and about negative space. The camera sits staring at the ceiling, or at corners of rooms, with characters interacting mostly off-screen. This avoidance of focus sets up a second-person narrative, as the camera becomes a character by proxy. There are plenty of arguable point-of-view shots from the main two characters, and to my mind the rest of the camerawork was the perspective of a third. This is an interesting and bold choice, and when coupled with a lo-fi grainy picture quality and poorly-recorded, fuzzy sound it maximises its surreal intentions. I particularly enjoyed the use of touch tone, for example, when a phone is used. It says what it needs to entirely away from the camera, and does so with skill.
The idea of the film comes from actual nightmares, and what is interesting to me is the idea of making a film that is less a story to be told and more a set-piece to be experienced. This is an attempt at immersion and it is mostly successful, though some viewers may be put off by the lack of clarity and distance of the storytelling. I enjoyed it and found the experience engaging, but it is not a film for everyone.
The main issue with Skinamarink is the lack of depth. This is a film which is and is not, yet there is little beneath the surface of the experience it presents. It doesn’t have anything to say about the nature of fear other than to explore what fear is. That being said, I don’t think writer director Kyle Edward Ball had this in mind when making it. Skinamarink knows what it is doing and does it very well, and so I see it as a clear success. The best way to experience this film is in the dark, in quiet, with a sense of patience and expectation. Be open and willing to go through it, and don’t assume you know what will happen even if you know what will happen. Allow yourself to be scared by putting yourself into the mindset of the children at the centre of the film. Turn off the lights and dive in. It’s worth the risk.
