World Premiere
Underground

Skinamarink

Directed by Kyle Ball

Hosted by writer / director Kyle Edward Ball

Credits  

Director

Kyle Ball

Executive Producer

Jonathan Barkan, Ava Karvonen, Edmon Rotea, Benjamin Yennie

Writer

Kyle Ball

Cast

Jaime Hill, Lucas Paul, Ross Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault

Cinematographer

Jamie McRae

contact

ERO Picture Company

Canada 2022 100 mins OV English
Genre HorrorExperimental

With his feature debut, SKINAMARINK, director Kyle Edward Ball plunges us into those endless childhood nights in his expressionistic and experimental horror vision. Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all windows and doors in their home have vanished. While they decide to wait for the grown-ups to return, they realize they’re not alone, and a voice that sounds like a child beckons them.

Do you remember waking up in the middle of the night as a child and hearing the crackling white noise of an old TV set? In SKINAMARINK, those memories become the backdrops of terrible imaginings and the landscape of increasingly disturbing incidents. While experimental in structure and aesthetics, Ball’s film never loses touch with its child protagonists. Their voices, distant—as if they were wading through water, ripple through the dark, textured space. Their perspective shapes the strange otherworldliness of the suburban home, collapsing time and space, as their vantage point reshapes the familiar into something frightening, as the house seems to shapeshift as the night deepens and the nightmare grows. The uniquely minimalist approach keeps most of the characters off-screen, their voices and sound carrying much of the action. The effect of focusing on the mundane, on ceiling lamps, doorways, and hallways, captures a deep sense of the uncanny as the ordinary becomes increasingly horrific. While by no means a traditional horror film, SKINAMARINK has a way of weaseling under your skin and bringing you back to the greatest fears of childhood. – Justine Smith