Skinamarink goes viral on TikTok

They call it the Blair Witch Project of the TikTok generation: Skinamarink has not only conquered US cinemas, but is also going viral on YouTube, TikTok and Twitter.

what exactly is skinamarink and why is everyone talking about it? TikTok is inundated with viewership reports praising the brand new horror film (Source: tik tok), while Reddit’s horror forum pinned its own thread on Skinamarink (source: Reddit). The horror film shot out of the ground like a rocket and that as Debut film from previously unknown director Kyle Edward Ball.

Ball shot the film entirely at his parents’ house for a small fee of about $15,000. The only actors are two children who can hardly be seen. Skinamarink doesn’t show any faces at all, follows a marginal story and is so dark that you can really see it in the dark have to see in order to recognize something.

The title Skinamarink refers to a meaningless nursery rhyme and can refer to a Songs from the 70’s be traced back – its verses have no meaning either, apart from the fact that each line of the song ends with “I love you.”.

Well, are you a little upset?

“Skinamarink is an experience.” – jackharbonbooks on TikTok

Skinamarink follows a four-year-old boy who gets injured at home – and only his six-year-old sister is there to see it. Her parents are not present and doors and windows have also disappeared. That’s roughly the story, although of course there are still things that I don’t want to spoil here.

You can get an idea of ​​how Skinamarink works from the trailer:

But Ball’s film doesn’t rely on story either: The almost constantly fixed camera always shows the dark rooms of the house from angles and corners; often the camera is just on the ground. The house is dark and the camera stares into the shadows, you only see the two children from the back or the side. Their faces are turned away.

User jackharbonbooks via Skinamarink on TikTok

Ball’s film is in top form as “Liminal Space”. The sub-genre of horror culture deals with man-made and yet deserted spaces – empty school buildings, empty shopping malls, empty subway stations. It shows spaces that feel unreal and eerie because they are familiar, but become unknown through their emptiness. An outgrowth of the genre are the backroom games – indie horror games all about empty backrooms that people can fall into (such as The Complex: Found Footage on Steam).

Balls ran one prior to Skinamarink’s success YouTube channel where he turned fans’ nightmares into short films. This is also where the idea for Skinamarink came from (Source: Ball’s YouTube channel). So the internet, with its creepy pastas and experimental horror creations, had a direct influence on the creation of Skinamarink.

Opinions are divided on Skinamarink – as on the Blair Witch Project

You don’t have to like Blair Witch Project to appreciate that this film defined the horror genre. In fact, opinions differ on many later classics, and Skinamarink is no different: This film focuses on atmosphere and the viewer’s imagination; also how Blair Witch Project has always made a living by not showing what frightened the people in the forest.

It’s a simple but effective calculation: as soon as you see the monster, you place it and the fear goes away. Monster Horror plays with it and finds other things that trigger fear – like violence, shock moments and lots of disgust. This is the opposite of what Skinamarink does and maybe the only reason why the film is so special is that it focuses extremely and one-sidedly on the atmosphere.

In a nutshell: Not everyone will like Skinamarink. There are already loads of horror fans who can’t understand the hype. But horror is subjective, and either way, Skinamarink is a new experience – and perhaps one that explores new possibilities in the horror genre.

Skinamarink hits US theaters on January 13th. It is still uncertain when the release will start in Germany. As of now, there are no official streams showing the film.

Don’t want to miss any more news about technology, games and pop culture? No current tests and guides? Then follow us
Facebook
or Twitter.