Lo-fi bone chiller Skinamarink is the latest viral horror film to make a huge return
Like underdog predecessors Terrifier 2, Kyle Edward Ball's experimental horror film benefited from viral support and deliciously polarizing reviews
Aux News Horror film
Whether it made your 2023 in-out list or not, one industry trend from 2022 is already proving its longevity: horror does “making back a production budget” best. After the viral success of Terrifier 2 launched the underdog project to a $12.8 million U.S. box office yield last year, Kyle Edward Ball’s experimental debut Skinamarink appears to be soaring towards another internet-buoyed win.
Skinamarink has grossed $890,000 domestically since its limited, 692 theater release (a product of AMC’s acquisition of the film last December) kicked off on Friday the 13th, per Box Office Mojo. Although the opening didn’t quite push Skinamarink into the top 10 for MLK Weekend, the film’s minuscule $15,000 production budget (as reported by Bloody Disgusting) means Skinamarink is swiftly nearing a $1 million return.
Loosely speaking, Skinamarink follows two siblings, Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault) and Kevin (Lucas Paul), who awake in their house one morning to discover their parents gone, and with them, every window and door in the house. Filmed like secretive surveillance and chock full of shots that linger long enough to trap a viewer like an animal, Skinamarink masterfully wields (and reshapes) the tools of modern horror to create something totally weird and totally unique.
In The A.V. Club’s review of Skinamarink, Matthew Jackson crowns the film a “top contender for the year’s most frightening film,” and lauds it as “stunningly mesmeric” and “a singularly nightmarish piece of horror filmmaking.”
As Jackson also correctly predicted, Skinamarink is most certainly not for everyone—Skinamarink’s Rotten Tomatoes numbers are deliciously polarizing, ushering in the type of buzzy discourse that can lend to filling theater seats (if you’re not Babylon, of course). Skinamarink currently boasts a 75% fresh critical rating and a 47% rotten audience rating.
For those who don’t make it to the theater for Skinamarink, the film will arrive for streaming on Shudder later this year.
19 Comments
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A bunch of co-ed’s wake up one day to find all the adults (as well as the doors and windows!) in the dorm are gone. So they all have sex. With each other. Nekkid.
I was one of those sucked into a theater to see it this weekend. It’s both one of the most exhausting movies I have seen and has some of the best/creepy moments I’ve seen in a horror movie. I can’t say the movie equals the sum of it’s parts, but its neither exactly successful nor a failure. I don’t see me ever spending another 90 minutes on it again (which felt as long as the minute count in ‘Babylon’), but if you’re curious to see how David Lynch would have made a student film in 2023, this is for you!
if you’re curious to see how David Lynch would have made a student film in 2023, this is for you!I mean, maybe? I’m trying to ignore the hype because that seems like a near-certain recipe for disappointment, but at its core it does sound like the type of weird, nightmare-logic horror that I get a kick out of.
I certainly don’t mean that to be a denigration of Lynch, or even this film. I just use that as shorthand for the kind of experience to expect. Sometimes I find Lynch’s obtuseness frustrating, at other times I find it beautiful.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a movie that lives up to a David Lynch comparison in the past few decades of “If David Lynch directed _____” or “David Lynch meets _______”
And this may or may not be it. I have a love/hate relationship with Lynch’s work, and I felt the same about this movie. It definitely had me frustrated with how indirect it was — just like Lynch is at times — and other times I was titillated by the thrilling images and creepy ideas — just like Lynch at times. HAHA, so, for me it ran the Lynch gamut all in the (long) 100 minutes.
I will say that the last movie to creep me out as much as this one was Inland Empire.Take that as you will.
I just can’t take the A.V. Club’s reviews seriously anymore after reading the recent Last Of Us review here. It was really really bad. I read the Skinamarink review here which is glowing, and I hated it. It’s starting to feel like the A.V. Club just rides hype waves and actually grades on whether “it’s supposed to be good”. The “-A” has lost it’s meaning here. This place is frustrating now.
Breaks are good and important! This site is bad, but you seem to be taking it especially hard.
What was bad? Certainly not The Last of Us.
Plenty of people legitimately enjoy both of those things.Maybe you should find a reviewer who matches your sensibilities and read them rather than bitching that this site doesn’t always agree with your objectively correct opinion and thus must just be Riding The Hype Train.
And of course the AV Club needs to pat themself on the back for giving it a good review here too, woof.
The reviews are polarized, not polarizing. The movie is polarizing.
This was a weird one to see in a theater, and while I’d recommend anyone who wants to see/support the movie to buy a ticket at a local screen, this movie actually seems like a better experience alone at home with the lights out. I actually felt relieved sitting with the film’s creepy tone with an audience. I also had a couple friends who saw it this weekend and their audiences were less than patient with its pace.
I counted three times I nodded off. But they got me good a couple of times, which is hard to do. The ending pulled me in. Best part of the film.
Best to see alone and haf.
A friend and I tried to watch it a couple nights ago and we made it about 45 minutes before we tapped out and watched the Last of Us pilot instead. If your idea of horror is static shots of the corners of rooms and lighting changes, you’re about to get a buffet. Otherwise, unless you’re extremely patient, you’re going to be bored out of your skull.
I’m honestly curious if Americans have any frame of reference for what the title means.