At the end of last July, the specialized festival Fantasiaheld every year in Montreal, hosted the world premiere of an amazing experimental horror film produced on a budget of just $15,000: Skinamark. A week ago, on Friday, January 13, and after passing through other contests, it reached North American theaters and in just five days it exceeded a million dollars in revenue, quite an achievement considering that distribution was limited.
The terrifying debut feature of the Canadian writer-director Kyle Edward Ball will arrive on the content platform on February 2 Shudder, owned by AMC Networks. The premise is simple, two children wake up during the night and discover that their father has disappeared, and that the windows and doors have inexplicably disappeared. When they decide to entertain themselves, and wait for the adults to return, they realize that they are not alone, that a voice is calling them.
A transgressive proposal in structure and aesthetics, which goes beyond titles that have used found-footage as a narrative tool, from The Blair Witch Project (1999) to the saga Paranormal Activity (2007-2021), to offer from a distant point of view an a priori credible and familiar situation but as the film progresses, and the night for the protagonists of the story, a terrifying nightmare is revealed.
The suffocating and anguishing atmosphere that the film generates, through silences, whispers, the sound of cartoons on a tube television, blurred shots and impossible perspectives, long sequences, etc., leads the viewer to submit to their deepest fears. , to the usual childhood terrors, which to a greater or lesser extent we have all suffered. The viewer looks for clues on the screen to find out what is happening, because ultimately Skinamark is a supernatural horror psychological thriller.
Shot on analogue film, the resulting image, with grain and tone, along with the typography used in the credits, transports the viewer back to the 1970s to tell the story of little Kevin and Kaylee, played by Lucas Paul y Dali Rose Tetreault. They complete the deal Jaime Hill like the mother and Ross PaulAs the father.
What does skinamarink mean?
Title Skinamark is related to an American children’s song, originally called ‘Skid-dy-mer-rink-adink-aboomp’. In Canada, the song was popularized by the music band Sharon, Lois & Bram, who first released it on their debut album ‘One Elephant, Deux Elephants’. Skinamark it became his signature song and was the theme song for a television show.
No release date in Spain, Skinamark is already considered the horror surprise of the year, while the sequel Terrifier 2also an independent production, which in 2022 grossed 12.8 million in US theaters and other markets from a budget of $250,000, will land in our country on February 24.