‘Skinamarink’: The Journey From $15,000 Horror Indie to Terrifying Viral Phenomenon

ShudderLegos have never been as ominous as they are in Skinamarink, a haunted-house movie that feels like that one childhood nightmare you can’t shake. The colorful bricks seem to move on their own, controlled by some unseen demon who issues commands in a perverse whisper. Two young siblings are left alone with this menace, and the oddities keep coming: Doors and windows vanish, lights won’t turn on, a hallway flips upside down, toys end up on the ceiling.Sound like a typical horror flick? Poltergeist meets The Shining? Those movies were influences on Skinamarink, but its director, Kyle Edward Ball, adopted a far more experimental approach. Everything transpires from odd angles, the camera positioned low to the ground or high up at the corner of a room. During the 100-minute film, we see static shots of walls and floors more than we do the actual kids, whose parents’ absence is largely unexplained. Somehow, that elusive lull becomes terrifying—a mood piece in which the next fright always feels milliseconds away.Skinamarink, which debuted in theaters over the weekend, is a love-it-or-hate-it experience. Some skeptics will give up after 10 or 15 minutes, bored by the lack of conventional imagery. But if you can get on this movie’s wavelength, it’s mesmerizing, sort of like watching a fuzzy old tape from 1995. Either way, Skinamarink captured enough attention to be declared a minor phenomenon after being pirated from a festival’s online platform last fall. Read more at The Daily Beast.