Skinamarink

 Story    

I watched Skinamarink and it's a different film than most. The movie starts out with two children waking up in the middle of the night to their father missing and any access to the outside world closed off. This movie then follows the very basic fear children have when they are left alone in a familiar yet different place. Skinamarink is based around the perspective of children and often we are limited to how they perceive what is happening and limitations as young kids of four and five.  

   

Cinematography    

 Skinamarink uses different angles in an analog horror genre retro style. So, the entire movie is in snap shots of the entire house. Most often the house is in darkness and so the film uses the camera to try to adjust to the dark to show the stifling feeling the children are feeling. If the house is not in darkness, it is in the harsh colors of pink or orange, but it is a dark harsh kind of light. There are scenes where the camera is in the viewpoint of the child and it's terrifying because we are in the same position as the child. Helpless and afraid. One Thing I noticed throughout the film is that the children used flashlights and I didn't understand why when they had electricity and could flip the light on. But the kids are too short to reach the light switch. And by watching it's more evident because they are so low to the ground.  

Further, they can't fully comprehend what is going on, just that something isn't right, so they watch cartoons during the film and sleep downstairs where it isn't scary. There are also many deeper meanings throughout the film that predict the end. One of them is the cartoons that the kids watch. It tells a lot of what will happen or has happened. Skidamarink is slow and methodical to demonstrate the feeling of fear. Because when we are scared it seems slower and the director exemplified this.  

Lasty, the audio was used as a tool to tell the story. The film is quiet and when there is noise it's in lower tones. The children whisper the entire film, the parents whisper, with the only outlier being the cartoons. But even then, it doesn't disrupt the overall blanket of fear and uneasiness over the film.  

Cultural relevance  

This is culturally relevant to all children in a way with the basic fear of being alone in the darkness and a child's outlook on everything. While this movie isn't for everyone, and a lot of the films have darker undertones, the film is unique in its attempt at a new kind of horror.