The Big Picture Throughout the ages, horror has proven itself as among the best genres for startling leaps in innovation, a statement confirmed once again in 2023 thanks to the release of Kyle Edward Ball’s Skinamarink, quite possibly the boldest experiment in horror since The Blair Witch Project.
To achieve this effect, Ball showers every frame with Jackson Pollock levels of grain so that even the clearer images are obstructed by what feels like blurred vision. Instead of characters, Ball lulls his viewers into an extended state of hostility through long, unbroken shots of a child’s toys spilled onto the floor, the corner of a TV screen, or a ceiling light curiously framed upside down.
Skinamarink absolutely thrives off of its ambiguity, to the extent that even its plot-heavy scenes are constructed to remain as cryptic as possible. At a full 100 minutes, Ball knows he has to offer the viewer something by way of a story to keep them hooked, but he never lets the need for exposition break the constant anticipatory tension. Instead, he conveys most of the conversations between the boy and "the voice" or his 9-1-1 operator almost entirely in subtitles.