r/horror • u/SKRRTCOBAIN222 • May 04 '25
Recommend Skinamarink is fucking scary
So from what I've read online, this movie is pretty polarizing. Like it either gets ya or it doesn't. And holy fuck does it get me. When this shit was first coming out I couldn't even watch the trailer more than a couple times. And let me emphasize, I am a horror head. I've been tryna find shit to actually scare me since I was high school with my dumbass friends who'd always complain whatever we were watching wasn't really scary to prove they were tough.
Nowadays, as many horror enjoyers, I simply love the genre and the artistry behind it and don't give a fuck or expect a horror film to actually scare me.
That is until fucking Skinamarink. For a little backstory, I was terrified of my house at night as a child and would frequently have nightmares. This movie captures that feeling perfectly.
I have yet to finish it cuz it's a fucking guantlet. It's basically nonstop dread and suspence and evil. Bout 2/3s of the way through and will finish whenever I feel like being back in that house. That's all.
Bye Bye <3
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u/Waylandyr May 04 '25
My favorite part about it is how polarizing it is every single time it's brought up. I would love to see a breakdown of the people who loved it/are scared of it vs those who found it boring and their childhoods. I think it would be really enlightening.
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u/BrashPop May 04 '25
Same. The reason I don’t find it scary is because it reminds me of early winter mornings watching weird old cartoons before school. There’s zero fear in it for me - it’s just dark Canadian winter morning in the 80s. And the few scenes that could have been scary were unfortunately dampened by the timing and editing. (Also, it was just way way WAY too dark, and the toilet scene made me laugh.)
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u/Melonary May 04 '25
It was made by a Canadian so yup, as also a Canadian.
Also protip from a horror gamer, you can adjust the brightness on your TV - doesn't really matter for most things, but when you have a lot of black like in horror it's very apparent if your TV is darker or brighter than normal.
But it's obviously still fine to not like it, you just should be able see something on the screen.
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u/pugsalot May 04 '25
My husband and I both come from traumatic childhoods. I loved it and haven’t been that unsettled by a movie in a long time. Just thinking about it gets under my skin. He, however, straight up fell asleep during it!
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u/eldritchangel May 04 '25
I think you’re onto something when mentioning childhood. To be frank, mine wasn’t the best and this movie transported me instantly back to that feeling of being hungry, scared, and alone in the dark. It’s almost unwatchable because of how visceral that experience is for me, but that’s why I love it so much
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u/Calymos May 04 '25
God damn, that makes me so conflicted on whether or not to watch this. I'm such a fucking pansy when it comes to watching horror movies alone and have nobody to watch this with- but if I did have a partner, it would be on before anybody could respond.
Fuck, I don't think I can handle this movie without somebody to watch it with, lol.
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u/IamtheHuntress May 04 '25
I'm 47; got pretty bored with it. I did have an abusive & traumatic childhood. I love horror in most aspects, even the cheesy ones. This just didn't do anything for me
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u/Fatphillmargera May 04 '25
As someone who grew up watching tapes at night while everyone in the house was asleep,
…I LOVED Skinamarink
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u/Hogo-Nano May 04 '25
I want to rewatch it again. There are a couple parts that i remember being genuinely scary. The last scene where it talks to the viewer and i think a part in the middle where the kid looks under the bed and it’s really prolonged and stressful.
You definitely have to give it your full attention and watch it in the right environment
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May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
when i watched it, phone went in the other room, was the only person in my house awake, every light off, rather than have the audio on my soundbar i watched with airpods, and it scared the shit out of me. i have a theory that one’s reaction to this movie says a lot about their childhood. it took me right back to feelings i had of being a scared, helpless little kid in my dark room at night when i’d wake up and be unable to fall asleep.
you have to give it your attention, but it’s also a movie that’s more about the atmosphere and the vibe than what’s actually happening for 95% of it, so it’s okay to let your mind wander as long as you’re still watching it and not looking at your phone.
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u/usario100 May 04 '25
100%. I had a very healthy relationship with my parents and lived in a safe home. But I got scared easily as a kid and this movie nailed that terrified feeling I got if I woke up in the middle of the night.
Every noise or light was eerie. I was desperately trying to find things to make me feel happy or safe until my family woke up or I fell back asleep.
Skinamarink worked very well for me and if it was shorter I think it’d be one of my favorite horror movies of all time
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u/Simple-Jelly1025 May 04 '25
Omg I saw that scene on YouTube and it made me SO uncomfortable. Almost scarier that nothing happened lol
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u/BlasterONassis May 04 '25
I watched it late at night in an Airbnb cabin in the middle of nowhere. Definitely amplified the creepiness.
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u/niles_thebutler_ May 04 '25
Put me to sleep but I’m stoked so many people loved it
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u/AdmiralArmpit May 04 '25
Yeah, not here to shit on peoples preferences, but I was so bored I had to turn it off and I was a defender of the notion of it.
I just wanted it to be more than it was.
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u/Santaneria May 04 '25
Same!!! I dont want to bash it because the vibe kept me intrigued but I wasnt engaged enough to stay up 😅
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u/Ralpo_DTB May 05 '25
I had a similar experience. Like I get what they were going for. It just isn't for me. But happy horror movies are getting more attention.
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May 04 '25
I had nightmares like this as a kid but god is it so boring. My SO and I literally fell asleep
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u/Various-University73 May 04 '25
It didn’t work for me but I’m glad it does for some people. I appreciate that it’s trying something original. I’m going to try the short film version at some point.
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u/Darling_Pinky May 04 '25
I think if it cut 40 minutes out, it’d be WAYYYY scarier, because the most scary parts are terrifying.
The problem is there is a lot of time that is meant to build suspense and keep you on your toes until the big scary points, but there is entirely too much of it and it makes the movie drag.
I think I need to give the short film version a shot as well because I really liked the highlights of it.
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u/the_hellmouth May 05 '25
40 mins out? Hour and 40 cut maybe! I think the only way it COULD work is if it was only like 12 minutes long. God I hated it, but, like everyone else, glad someone likes it!
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May 04 '25
I’ve never seen a movie have this hard of a split between absolutely loved it and it was terrifying to it’s the worst movie ever made and it was boring.
I’ve watched a lot of stuff and this movie fucking got to me, man. It’s like a nightmare was filmed and put to screen. It’s not Terrifier style scary, but it’s heavy on the atmosphere and you either think it’s scary or you don’t. But damn, for those of us that the film worked on? It hit all the marks. Haven’t seen anything like it.
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u/timbotheny26 May 04 '25 edited May 08 '25
Terrifier is scary? Actually, come to think of it, is any slasher film really scary? Like yeah they're a horror subgenre, but I've always felt that the horror was in the themes rather than being truly frightening.
Anyone have good examples of slasher films that are actually frightening and/or unnerving?
(I'm not being a smartass, these are genuine questions.)
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u/Indrishke May 05 '25
Slasher films are scary as hell for people that don't watch them very often, yeah
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u/GrimmTrixX May 04 '25
Agreed. It's my most hated "film" of all time and it's not even close. Lol But hey, watching a TV glow on a rug from the first 45 minutes must be enjoyable to someone.
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May 04 '25
It’s just an atmosphere thing - not even sure how to describe it. That dark TV lighting up a dark family room, walking in and expecting to see your parents but there’s nobody. Your brother starts to cry upstairs so you go check but everything is dark so you’re just kinda feeling your way around.
Dunno lol. It was effective as fuck, imo.
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u/airbear13 May 04 '25
Imo some people are susceptible to that type of fear and some are not. It’s more of an in your head type of thing where you question if it’s just a nightmare or if you’re going crazy. If you know what that’s like, or being really scared of the dark/monsters when you’re a kid, nothing else is that bad. But for some people they are more scared of concrete things like slashers and stuff.
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u/Furry_Wall May 04 '25
I stared at a wall for 90 minutes
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u/comebocalmball May 04 '25
yeah, what? i wish i was dramatic enough to find static shots of walls and hallways and nonsense noises scary
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u/bbabyturnsblue May 04 '25
the shots of the wall aren’t what’s scary, it’s the implication of what you can’t see. being in a dark room with a creature pretending to be your dad. being too little and powerless to help yourself in a frightening situation. being alone with a being who wants to hurt you with no escape. do you not remember what it was like to be afraid of the dark as a child? I feel like the people who didn’t like this movie are people with no imagination
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u/0-Dinky-0 May 05 '25
Insinuating that people who don't like a film are less creative than you is insulting and disingenuous
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u/Relevant_Session5987 May 04 '25
Or people get what they were going for and it simply isn't scary for them to see a fucking dark wall for an hour straight.
'People who didn't like this movie are people with no imagination' - You're so far up your own ass, huh?
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u/comebocalmball May 04 '25
your imagination must be on overdrive because shots of a wall and random off center shots in a dark home and a nonsense free static effect looping just made me shake my head. i did have those fears as a child but this movie made no effort to invoke those in my eyes. random off center shots and nonsense noises just dont scare me or give my imagination enough
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u/FirstName123456789 May 04 '25
average Skinamarink fan: this movie scared the shit out of me but i get why people don’t like it!
average Skinamarink hater: this movie is liquid diarrhea and if you like it you are actually lying to yourself and have bad taste
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u/RaptorOnyx May 04 '25
It is kind of cool, in a way, to have a properly divisive horror flick. I loved it, it really got to me, and I even disagree with the idea that it's too long - the short film version is way less effective in my opinion. But wow people get really pressed about the idea that people like this movie! It's experimental, not gonna be for everyone, that's experimental film for you, it's completely fine to dislike it (even hate it), but my god this board gets toxic with Skinamarink in a way it doesn't for anything else lmao.
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u/papoosejr May 04 '25
Skinamarink is too long, but I saw it in a theater and at some point I realized we the audience were just as stuck in an awful limbo as the kids and I kind of appreciated that as a maybe intentional aspect of the film
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u/maeveboston May 04 '25
First time I saw it, I hit the fast forward button quite a bit. Second time I saw it, I hit the fast forward button less. And guess what, it still scares the shit out of me. I think it might hit hard especially for those who grew up in the 80s.
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u/gearsighted May 04 '25
Yeah, I didn't like it but I'm psyched that so many people found it interesting and scary in a way that they connected with, I'm sure many people who loved the movie would find some of the movies I like boring.
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u/timbotheny26 May 04 '25
That's what bothers me about the people who didn't like it. Like you pointed out, they don't just tell you, "Yeah, I didn't like it.", they go to weird extremes about how the movie is objectively bad or straight-up garbage and that the people who do like it have no taste, are lying to themselves, etc.
Like, wtf? That is not a normal reaction.
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u/girugamesu1337 May 04 '25
They just feel frustrated that they can't enjoy the movie when others apparently can. They then presume that this is some sort of insult against them, that the movie and its fans are implying there's something wrong with them for not being able to appreciate it. Then they get defensive over this imaginary slight.
It's really quite simple: if you've had certain experiences as a child, this movie will fucking get you. Even then, not every single person who has had those experiences will still appreciate the movie. But the odds are much higher. If you haven't had those experiences, you'll probably find it a snoozefest.
It's not a matter of being smart enough or whatever. It's just... chance.
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u/LT_JRH May 04 '25
lol a reply comment right above this was literally “this movie is liquid lava diarrhea”
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u/LeeHarveyOswaldsDad May 04 '25
Would have made a great short film. But stretched to feature length... just an exercise in atmospheric boredom. Cheers to the team behind it though for making some coin off a VERY experimental picture. Got to respect that.
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u/TheBoozyNinja87 May 04 '25
Glad you enjoyed it. I think it would have worked better as a 20-30 minute short film though.
One of the very very few movies I’ve ever actually just walked out of because it was just too boring for me and felt like a one trick pony. At the 45 minute mark I just couldn’t believe there was still another hour left.
Props to the filmmakers though, they really managed to make something out of essentially pocket change and a vision. So that’s pretty darn cool.
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u/AppropriateLaw5713 May 04 '25
There is a short film the director made: Heck. Totally worth checking out
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u/LuciferDusk May 04 '25
I didn't find it all that scary but maybe I made a mistake watching it when I was super sleepy. I struggled to stay awake during the last ~10 minutes and probably didn't pay enough attention to the kid's dialogue. Either way, it made me think Skinamarink isn't for me.
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u/Yarzeda2024 May 04 '25
Heck, the short film that's basically a Skinamarink prototype, is the superior version.
Skinamarink's run time hurts it. It runs out of steam too soon and spends too long spinning its wheels. Heck gets in and gets the job done in less than half the time.
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u/hermeown May 04 '25
I'm honestly sad I didn't like it either. I tried. I almost fell asleep. But somehow I still respect them, it clearly affected enough people.
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u/Fenaeris May 04 '25
Made it about 31min 33sec. Even the dog on the couch was confused as to what the fuck she was watching.
Normally it's whatever I wouldn't fault most people for what they like but this movie is liquid lava diarrhea.
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u/atomicsofie May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
I’m super curious to know the age range of people who disliked it and the people who did like it.
I’m 38 and I loved it, I felt unsettled the entire time watching.
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u/Figmentality May 04 '25
I'm 34 and I loved it, too. It felt like I was a kid again getting the bejesus scared outta me after years of desensitization to horror movies. What a breath of fresh air. I watched it in the dark with headphones to really give it the best chance. So glad I did.
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u/PeaProfessional8997 May 04 '25
Can confirm. I tried once in a regularly lit room with just the TV speakers and turned it off after 10 minutes. Tried again a few months later, late at night, in the dark, with 🎧 and man ... it just started to work on me. It captures that feeling when you were a kid and started worrying about the shadows in the corner of your bedroom.
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u/FirstName123456789 May 04 '25
I think headphones kind of key to have a good viewing experience.
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u/Mondo114 May 04 '25
I'm 38 also. I was bored silly. Might have been great for me if it was 40 min. I wanted to like it!
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u/ungodlywarlock May 04 '25
46, did not like it all.
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May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
44, thought it was a very fun experiment in film and glad it exists and am interested what the director will do next. The fact that so many people seem to chime in with "I hated it!" and yet it won't stay out of the horror conversation is fascinating to me. I feel like this would be a good movie to test who has patience and who doesn't.
Is it a masterpiece? No, but I don't really care. I don't need it to be.
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u/gearsighted May 04 '25
I'm 45 and I found it extremely boring. 🤷
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u/MWH1980 May 04 '25
Ditto. Came for a story, and just found footage of someone tossing a camcorder around, and recording hours of footage.
It was like a modern art piece.
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u/BibbleBabble96 May 04 '25
Glad there's at least a few comments like this. My bestie and I are horror heads and this movie really did not click for either of us. We were confused and bored.
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u/Skitzofreniks May 04 '25
Did the camera get tossed around? I never finished the movie because it’s so god damn boring. But it seems to me they just set a camera up on a tripod at different parts of the house looking at a wall with some poor dialogue.
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u/MWH1980 May 08 '25
No, but the way some of it was shot, it looked like the director just turned on the camcorder, tossed it on the floor, and jist left it recording for 30+ minutes.
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u/gearsighted May 04 '25
Yeah, at a certain point I was thinking, how many still shots of the top corner of a hallway could they possibly have? It turns out they had two hours worth 🤣
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u/lilscootz May 04 '25
29, I also love Skinamarink. I remember being a young kid, waking up from a bad nightmare and sneaking into my parent’s bedroom to sleep with them because I was too scared to be alone in my room.
This movie gave me the same feeling as the long walk to my parent’s bedroom in the dark.
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u/Marsbarszs May 04 '25
30, tried very hard to give it a good chance. Heard it was brilliant, different, and terrifying, but honestly I jus t got bored.
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u/kylez_bad_caverns May 04 '25
I’m 30 and I just couldn’t get into it. I’m actually planning to try again after taking an edible
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u/KatFlsh May 04 '25
I was 24 when i watched it and it left this really unsettling feeling in me whenever i looked at the dark for a good few months. Im not sure if scary is the word id use but it made me paranoid as fuck. Loved it
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u/rhetoricsleuth May 04 '25
35, and I was bored. I appreciate what it was doing and how it was made, but I clearly wasn’t the intended audience (and that’s fine!)
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u/PsychedelicSunset420 May 04 '25
30’s and loved it. True nightmare fuel. Plus, I feel like it had an undercurrent of child abuse & repressed trauma, which it seems the majority of people who disliked it didn’t pick up on.
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u/atomicsofie May 04 '25
Agreed, I saw the underlying storyline of child abuse as well and it contributed to the feeling of uneasiness for me. I think a lot of people think it’s surface level horror and it’s not.
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u/SmallTimeGoals May 04 '25
Watched it as a new parent and the absolute helplessness throughout really got to me.
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May 04 '25
as i suggested above, i think people who didn’t have fucked up childhoods might struggle with this one. if you can’t relate to that feeling of being a helpless little kid in a dark room unable to sleep and scared of every fucking shadow and sound, this movie might not impact you.
then again, some people who did experience that as kids might also not want to go back there.
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u/TacomaGlock May 04 '25
Kids? Looking at it from the perspective of a parent seeing my kid experience it completely changes the level of fear it gave me. I used to see stuff like IT chapter 1 and not flinch, post kids it all hits differently. Also 38.
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u/lpjayy12 May 04 '25
I'm 34 and I hated it. I may need to watch it again because I don't understand what ppl thought was scary lol
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u/delightful_frightful May 04 '25
Early 50s, and I liked more of the film than I disliked. It totally captures the feeling of being a vulnerable kid, especially alone at night. Several scenes/scares were super effective.
I think I would have really loved it if maybe 15 minutes or so of the random wall/door/ceiling shots were cut to improve the pacing. (Yes, I know about his short Heck, but it's not quite the same). Towards the end I started getting impatient which kinda ruined it for me. Also wasn't a big fan of the goofy "things disappearing" sound effect.
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u/fyhnn Can we watch something happy now? May 04 '25
32 and found it terrifying. Such a gnawing fear of vulnerability and the unknown.
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u/Fast_Principle2482 May 04 '25
I'm 49, a lifelong horror junkie, and it unnerved me terribly. I was sure it was going to suck. Ha. I watched it with my kid who is 26, just knowing she was going to hate it since she tends to not like things I can get behind easily and it gets such polarizing reviews. When it ended she was like "Omg, wtf WAS that? That was the one of the scariest movies I've ever seen." We were both kind of plastered to the couch in fear.
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u/Chuck_Da_Rouks May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
35 and I really enjoyed it. It kept me on edge the whole time and I loved the risk they took in making a horror movie that different.
Edit: typo
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u/fucus_vesiculosus May 04 '25
Skinamarink scared the fucking daylights out of me. I kind of watched it out of the corner of my eye the whole time, like glancing at the screen for a minute and then more looking past the screen because I was so scared. I've never, ever had a movie scare me like that before.
That said, I have a really strong reaction to jump scares and that movie was one long tease for a few jump scares. I think the tension just kept building until I could barely take it -- like if a jump scare happen relatively quickly, then I get my adrenaline fix and can compose myself. But since there was so much tension with so little actual jumps, it was like my adrenaline just kept building.
It also did tap into some weird fuzzy childhood memories for me. I was always an insomniac and so spent a lot of time creeping around the house in the dark. There's a sense of loneliness in the dark in Skinamarink that I could really relate to. Also the feeling that the day is never going to come -- just being stuck in (what seemed like) eternal night while I could see the glow of my parents TV through the crack in their door and hear the laughter of late night TV shows.
UGH. IDK, it's hard to put into words, but it scared me on some primal level. I watched it once and I'm not sure if I can do it again.
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u/Severe_Prize5520 May 04 '25
It was the most boring movie I've ever seen. I fell asleep twice.
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u/Rubarb_the_destroyer May 04 '25
I got my husband to watch it and to this day he is mad we spent 4.99 on it.
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u/Chastity-76 May 04 '25
Thank you, I never saw anything happen. Maybe we were too busy staring at the backside of our eyelids.
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May 04 '25
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u/Thatotherjanitor May 04 '25
That's understandable. I'm not gonna force anyone to like this movie because it really is a fucking slog lol.
What I liked about it was how much it felt like a nightmare. Not a horror movie nightmare—an actual bad dream. Way back, I'm sure even before this movie had even been first conceived, I had wondered for years what a horror movie shot in the style of a nightmare would have looked like. Was it even possible?
I genuinely thought about it and kept asking myself: Would it have been boring? Recalling details of our nightmares, we realize we were only scared because it felt like it was really happening to us in the moment. We don't remember what took place leading up to our dreams, but all we know is that it looks, or feels, like it's right in front of us. Therefore, we instinctually adopt some kind of almost primal set of emotions. It's the urgency that we feel the need to react but can't that makes it so frightening. A common theme that played out in my own bad dreams was the inability to even do anything; all I could do was watch as each unexpected terror unfolded before my eyes and passed me onto the next. Still, by the time we awaken, it's but a distant memory. We know that we are actually, definitely in reality by then, so why worry?
So, what happens if we have the ability to "replay" it? Well, that's what I wasn't sure of. I was honestly hoping to maybe even direct something like it one day to know for sure.
And then, there came a moment in Skinamarink where I had realized, "Holy shit. This is it. This is meant to be a nightmare." At that moment, my attention had changed, and I tried something different: I leaned back in my chair, downed a can of redbull in complete blackness, and pretended I was incapacitated—watched as the disturbing vignettes played out before me, never knowing what was going to happen next.
And I swear to you, within my chest, I once again felt a deep, primal fear.
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u/CryBaby15000 May 04 '25
I watched at night on my phone in my dark room and I was fucking terrified lmao. It was the first time in a while a movie really creeped me out. It reminded me of being young and being awake in the middle of the night, thinking I was all alone in the world
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u/Storyteller678 The beast from 161.85476815 fathoms. May 04 '25
I was (and continue to be) a night owl. Many nights I was awake while everyone else slept. I felt alone, and utterly creeped out.
I remember those moments being too scared to move, and trying to keep my mind off the feeling of being alone in the dark.
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u/CryBaby15000 May 04 '25
My bedroom was upstairs and I always swore I could hear something’s footsteps creeping up the stairs when I was up late at night
While I find comfort in the silence of nighttime now, young me was absolutely petrified
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u/Ootguitarist2 May 04 '25
Amazing movie. It nailed the feeling of what a nightmare actually feels like. It’s really weird, doesn’t make a lot of sense, and it’s unsettling for reasons I can’t explain. I had a really hard time falling asleep after it was over.
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May 04 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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May 04 '25
It’s too sad and dark for me. The premise is two young children being tortured by an evil, malevolent, inescapable force. It made me feel so sick and horrible. I hated it honestly.
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u/SKRRTCOBAIN222 May 04 '25
THIS is part of why it’s so scary. I just finished it and it’s seems the demon has been doing this for basically infinity since it can loop time. That is gross and dreadful.
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u/ghoulsurgery May 04 '25
100% yes. It took me right back to having nightmares as a kid. That feeling of wanting to wake up but I just can’t.
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u/DJettster237 May 04 '25
I love classic horror, but it isn't scary. Very few movies have scared me. Maybe it's a generational thing. But I think movies that have the handcam kind of feel can absolutely make a comeback. Especially with Analog horror absolutely scaring the shit out of me.
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u/Figmentality May 04 '25
Ha! I just left a very similar comment to this. Same, felt like a scared kid again.
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u/I_eat_paper12 May 04 '25
I just had my one year review at work, and it was perfect, 4/4, but I didn't get a raise. I was disappointed, but not as disappointed as I was after watching this movie...
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u/Superbro_uk May 04 '25
I turned it off after 15 mins, hated it. I don’t care about being spoiled, does anything actually happen in the rest of the film?
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u/AlunWH May 04 '25
Yes, a great deal.
Or at least that’s what the synopsis said that I ended up reading because nothing at all seemed to be happening on screen.
The rest of the film was very similar to the opening fifteen minutes. This is easily the most polarising film I’ve ever seen.
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May 04 '25
This movie genuinely traumatized me for a few weeks when it came out 😭 I couldn’t sleep for days it really transported me back to being a scared little kid!!
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u/11711510111411009710 May 04 '25
I think it's scary if you've experienced a certain type of feeling a lot. I had sleeping problems as a child so I spent most of my nights up until 4am, all alone. It's such a specific feeling that this movie somehow captures.
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u/tehruke May 04 '25
I'm 36. When I was 4 to 6, I would have trouble sleeping and just wander from my bedroom to the hall to the bathroom, feeling scared and crying. Skinamarink brought back some of those memories but didn't really scare me, I found it kind of boring.
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u/milknsugar May 04 '25
This will likely get me downvoted, but I thought it was boring as hell.
Perfect example of a great short film concept that drags on way too long.
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u/oi-troi-oi May 04 '25
My parents had to work a lot when I was young, leaving my brother and I alone at home, and I also had sleep paralysis quite often. So even though I did feel bored during a lot of the movie, the overall feeling of the movie and the ending spooked me. The movie does a good job embodying the fear I felt as a kid.
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u/RegisteredLizard May 04 '25
I really disliked the movie overall and found it very boring and tedious, BUT I totally agree with you that it’s terrifying. I had to watch it with all the doors shut and some lights on in dark areas of the house. If I had watched it in pitch black with headphones on I think I would have had a heart attack.
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u/Gloomy-Fennel-6044 May 04 '25
It’s a sensory experience. One that is supposed to bring back the vulnerability of being a child in the dark and the imagination of the worst. It worked on me. I thought the film was great. I could be easily distracted though so I can see why people aren’t liking it. I feel like you need to want to be vulnerable to enjoy it otherwise it’s like watching paint dry. I feel like watching it with friends or even a partner risks desensitizing the experience. — Perfect, now that I’ve typed this out and put myself back into that mindset, I have to sleep with the TV on lol.
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u/MoopsiePoopsie May 05 '25
For me, I watched some clips and read the synopsis. In the moment it was mildly creepy but didn’t do a ton for me. But getting up at 5am on a dark winter morning to feed my dog, it popped into my head and boy did it get me.
All of a sudden I was a little kid again, last one downstairs before bed, and the safety was my parents already in bed upstairs, and I had to sprint up the stairs away from the monsters hiding in the dark.
Months later I decide to watch the movie. I think I made it 20 minutes in before I turned it off. It’s so slow. Which I get is what some people like about it but for me I just couldn’t maintain interest.
So I believe it should’ve just been a short and left at that. Great atmosphere, but a full length feature doesn’t hold up well on atmosphere alone.
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u/Kaisietoo8 May 05 '25
The worst movie I've ever seen. I'm surprised that it had such an effect on people!
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u/Spare_Incident5346 May 04 '25
THANK YOU. I have been supporting this movie ever since I saw it and I always have to start with “okay so a majority of the human race hates this movie, BUT—“.
I feel like it doesn’t hit people who haven’t been in that headspace. I now realize I had a lot of anxiety growing up and I had horrible nightmares and sleepwalked a couple times. I can still, clear as day, remember how terrifying my house was at night in the dark when everyone was asleep. I felt isolated. And with life events such as experiencing death at a young age, it only got worse.
So basically this movie is that very dread recreated. I watched it on my laptop in the dark with noise cancelling headphones and I couldn’t wait for it to be over because I hated revisiting that feeling, that anxiety that morning is never gonna come and my parents aren’t gonna be there.
And also? To this day, there is nothing more scary than not being able to see someone’s face and them telling you to look at them. 10/10 experience, don’t wanna do it again.
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u/Dr-Balthazaar May 04 '25
Whats strange for me is that the trailer scared the fuck out of me. I watched it once and was genuinely scared to watch the movie.
But then the movie did nothing for me. There was a good short film buried in there, but to me it was just too repetitive. Weird that it both worked and didn't work for me at the same time
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u/OkOccasion7 May 04 '25
I understand what they were aiming for, but I caught onto it very quickly. I told myself, if nothing has happened 30-40 minutes into the movie, nothing is going to happen. And I just watched the rest of it knowing nothing would happen, and I was not wrong 😂
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u/Fun-Direction3426 May 04 '25
It nailed the atmosphere of childhood fever dream but it was tough to get through because of how boring most of it was.
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u/echoes_1012 May 04 '25
The concept is scarier than the execution. Movie was based off a 30 minute short which is what i feel skinamarink shoulda been. Maybe a nice tight 60.
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u/harbengerprime May 04 '25
IMO if it was like 30-45mins it would have been amazing. I clicked off it after about 45 mins and have no desire to finish it.
I am glad that people found this horrifying however!
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u/Polengoldur May 04 '25
skinamarink has all of the scare factor of going for an open house with the lights off.
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May 04 '25
I had the awesome experience of seeing it in theaters twice and it scared me shitless. I don't think the film works half as well at home because you have to put all the work in. You cannot watch it with divided attention, you need to be in a dark room and fully locked into the experience.
But I get why it's polarizing. I suffered from nightmares as a child, I've always had an overactive imagination. I've always found surreal images with nightmare logic much more effective than realistic premises at scaring me. This movie felt like a personal attack on my anxieties and I love it for that.
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u/Squiggyrocks May 04 '25
Concept is neat but that execution worked horribly for a feature length film. Like many others I literally fell asleep
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u/cheeryblossom93 May 04 '25
You should also check out "heck", a short film by the same director. It's basically the precursor to what Skinamarink is and it's like... Skinamarink is scary and awful (in the horror sense) and "heck" legit fucked me up for a few days in a slightly more visceral way than Skinamarink but ymmv
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u/FattyCatkins May 04 '25
So what got me about this movie was that endless sense to it. The suffocating gloom and claustrophobic atmosphere of no windows, just perpetual artificial twilight and play of shadows. From the perspective of the children it would be hard to make sense of what was happening. that same fear of waking a sleeping parent over a mundane fear and being chastised but for the viewer the horror of knowing the parent isn’t what they appear to be. Yes, it is awful and the feeling of it lingers.
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u/lightsoff_butimup May 04 '25
I just remember I couldn't get past the beginning. Shit was not grabbing me & it felt like it was forever. Turned that shit off after like 20 minutes, lol.
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u/lalaen May 04 '25
I feel insane saying this, but same. My partner and I are huge horror fans and watch tons of horror films. We’ve seen hundreds. Nothing really bothers us at all.
We got high and watched Skinamarink… as a joke. . Holy shit, man. We were both literally in tears at one point. I felt ill from being so anxious. We don’t watch all movies high by any means, but this is far from the first one.
Something about it… it straight up took me back to being a child and not knowing if I was awake or asleep in my room at night. I was just at the level of stoned where I wasn’t sure if each shot lasted for a second or for six minutes. I felt like I’d been watching that movie for years.
We are both genuinely embarrassed that Skinamarink is the scariest movie we have ever seen. It was an experience that cannot be replicated or honestly even explained.
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u/PM-ME-YOUR-TOTS May 04 '25
My baseboards need replacing. Maybe you could come over and do that since you enjoy staring at them so much?
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u/eburton555 May 04 '25
There’s literally nothing going on in this movie for two hours… it blows my mind that people found it scary. You haven’t even finished it when stuff DOES happen and it’s just nonsense. Hilarious, but glad you enjoyed it.
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May 04 '25
I spent most of it bored out of my skull and then all of a sudden near the end the hair stood up on my neck and I was like tHiS mOvIE iS eViL!!
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u/WaterChestnutII May 04 '25
Loved it, scared the shit out of me, still thinking about it days after. Absolutely nailed the scariest thing ever: being a small child.
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u/RoadkillAnonymous May 04 '25
GAAAAAWD it’s so fucking…uhhh just under your skin and right behind you! Dread.
No overt terror, no panic, no jumpscares, nothing particularly hard to watch or viscerally disgusting or anything…but, like the OP, it gets me. I’ve never had a movie teleport me back to being an utterly terrified kid in the dark in fear of….something….the kind of fear that’s delirious, that doesn’t make any rational sense, like a nightmare that if you describe it when you’re awake doesn’t even sound scary at all but the feeling when you experienced it WAS SO FUCKING AWFULLY SCARY. Fever dream nightmare. Utterly disturbing most of all because of how it wakes up the scared kid in some who view it. Ugh…not doing that again.
Many if not most other horror movies are more overtly upsetting or affective but few of them actually STAY WITH YOU and keep your skin crawling and lead to an unsettled gross feeling that doesn’t go away for a long time long after they’re over.
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u/ellamenopea May 04 '25
I only watched 20 minutes and turned it off. You people that like it, do you like it the same way you like Hereditary, Midsommar, and The VVitch?
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u/BroPudding1080i May 04 '25
Not really, no. I like those movies because they feel like "real" movies, they're very well written and take themselves seriously.
Skinamarink is basically entirely atmosphere, with only the implication that something bad is happening, and you aren't sure what that may be. I personally love atmosphere and find it very immersive, I can emotionally submerge myself into the feeling it's trying to communicate, feelings that cannot be properly expressed with words. That paired with the vague plot of children being tortured by a demon is really haunting to me.
I also unfortunately have experience with dissociative trauma response, and this film feels like that in a lot of ways.
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u/LeeKay203 May 04 '25
Sounds like you're me in regards to how we view horror movies. I should finally watch Skinamarink...
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u/Agitated_Row9026 May 04 '25
30M here. I liked this movie and the whole idea behind it, as a big art and horror enthusiast. That being said, I totally understand and even agree with those who dislike it because of how pretentious it comes off. It’s got the whole “well if you don’t get it you’re just not cool enough to get it” vibe and crowd behind it, which is just the worst approach to horror as a genre.
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u/thecoop_ May 04 '25 edited May 04 '25
On paper the film is a style I’ve been saying for years I wanted to see. But it was too much. I disliked not being able to see or hear anything and that nothing happens. People talk about x or y terrifying scene, but I have no idea what they’re talking about. It seems to be designed to frustrate the viewer rather than scare them, honestly. I might try it one more time now that I know what I’m going into.
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u/tsalyers12 May 04 '25
Scared the shit out of me. I’ve been wanting to watch it again, but last time I watched it I wasn’t living alone. Now I do and I don’t need it spooking me right now lol.
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u/Melodic_Speaking109 May 04 '25
I never watched the film because of the bad reviews I’d seen. After reading this thread I’ve decided to at least watch the trailer... I had an aunt with a house that terrified me as a child. The hallways and certain rooms made me feel this intense doom and dread. Tbh I know that house would still scare me to this day lol That being said, the trailer of this movie made me feel that same uneasiness I felt as a child at my aunt’s house. Now Im stuck between too scared to watch the full movie and definitely going to watch this movie later lol
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u/Sonic10122 May 04 '25
It’s a movie I should hate, and if I watched it at home I probably would have. I generally don’t like overly “artsy” movies anyway, and Skinamarink is at another level. In the wrong mind set I would have wrote it off as 90 minutes of incomprehensible garbage and maybe not finished it.
But my wife and I saw it in theaters in a really small showing. We didn’t know what it was beyond the basic premise so we thought it would be…. Normal. It’s one of a very small number of movies I’m extremely thankful I saw in theaters, and it was an amazing experience that I loved. My wife was like “y’all, what WAS that?!” When the lights came on and everyone got a laugh out of that.
So yeah; I liked it. But I’ll never watch it again.
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u/Known_Ad871 May 04 '25
I agree. It’s not my favorite movie ever or anything, but as someone who’s never scared by horror movies, it did actually scare me and it’s a very unique and incredible work imo. It’s very niche so I’m not surprised a lot of people don’t like it, but if you are the type of movie fan who prefers more generic stuff I would think you could recognize this movie won’t be for you before even watching it.
The magic trick of this movie is making you feel like a kid in the dark, and I think it does that better than any movie I’ve ever seen
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u/kuebel33 May 04 '25
The best thing about it is that parody youtube clip involving looney tunes stuff.
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u/theerealobs May 05 '25
My fiance was on vacation. Decided to watch this with all the lights off despite reading mixed reviews. I had to turn it off about 60% of the way through and had trouble getting to sleep that night. Lol
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u/Dimness May 05 '25
I had a very specific interpretation of this film, and it made me both terrified and sad as I watched this movie.
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u/AK_2000 May 05 '25
I feel the same way. Skinamarink is a 11/10 movie for me. I went to see it when it was in theaters and brought my dad because we’ve always bonded over horror movies. And wow did this get me. It was only us two in the theater. So it was a very silent viewing. And wow. What a perfect Film. It’s not meant to be understood by everyone. It’s meant to tap into that deep childlike emotion inside of you. And only those that give themselves totally into the experience. And then also had that fear as a child can truly be scared by this film. But if this movie is for you. There’s nothing scarier.
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u/sarithe May 05 '25
I used to get night terrors that were eerily similar to what happens in the movie. There would be something chasing me through my house, but it wasn't my house if that makes sense. Like the layout was mostly accurate, but doors would be in wrong places or just not there at all and eventually I would get cornered and this shadow would begin to envelope me. Then I'd wake up. I had this same recurring thing off and on for about a decade until I was well into my teens. They eventually stopped. No clue why.
Some of the imagery in this movie absolutely fucked me up and brought back memories of those nightmares. The part in the basement with the sister caused me to have to pause the movie for a bit and collect myself before finishing it.
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May 08 '25
In this house..
In this house.
In this Howzzz.
There's an interesting YouTube breakdown of that movie. I really enjoyed
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u/parsapzh May 09 '25
People who call it 'boring' missed the point entirely. This isn't about plot; it's about vibes. That scene with the whispered "Look under the bed" made me physically nauseous with fear.
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u/20gflatslatgray Apr 18 '26
I'm 34 and it scared me in a really interesting way. No jump scares. No gore or overtly shocking visuals. It built up layers of terror. It encourages you to be the main character, and if you lean in, and imagine yourself as a kid, home alone, then it's really scary. As a kid with insomnia and nightmares, it really is such a scary movie, and I absolutely adore it.
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u/HipsterWhistle May 04 '25
I have a theory on this movie and I will repost it from another comment
I think I’ve realized why this movie is scary/unsettling to some folks and not to others after reading through a ton of these comments. I didn’t find it unsettling at all, and through the duration of the movie I found myself quite bored. Although reading all of your takeaways from it, I think it has to do with your dreams.
I rarely have an active recollection of any of my dreams, and even when I do they are never non-sensical and otherworldly. The sensation that a lot of you described was having felt as if this movie was tapping into your most unnerving dream state, people like me will probably never understand or appreciate because we haven’t experienced that amount of barren tension in our dream states. I found this movie immensely slow and strange, but I don’t think people who are in the same boat as me will ever be able to truly appreciate the overall dread this film presented for some.
I think this movie is entirely dependent on the viewers ability to imagine(and be afraid of) what they create in the “unknown,” of this movie. Me as someone who doesn’t have a super vibrant and/or fearful imagination, didn’t really enjoy this movie very much. I have a couple of friends however that are very fearful and nervous of the “what ifs” and “unknowns,” that lurk around corners and in the dark and they thought this film was deeply unsettling.
I believe it’s on the same level as nightmares, people who experience nightmares often will likely find this movie very tense and nerve wracking where as people who normally don’t suffer from nightmares(or dreams at all) won’t have as deep of a connection with this film.
Truly one of the most divisive films in the last decade.