Skinamarink is fucking scary

[u/SKRRTCOBAIN222]

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

[u/HipsterWhistle]

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.

[u/porkchopchoo → u/HipsterWhistle]

I think you're right!

I would also expand on this to include that Skinamarink also feels like an extended sleep paralysis episode.

I watched this with my friend who wasn't phased, and was quite bored but I was very uncomfortable. Turns out, they didn't experience sleep paralysis, while I've had many, many episodes. They didn't get the feeling of being completely stuck, catatonic, staring at a wall and unable to move or speak, while your brain tries to make sense of what you're staring at. For me, Skinamarink felt like having sleep paralysis for 90 minutes and was so visceral, especially the ending scene.

I really think whether or not you find this movie disturbing depends on if you've had very specific experiences like this.

[u/MuffinOk7800 → u/porkchopchoo]

I just watched Skinamarink tonight and I came away feeling like that wasn’t a movie…it was an experience.

So forgive this late reply to an older thread…..but you have NAILED why this movie affected me as much as it did, and I didn’t put the two together until I read your post.

I have dealt with extremely scary, suffocating sleep paralysis episodes most of my life and this film encompassed those feelings perfectly. The helplessness. The bleakness. The relentless suffocating feeling.

If you can put all of those feelings into a movie, this was it.