#kaylee skinamarink

[haven-anyone-would-yearn-for]

Skinamarink spoilers under the cut

just had a horrifying thought. so, in Skinamarink, sometimes there's cuts to a black screen, especially in the second half (i think). what if some of those are from Kaylee's perspective?? we know from the 'look under the bed' scene that some scenes are from the perspective of one of the kids (and them blinking makes the screen 'blink'), and at that point, her eyes are gone. so a black screen could be just. what she sees.

[cornerofhell]

So I've been an a real 'Skinamarink' obsession recently (thanks to that drawing ) and I noticed something people never seem to talk about.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

So as Kaylee and Kevin are watching TV throughout the movie, they watch multiple cartoons.

We all know the infamous bunny one, and the spider one. But one that's never really talked about is this one:

Everyone always sees this and assumes it's about the children dying, but if anything, it's not!

This is from a 1937 cartoon called 'Somewhere in Dreamland' about a severely poor little boy and girl and their mother going through the great depression and how they dream of a better life.

This picture, is the little boy and girl falling asleep and going to "Dreamland" and dream of a much happier time.

Throughout the film we either hear the entity command the both of them (mainly Kevin) to go to sleep after abuse, or they comfort each other to go to bed, sharing an adorably sad "I love you". Using sleep because they have nothing else to do.

I think it's interesting because many many people assume that the dad or mother in Skinamirink is abusive, and I thought this would sort of help with the theory of "it's all in Kevin and Kaylee's heads after years of abuse"

Then again, it could not be. Just a little fact about that clip for ya!

[yep-ishouldbesleeping]

Watching Skinamarink thinking "oh these kids are dead, they 100% dead, these children have died and passed away-" while mistaking every grainy shadow for the fucking devil or something like:

[realwormss]

"so i took away her mouth"

slight eyestrain warning beneath the cut

[mino2aur]

HE WAS FOUR. HE WAS FOUUUUUUUR HE STABBED HIMSELF IN THE EYE HE WAS A BABY. I WOULD HAVE BEAT SKINAMARINK TO DEATH WITH HAMMERS I TELL YOU WHAT

[horrortvfilmsource]

Kaylee didn't do what she was told. She said she wanted her mom and dad. So I took her mouth away.

SKINAMARINK (2022) Dir. Kyle Edward Ball

[chinzhilla-main]

𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔶-𝔒𝔫𝔢 𝔇𝔞𝔶𝔰 𝔬𝔣 ℌ𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔯 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟹

Kaylee? Can we watch something happy?

Skinamarink (2022) dir. Kyle Edward Ball

[devilishdescent]

Just go to www.skinamarink2.com today to redeem your code for points and prizes! Play fun games and battle your friends to increase your SkinamaRank! And don’t forget to see Skinamarink II: Kaylee’s Revenge this Mother’s Day!

[whalleyrulz]

halloween movie thread for 2023

1) SKINAMARINK

so this is

whew

WHEW

skinamarink was one hell of a movie to kick off the month. it's a super arthouse horror, meaning it's totally not for everyone, but goddamn

it's about two little kids, kaylee and kevin, who wake up one day to find their dad isn't around. and neither are the windows to the house. and neither are the doors. you don't see their faces, or much movement - the movie is basically a constant series of stationary camera vignettes. it sounds very wanky, right?

so we both hit a point in the movie where we said "hey this movie isn't so bad, i wish we had put it on later in the day when it got dark"

this point, for those who have seen the movie, is right before kaylee goes upstairs to her dad's room

this point, for those who haven't seen it, is where the movie gets TERRIFYING

holy shit. it's, at its core, a very simple movie, about a very simple thing. but in execution, in artistry, in sheer terror this fucking stands out as something goddamn special and INCREDIBLY upsetting, and i cannot believe that this is the bar we decided to set to kick off horror month

skinamarink is an amazing movie and if y'all even slightly like arthouse wank PLEASE watch this

[mattievictoria]

Some fanart I did for Kyle Edward Ball’s film, Skinamarink. I may be biased towards this movie because like Kaylee, I was also six years old in 1995, though I had both a younger and older sibling. This may be a bit too wholesome for Skinamarink, however 🥺

[cornerofhell]

Talk to me about skinamarink what theories do you have abiut it what do you think of the monster !!!!!!

I guess you could call me an optimist about it? Maybe naive, maybe hopeful. At least it's better than being tortured for eternity

But I believe the entity is indeed in the kids' heads due to their homelife beginning to deteriorate.

I believe that the entity's acts are representation of Kevin and Kaylee's pain of their parents divorcing and their father's neglect.

Kaylee is forced to go along with her parents ' wishes and when she doesn't, she's silenced.

And Kevin hardly sees his father at all, and one of the few times he sees him- is when he's hurt by the stairs, and I do believe the "knife in the eye" is another example of trying to get his father to notice him.

And as the years go by, they can't even recognize their happiness anymore (why the pictures have no heads).

Which also goes into my other theory- that the entity is a child and Kaylee and Kevin are dolls that they take their energy out on because their homelife is extremely horrible and need a break.

Either way, someone is fucked up

[fuckyeahnightmares]

Skinamarink Explained (JK I won’t do that)

I’ve been gone a while but that’s just because I’ve been Skinamrink’d.

Anyway...

What is this movie?

It was a viral sensation for a little bit before it hit Shudder and limited theatres (I saw it in theatres last night). Some people will say “know nothing about it, just watch it” so stop reading if you wanna do that.

It’s about two kids in a house looking for their parents and stuff around their house, such as windows and doors, start disappearing. It’s graiy as hell.

How scary is it?

I was scared. The whole time? No, I zoned off quite a bit, coming up with great ideas for personal projects, because man this movie goes on. Let it be known I did not take out my phone. But there were a few times that got me good, and I was scared later that night, and the story is scary to think about in hindsight. 8.5/10

Jump scares or nah?

A few, good ones. Cleared my sinuses.

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being Halloween Kills), how dumb were the characters?

They are kids! It’s also a weirdly told story so it’s hard to gather just how smart these children are.

Does the story make logical sense if you think about it too long?

This movie’s a good argument for me to get rid of this little section all together. It operates on a nightmare logic.

Overall

Ooh, this one is polarizing and I see why. My tattoo artist liked it, but she also said she liked boring movies. Unless you have the attention span of like, someone in the middle ages who threw around rocks for fun, you’ll be bored, but that’s kind of okay. Some guy blurted out at the end, “I should get an award for sitting through that.” It doesn’t reveal much about the characters, the setting, but for this I’m not sure it matters. Could it have been shorter? At least by 20 minutes. Did I appreciate it? Yeah, it’s so different from every other thing I’ve seen, and my mind can entertain me well enough for the brief lulls. It creates a vibe through basically grainy still footage and sounds.

And It’s scary. It pulls you into its liminal space. Confounds you a bit. It kind of lulls you in and then there are a few moments that oof. It really does feel like a childhood nightmare, so big kudos to the team for doing that. Anyways, it’s an original, go see it. Or don’t, you might straight up hate it. 7/10

Read below for some spoiler-y thoughts

I did feel real bad for the kids. This movie kinda evil, from Kaylee losing her eyes and mouth and Kevin seemingly getting stabbed over and over again in a time loop. Damn.

“Look under the bed.” Chilled the shit out of me!

That fucking phone jump scare. Gold.

I would have bodied that monster who could “do anything,” eaten him for breakfast, really

[veeslittlespace]

Skinamarink: my observations (⚠️horror warning / discussion of sensitive topics/ spoilers ahead⚠️)

Skinamarink is one of my favorite movies. The analog horror vibe, the personal nostalgia of watching old cartoons in the 2000s and 2010s, and the overall storyline of this experimental success of a film. The slow pace of the film and dreamcore aesthetic also allow me to mindlessly watch it and relax. In the following blurbs, I will present my analysis of the overall film, metaphors, and my own personal thoughts. Enjoy!

- In terms of what skinamarink’s underlying meanings are, and what might be hidden from the viewer at first, I think it’s about child neglect in the midst of an unhappy couple going through a divorce, framed in a dreamlike, supernatural format. The disappearance of the doors and windows signifying no escape due to the ages of Kevin (4) and Kaylee (6), the disappearance of the toilet and the blackouts signifying the electricity and water bills not being paid, and the loud noises possibly indicating the couple fighting, along with not being able to contact 911 at the beginning of the film again signifying not being able to get help until it’s too late (Hence when 911 picks up later in the film).

- I also feel like the scene with the cartoon “Prest-O Change-O”, the scene with the rabbit and the dog in a looping cartoon clip, could indicate the similarity of each passing day. That, or it could be an indicator from the “demon” in the film, a reminder that Kevin just lost his sister.

- Now, keep in mind that this movie is theorized to take place in Kevin’s head when he falls down the stairs. Kaylee missing her facial features and being found in the basement (many famous real-life crime cases have involved bodies being found underground or in basements) could indicate she was either killed or seriously hurt in an abusive situation, or she was somehow forced into silence by a family member. Dreams usually have indicators from real life, many of them metaphors for real life events, emotions, and other things.

- Personally, I think the demon is a metaphor for Kevin’s father. His father could have easily injured him, manipulated him, and / or lied about Kevin’s injuries to the children’s mother over the phone. (I could be wrong about their father, he might be a very caring man, but these are just my thoughts.) Kevin’s head missing in the photos later in the film is a reference to the head injury, and indicates that Kevin is in a coma.

- I think that the mother genuinely cares about the children, but she’s severely depressed and not very emotionally available. In one part of the film, Kaylee says, “I don’t want to talk about mom.” I think that Kaylee’s mom either commited s*icide or left with their father, leaving the two alone, as shown in the scene where she tells Kaylee to close her eyes. When she opens them, her mother is gone, a clattering sound is heard alongside the sound of bones being broken. The scene near the end of the movie where she slowly fades away could also indicate either of these scenarios, along with, again, the possibility of the mother being emotionally unavailable.

-I think that, towards the end of the film, the repetitive scenes such as Kevin being killed over and over could indicate child PTSD from such a situation. Maybe Kevin and Kaylee feel like they’re reliving the abuse each day, and getting hurt in the same way over and over, and since abuse is well known to be repetitive in many forms, that could be the case.

-I think the toy phone is a nod toward both 90s nostalgia and calling 911 and getting help being basically impossible in that dreamlike world since its a fake phone. 911 does pick up later in the film, but the call suddenly ends as Kevin is speaking with the dispatcher, which could imply he was trying to get help but was caught and punished. I think the toy disappearing at the end of the “Prest-O Change-O” loop scene when the music cuts off could have either been a small scare factor, or another indicator of what happened to Kaylee.

Those are just some thoughts I had. Let me know what you think!

[the-foxx-hole]

Skinamarink (4.5/5)

Today I’m gonna talk about Skinamarink. I’ll start with my spoiler free thoughts, then move on to the rest of the film.

Skinamarink is an experimental supernatural horror movie directed by Kyle Edward Ball. Ball got his start on YouTube where viewers could send in their nightmares and he would make them a reality. You can actually watch his proof of concept for this movie, titled “Heck”, on his channel “Bitesized Nightmares.” 

     I’m going to be honest, I put off watching this movie for so long because I honestly thought I was gonna hate it. Or at least fall asleep during it. It’s an hour and forty minutes long, it’s not narrative driven, and I knew that most of the shots were of corners and hallways. I’m happy to report that I was wrong. There are a lot of things I really like about it. For starters, this movie was made with a budget of only $15,000 and was filmed at Ball’s childhood home. It makes sense when I think back to the visuals and everything that wasn’t happening on screen, but it’s still an amazing feat nonetheless.

     So, Skinamarink takes place in 1995 and follows two children, Kevin and Kaylee. Their parents are divorced and they’re currently with their dad. They wake up during the night to the realization that their parents are nowhere to be seen. As they explore, they notice that their doors, windows, and a plethora of other things have disappeared and continue to disappear. The movie develops this incredibly unsettling atmosphere and doesn’t rely solely on jumpscares, thought there are a few, to make the movie scary

     I’m obsessed with the visuals and the audio of this movie. I love the static that plays across the frame. It gives the whole thing this aged feel. I love that the camera is always at like, a child’s eye level or lower. It really makes you feel like a scared little kid. I love the blue tone to the whole thing! It feels like it’s midnight, my living room is being lit by my tv or my mom’s bright ass emergency flashlight. I’m looking at everything around a corner, down a hallway, from underneath or behind or around. You never see anyone’s faces, you hardly see anyone at all. Just footsteps, disembodied voices and other eerie sounds. It feels like walking through someone else’s nightmare.

     All right, that concludes the spoiler free section of the video. Now onto my favorite part: regurgitating every detail I can about the movie and giving all my opinions on them.

     We start things off with some unsettling shots of the house. Kevin sits creepily in the middle of the hallway and we get these foreboding shots from the top and bottom of the stairs. We cut to dad on the phone, informing their mother about a fall Kevin had earlier that day. He assures her that he’s okay, not even needing stitches. His daughter Kaylee said he was sleepwalking.

     I love how we get those shots of Kevin sitting in the hallway right before those stairway shots. It feels so dreamlike. Drinking game, take a shot every time I say dreamlike in reference to this movie. It really gives sleepwalking, falling down the stairs, disjointed memories.

     Okay, so we move on to Kevin and Kaylee waking up in the middle of the night. Doors are disappearing, Dad is nowhere to be found, Mom is certainly not here. The kids decide to go downstairs, turn on some public domain cartoons, and sleep in the living room. They wake up in what they assume is the morning, according to the digital clock and the cartoons waking up from their slumber on the tube tv. Lights seem to be next on the list of things to disappear. The children leave to do some exploring, and we hear some coloring ensue in the tv room.

     It’s here where we hear one of the children ask a very concerning question. “Why is mom crying?” Excuse me? Last time I checked mommy was not in the building to begin with. Now that dad’s gone I’m actually MORE concerned that you’re hearing her. “How come nobody’s come yet?” Good question kid. The house replies with some banging from downstairs. Ope! And the toilet has disappeared too. The resourceful kiddos slap some buckets in the corner and say good enough. 

     We hear a not so welcoming voice tell Kaylee to “Come upstairs.” Kaylee is a great listener and also six, so of course she goes upstairs. When she gets to the master bedroom, a male entity that I can only assume is masquerading as her father, is sitting on the far side of the bed facing away from her. Kaylee approaches slowly and Ghoul Dad tells her to “Look under the bed.” She looks under the bed in one of the most anxiety inducing scenes in the movie and tells him she doesn’t see anything. Oh thank god that’s– No! Don’t do it again! What are you doing? Daddy disappears and Ghoul mom has a turn being spooky on the other side of the bed. Mommy Ghoul tells her, “Your father and me– We love you very much.  I need you to close your eyes please.” And of course Kaylee does exactly what she’s asked to do. When she opens her eyes, nobody’s there and we hear more spooky house sounds and muffled sobs. Kaylee is told to go back downstairs, where we hear haunting moans and the sickening sounds of bones being crushed and snapped. A shriek is heard and we cut back to Kevin downstairs.

     I love that we never see their faces in this scene. It makes it so much scarier to leave it up to the imagination. This is the part of the movie where I knew I was in it til the end. I had to see it through. I also think this is where we lose most of Kaylee. At this point, I believe that the Ghouls, as I will continue to refer to them, crush her body and kill her. Due to the next scene though, I do think her spirit continues for a short while after before totally succumbing to Ghoulhood/death.

     Back in the TV room, Kevin walks over to Kaylee who is currently sitting in an armchair watching static on the TV and asks her, “What happened ?” and of course she tells him to help her move the couch to block the spooky ass hallway, avoiding the question entirely. By the time we return to Kevin, Kaylee is nowhere to be seen. 

     We hear a disembodied voice tell Kevin to come to the basement and Kaylee’s voice says “Kevin? I’m scared. I feel strange.” devolving into unintelligible whimpers. We are then confronted with the horrifying image of Kaylee without eyes or a mouth. The scary voice tells Kevin to sleep and he collapses onto the floor.

     This is what I was referring to earlier. I think her final act as Kaylee was moving that couch to at least try and protect him from the Ghouls or whatever it is tormenting these kids. Her telling us that she’s afraid is more ambiguous to me. I think it’s more likely the Ghouls trying to lure him down to the basement, using Kaylee’s last thoughts and feelings against him. Another horrifying detail I wanted to point out is that this is the first and only time we see Kaylee’s face. This whole movie we’ve avoided looking at anyone in the face. Occasionally we get the back of a head or the very rare indirect side profile. The only image we’re left with when we think of Kaylee is that Ghoulish version of her.

     Another cut to the TV room. This cartoon is of a dog and a rabbit with a relationship reminiscent of Tom and Jerry’s. There is a part in the cartoon where the rabbit uses his hands to crush himself or make himself disappear. This part, Prest-o Change-o, repeats over and over again. As we pan across the room, we see this snake plush on the floor. As the cartoon continues to repeat itself, the snake plush disappears. Then, the cartoon stops.

     Kevin returns, sipping on a juice box, watching more cartoons, playing legos. The disembodied voice declares, “I want to play.” Kevin doesn’t reply, probably terrified as he should be! I don’t wanna play with something that probably killed my entire family! Prest-o Change-o starts up its repetition once more before stopping. “Kevin.” Prest-O Change-O starts and stops. We hear the click of a knife and shivers are sent up my spine. “Put the knife in your eye.” Kevin’s hysterical sobs and cries ring out and my stomach drops. This kid’s four years old! He’s lost his whole family to an incomprehensible entity, he can’t leave, his only sources of light are a flashlight and the creepy ass TV, and he can’t even use the bathroom in a respectable fashion. 

     Cut to a cabinet with blood on it. “Wake up.” Kevin opens his eyes to see the blood streaking the door and the knife on the carpet. Lots of silence. Eventually, Ghoul Dad’s in frame. We see his face, but it’s really just his forehead. Cut to the back of Ghoul mom’s head.

     Finally, we return to Kevin. He picks up the phone and dials 911. This phone call is the most dialogue in the whole movie and honestly one of, if not my favorite scene. He tells the 911 operator that he hurt himself and feels sick. This call goes on for a while, following the format of a typical 911 call. We mostly hear the operator speaking, but we can infer Kevin’s answers from her replies. 

     It’s a truly heart wrenching scene for me. This is Kevin’s first and last attempt to get help. He’s only four, he has no parents to help him, his older sister is gone, he can’t go anywhere! He’s finally mustered up the courage to leave the TV room and go to the last place his sister went while she was herself and you know as a viewer it’s hopeless. He’s doing the only thing he can think of to save himself and we know it won’t be enough.

     The entity transports Kevin back to the TV room and tells him to go upstairs. He does as he’s told. Up is down, down is up. The voice tells him that because she didn’t listen, it took her mouth. She called out for her parents so they took her ability to do so. In one last attempt to escape this Hell, he asks, “Can I go back now?”

     We cut back to the TV room and legos litter the floor. We see “572 days” flash onto the screen. That cartoon begins to repeat again and we zoom out. The TV room transforms into an infinite hallway. Darkness, silence, red tones, Ghoul mom from behind. She fades away. Moaning, darkness, return to blue in the TV room. Darkness. Cut to the exterior of the house in this liminal black sea. Darkness. Flashlight on and we’re in a closet. The flashlight flickers on and off a few more times. The creepy toy phone scares the shit out of me. A montage of the kids begins. Their faces either smeared or their heads completely missing. 

     Prest-O Change-O repeats in the background and we’re looking at the carpet. As it repeats blood splatters and spills all over the floor, then it disappears, then spills again. This repeats over and over. With each repetition, I wonder if Kaylee and Kevin are being forced to relive all these tragic events over and over. 572 days.

     We hear one of the children ask “Can we see something happy?” We cut to empty space with a door in the center, slowly getting closer to it. An ominous static face appears in the darkness. “Go to sleep,” says the disembodied voice once more. Kevin asks,”What is your name?” There is no reply. We finish off the movie with a red toned static screen and a “The End.”

     So there are a lot of different interpretations of this movie and I’m a very literal person, so I’m going to be mostly regurgitating theories I've heard, occasionally interjecting with my own thoughts and feelings. I have a hard time putting together more abstract pieces if someone doesn't help me get the ball rolling first.

     The first theory I’m going to cover is probably the most popular. A lot of people seem to believe that the events of Skinamarink all take place in Kevin’s head. At the beginning of the movie, we’re told that Kevin had fallen down the stairs while sleepwalking. His father says that Kevin’s fine, but many people have suggested that he’s actually in a coma. He begins to forget his layout of his home and the faces of his loved ones, hence the nightmarish quality of the movie. All things considered, this thought process makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, why mention the fall at all if it didn’t have some sort of significance? Especially in a movie with so little dialogue. We may be watching Kevin’s attempt to escape his coma, trapped in a nightmarish hellscape of his mind’s own creation. A manifestation of his fear. Even at the end, we get a period of time, 572 days, followed by a voice saying, “Go to sleep.” This theory appears to be the most likely to me, but I honestly don’t dislike the other theories. I consider them all fairly plausible.

     Another theory is that Kevin’s father is the real monster. There are definitely some good points to be made with this one. In a child’s world, parents are all powerful, at least when you’re as young as Kaylee and Kevin. Kevin might have created this scenario in his head to contend with the fact that the man that should be his protector, is his abuser. The monster takes away Kaylee’s mouth, metaphorically silencing her. Kevin feels trapped inside his own home with no way out and no safe person to turn to. He may view the divorce as his mother leaving them, feeling like he can’t turn to her for help. Circling back to the phone call in the beginning, we never actually see what happens, just what the father tells their mother on the phone. The injury Kevin causes himself and the 911 call, in my opinion, could be a cry for help. The police will come if there is an emergency, so I’ll make one. The repetition of the cartoon could be symbolic of the repeated abuse that Kevin endures. For this theory, I was able to come up with more points on my own to corroborate it beyond what I’d read.

     The final theory is that they’re all dead or dying. Honestly, I feel like the explanations given for the previous two could be combined to create a disturbing scene. Some people say it’s Kevin that killed them all, but I personally find that theory silly considering Kevin is intended to be four. I think for this theory, it’s more likely a murder suicide situation where the dad kills the mom, then Kaylee, and finally Kevin.

     Finally, on the Dead Meat Podcast hosted by Chelsea Rebecca and James A. Janisse, they speculated that the film is a commentary on directing and the film industry. Doing anything to get the perfect shot, including running harsh scenes over and over and over until it’s perfect. In a movie, the director is metaphorically all powerful and can “do anything”. Although I don’t really subscribe to this theory, I think it’s an extremely interesting take. You should check out their YouTube channels, I really recommend their content.

Did you like it? What’s your theory?

Later!

-Foxx

[deathenfield]

So, I just saw Skinamarink...

And I have so many thoughts! I guess this is an analysis(?) of the film, but it's mainly just going to be me putting down several thoughts and ideas down I had as I mulled over the film:

This film feels extremely similar to a Junji Ito novel, which might be because Junji Ito pioneered his own brand of horror. There's this wonderful post by @cryptotheism that delves into the difference between Lovecraft's brand of horror and Ito's. Basically, In a lot of Ito's works, the horror comes from doing everything right, making all the right decisions, and still suffering an unimaginably cruel fate. The horror is that there is nothing to prevent the awful things happening to you, which is exactly what happens in Skinamarink. Hell, we even see the kids do everything right! The literal first things they do is try to find their dad, and when they can't they attempt to call (what I assume is) a friend of their dad's, and then the police. They leave the lights on in the house. They whisper so that whatever is in the house won't hear them. None of it matters. The only reason the Skinamarink even lets Kevin call the police or lets them have their TV is because none of it will help them.

It's a film about cruelty. I feel like the biggest reason it's so effective as a horror film is because it's happening to children. The empathetic part of you wants so desperately to reach out and save them because culturally (at least in American media) there's an absolutely huge no-no about harm happening to kids. Bad things rarely happen to kids in media, and when they do, the kids always get a happy ending. This is not the case. Kevin and Kaylee will be tortured for eternity by a malicious entity and nothing will save them. There's also the part in you that was once a child, that knows what it's like to be so utterly helpless in a scary and confusing world. So many people say this is a movie about abuse and, like, yeah. To have your house become an inescapable prison, to be subjected to the cruel whims of a powerful figure that can protect but chooses to use their power to subject unimaginable cruelty to you - that as a child you have no means of protecting yourself, or even comprehending, the horrors that are happening to you. This film acknowledges the terrifying helplessness of being a child and it's honestly kind of wonderful for that. Seeing the terror I felt as a child being put to film almost feels cathartic, like being seen. No wonder it resonates with so many people.

The Skinamarink letting them have their TV, letting Kaylee see her parents and having them tell her they love her, letting Kevin call the police and turning the phone into a toy halfway through. I'm just sort of struck by how cruel it is. Letting them have spots of hope purely just so it could take it away from them. Torturing them for years only because it finds the suffering of children funny. Props to the movie for creating a monster that sounds almost cartoonishly evil on paper and still managing to make it completely terrifying.

The Skinamarink, for an all-powerful malicious entity, is surprisingly child-like. When it wants to play with Kevin and he refuses, it makes him hurt himself, like it's tantruming. Whenever Kevin is confused or in pain, the entity just laughs and giggles. Is there a reason the Skinamarink specifically targets these children, because an adult in this situation would be way harder to torment? Perhaps, you could say, the Skinamarink is just a bully given god-like power, that preys on children because they are weak and helpless. I've seen more than one post talking about how they would defeat the Skinamarink and like, that's not the fucking point. Of course you could probably defeat it, you're an adult with rational thinking skills, that's why it targets children.

Kaylee, despite being only six and two years older than her brother, is forced to be the adult in this terrifying situation. Having to take care of her brother, find solutions to their problems, be the one to face the brunt of the terror on her own. I can only assume that one of the reasons that the Skinamarink sealed her mouth and eyes and took her away from Kevin is because she has more autonomy than Kevin, more ability to disobey the entity. It needs someone even more helpless than her to torture.

The two of them saying "I love you" to each other in the beginning. Aaauauguhghughughh.

Yeah that's it lol. I might think of more later but god damn, this movie a lot to think about.

[monochromatictoad]

You know what, actually, I have some things I need to say about Skinamarink.

Tw: Childhood trauma

Ok, so to me, Skinamarink is about a turbulent childhood. About not feeling safe in the one place you're supposed to be safe at, but also not feeling safe with the people you're supposed to feel safe with.

The father seems like the most stable, and is the primary parent of the kids, but even his home slowly starts to bleed into instability, because of the mother. I interpret this as a messy divorce, and the mother marrying a single dad with kids, who she treats more as her's than her actual children. The mother favors her new family over her old family, making Kaylee and Kyle feel neglected.

Kaylee doesn't want to talk about mom, because to her, mom is an uncomfortable topic. Yet she still tells the demon that she wants her mom and dad, because as a child, she still wants the instinctual safety that should come from her parents. But ultimately, they both are too caught up in what they're doing, and fail her.

Personally, I see Kaylee's face being taken, as her commiting suicide. Whatever was going on between the parents, possibly step-siblings, caused her to try and keep her brother innocent and safe, which was too much pressure. Maybe she started self-harming, which is why Kyle gets her a juice, because that's the only way he knows how to comfort his sister. It culminates in her no longer being able to take the pressure and killing herself.

Kyle was left behind in the mess. He slowly loses that childhood innocence. The scene of the demon telling him to put a knife in his eye, could be interpreted as him starting self harm, which progressively gets worse as time goes on, just like his sister. Until he too, tries to kill himself, as per the time loop scene towards the end. It fails, maybe the father walks in and stops it, and that's what the number on the screen towards the end is for. 572 days since he last attempted. 572 days since he's been clean of self harm. Or maybe even 572 days since Kaylee died, and he's talking to a therapist about it.

I don't know, maybe I'm seeing too much of my own childhood situation in this movie.