Skinamarink (2022)
The scariest part of this liminal horror is that it’s 100 minutes long.
Presentation:
Back in the day, YouTube and eBaum’s world was the hub spot for liminal analog horror. With films like Backrooms getting a feature film, it was likely this film that broke the ice for them. This is essentially an experimental found footage film with limited dialogue. The long takes, ambience, and thick noise function in turning this into a metaphorical mood piece. It’s so grainy that sometimes you think something is there in the shadows, but I don’t think people will find it scary. In fact, nearly everyone should find this boring, especially if you’re not analyzing the metaphor.
Analysis:
This film is a metaphor for a coma. There are a few hints from the limited dialogue such as the mother telling Kevin to wake up, close your eyes, and go to sleep. There’s also some fleeting comments from doctors about sewing up a wound, which can be interpreted as a surgical procedure. The reason it’s presented like this is to evoke the perception of the subconscious when one is under. A liminal horror for a liminal space, in between worlds, or perhaps limbo to the afterlife.
Conclusion:
What this film has going is it taps into your primal subconscious, sort of like Tarkovsky’s Mirror. It’s nostalgic analog horror designed to evoke feelings from childhood like the carpeting from the 2000s, suburban America decor, and toys from our youth. But there is absolutely no reason this film needed to be 100 minutes long, especially when it has the same scenes cycled. If this was a short 30 minute film it would have been fine, but this is basically a liminal YouTube video with feature film. length. Watching this at 3x speed would still be too long. If you want an analog film with a sensory experience, I’d recommend Goodbye, Dragon Inn.
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