Is Skinamarink Really The Scariest Movie Of All Time?
Unpacking the idea that something might be considered the 'scariest' and crying over Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
As a kid, I was terrified of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The book, the Gene Wilder film, all of it. And not just the creepy tunnel scene, either, I was scared of the whole thing. There was something uncanny captured in its bones that invaded my mind like some chocolate-fueled feverdream.
The world outside the titular Chocolate Factory is a bit…off. It’s similar to our own but different in a way you can’t quite put your finger on. Then, inside the Factory, it’s like another dimension. One filled with strange machines and sinister rooms designed for sorting good nuts from the bad and understanding how to blur the lines between the real and unreal.
Then, and here’s the kicker, you’ve got the fact that these kids, as awful as they are, are all taken in a variety of terrifying ways, potentially, never to be seen again. The thought of being trapped in this nightmare factory became my nightmare. Now, is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the scariest movie of all time? If you asked my eight-year-old self then the answer would have undoubtedly been a quiet, dread-filled nod of ‘yes, of course, it flipping well is.’
The scariest film ever made is a title bestowed, it seems, to a new film every year. Last year, Smile was talked about as being the scariest thing since sliced bread. This year, it’s Skinamarink. Smile was a fantastic film. It had some genuinely upsetting imagery and made me question the return journey from my bathroom to my bedroom in the darkness of the night. But, was it the scariest movie of all time? For me, it wasn’t. That doesn’t mean it can’t be for you, it just means it didn’t resonate with my subconscious fears the way Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory did when I first saw it as a child.
Skinamarink, on the other hand, was like watching one of my own nightmares play out on a cinema screen surrounded by a few hundred people1. Its premise alone is enough to send me spiralling into an anxious hole. It’s about two kids who wake up one night to find their parents missing and all the doors and windows in their house gone. Yeah, nope to that, right?
Why, then, did this movie haunt me so much? An article by Mashable writer Jason Adams talked about the director, Kyle Edward Ball, being inspired by the nightmares shared with him by users on Reddit. “Do you remember any of your nightmares from when you were a kid?” is the question Ball asked.
In Skinamarink we don’t see characters’ faces, we linger on old cartoons and strange hallways, moving through the house with the children as though we are living within their dream. It uses, as Adams notes, dream logic to create a sense of strangeness that makes us feel like children alone in the dark again. Adams writes, “And I think, as with all our similar-but-different childhood nightmares, it will whisper ever so slightly warped versions of its several scenarios to each one of us, individually.”
The film uses sound to further this nightmarish goal by having all the dialogue added during post-production lending an uncanny implacable energy to every line. As Ball noted in an interview with Fangoria, “it does have an otherworldly feel to it because even if I apply the perfect reverb to make it feel like it's in that exact room, it still doesn't feel quite right.”
Then there is the decision to subtitle some lines and not others aiding our minds in interpreting muffled lines of dialogue or demonically distorted speech. It recalls those audio illusions that do the rounds on TikTok2 where the audio you hear changes depending on the text you read.
This encapsulates the feeling of watching Skinamarink. What the film is about will entirely depend on your own subjective interpretation as will how scary you find it. While reading John Cramer’s thoughts over on his Substack, I was struck by his reading of the film as a look at the way trauma affects us. He says, “Even in the most mundane of suburban family homes, even there, you can never escape the threat of an abusive adult. The most monstrous thing you could ever possibly conceive of growing up is the language of Skinamarink.”
It’s a language that feeds off your own subconscious fears, projecting them into the dark corners of the frame and even into the darkness of your own home long after the film is over. Everything from how the film uses the imagery of childhood to the ever-shifting interior of its house out of time and space setting unsettles us because of the way it invites us to relive our own nightmares.
Ball has cited David Lynch as an inspiration for the film. The slow pace and long takes show that Lynchian influence was front and centre. Like the hazy night scenes of Inland Empire or the surreal detours of Mullholland Drive, Skinamarink pulls us deep into its trance and, as Adams puts it, “a wrongness insinuates.”
Inverse writer Lex Briscuso pointed out in their review, Skinamarink “asserts that no, you are not a safe and innocent bystander, you have a reason to stay scared. You will be thinking about this movie after it's over, when you lay your head down to sleep and your brain thinks maybe there’s something in the corner of your bedroom. It might not ever fully leave you.”
So is this the scariest movie ever made? For me, right now, yeah it probably is. It’s the closest I’ve come to rediscovering the indescribable fear I felt watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a child. It’s the horror of not knowing what’s around the corner, of feeling as though something isn’t right, something you can’t quite put into words.
The uncanny is an idea thrown around a lot in discussions of horror. As psychologists like Ernst Jentsch and Sigmund Freud grappled with, the uncanny is a feeling of unease that is ultimately subjective. Sure, everyone might find the face of M3GAN3 creepy, but not everyone will go home having nightmares about her hunting them down in the woods at night.
Ultimately, how scary you find Skinamarink will depend on what you bring to the table. Your life, your fears, your willingness to be taken on a slow and painful descent into the dark. Honestly, if you’re like me and grew up reading creepypastas and trawling the depths of r/nosleep well into the early hours then you’ve been rehearsing for Skinamarink your whole life. This is a nightmare captured on a hazy, blue-tinged camera. The question is, what will you see in the darkness?
It’s worth noting that I saw this film at The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square but I can’t help but feel like this particular film would be better served being watched on your phone, in the dark, on your own and with headphones.
These can get pretty trippy, I highly suggest searching the ‘audio illusion’ tag on TikTok.
M3GAN isn’t creepy, she’s a queen, an icon and we are all living in her house now.
Great take. And ! appreciate the nod! I don't think the finality of "scariest" works in a continuum, but I think it's fair to place Skinamarink up there among the scariest and the very best. It's a wonderful film.
Whoa 😳 great review and summarization of sources on this movie. Never heard of it but will have to file it away for next scary movie night. Thank you!!