Skinamarink Explained - A Forgotten Nightmare

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[@Wendigoon]

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[@noahsbrickbuilds3428]

I love you

[@demonicbladez]

No

[@BigYosh]

What if I don’t want to?

[@cheetodust9902]

nuh uh!!!

[@SeaFR]

Thank you, Mr. Goon.

[@fluxots7603]

The concept of innocent children being trapped in an infinite loop of torture because of a parent's mistake is impossibly upsetting. Even worse when you realize it can very easily be seen as a number of real life allegories.

[@RinLockhart]

That concept alone shakes me to my core.

[@kardelen3504]

Generational trauma...

[@james219apologetics8]

Divorce

[@mimilopmemes7915]

@@james219apologetics8 this is much worse than divorce

[@MMumbles]

@@mimilopmemes7915 it could be seen as a messy divorce. Not all divorce is so traumatizing to children, but when you feel like you're being pitted against each parent by the other, it can mess you up.

[@gloomduckie]

I think the mom is alive in the beginning, tells the son that "she loves him very much" and then hangs herself in the closet. The bones breaking sound is her neck snapping. That's why the boy is seen looking up, that's why the toys float up, there's so many shots of the ceiling. After a parents suicide, the remaining spouse will fall into a deep depression and the children suffer so much, especially if there is no outside help. I think this film is about not being able to escape the feeling of hopelessness (the doors disappear, the phone turns into a toy) after suffering a huge trauma as a child. The "demon" is a manifestation of all of that. The kids stay up late because the father has lost control, they're neglected, toys are everywhere, the demon tells the kids to do horrible things (some kids blame themselves) and the kids say "where's dad? maybe he went with mom" alluding that the dad might have killed himself too and left them all alone.

[@Flapjack505]

Omg this actually makes sm sense

[@krookiemonster2673]

Exactly what I was thinking except I didn't think of her hanging herself

[@Somerandomjingleberry]

I’ve seen a twist on this interpretation, that there’s actually some indications of a theme of divorce along with the idea of childhood neglect. In this light, perhaps after death, the mom became a ghost of some powerful proportions, and she did a paranormal version of those actual real world cases of an estranged parent kidnapping their kid from the other parent and gaslighting and manipulating and torturing the kid into seeing the “other” parent as the only one they always knew. Though someone committing suicide and also being the monstrous villain doesn’t make the most sense in the world, the creator did say there was a Hansel and Gretel element to the story cryptically, so I hear anyway.

[@luba8244]

This makes sense

[@luba8244]

So maybe the mother was so depressed that she would abuse the children? Like what wendigoon said how the monster would repeatedly torture them similar to how an abusive parent would and the children are forever trapped with her.

[@zepho5546]

The father being gone/unresponsive, and the mom "inviting in" the entity makes me think it was something along the lines of a traumatic divorce

[@stevenirving4597]

I thought the same. I was thinking that the mother was unfaithful and kept custody of the children, mainly the sister saw and told the father. That would explain why she had her mouth and eyes taken. Also the mother's line about her and the father loving them is usually what parents say when explaining their separation.

[@TheStatisticalPizza]

It also explains who the father was calling the beginning of the movie. He was on the phone with their mom explaining what happened.

[@Egghead012]

I think of MatPat's theory of it being a family torn apart by a dying child in a coma.

[@psychedellyfish4339]

I'm thinking maybe it's psychosis. Maybe that's why their mother turned into a "monster" and it would also explain her disappearing (to a mental hospital for example).

[@josephstalin5751]

You guys I truly think it’s about a demonic entity that truly just enjoys tormenting the children. Yes it has this underlying theme of neglect but I’m sure it’s mainly literal.

[@d1zzyrex]

The cartoon the kids were watching with the dog opening those doors is actually a cartoon made by Max Fleshier in 1931. In it, Bimbo (the dog in the cartoon) tries to escape a cult and is essentially tortured in ways similar to what Kevin went through and tempted by the cult by a look a like of a loved one (Bimbo's girlfriend in this case) in an effort to get him to join. The animation itself is called "Bimbo's Initiation" and it's weird but so is most 1930's animation. At one point in the cartoon the room flips, and suddenly Bimbo is walking on the ceiling similar to what happens to Kevin. There are A LOT of parallels to Skinamarink in this cartoon its insane. Maybe the Mom could've been involved in a cult and that's how the entity was unintentionally invited into the house? Idk just thought it was interesting. If you want, watch the animation to see what I mean. :)

[@Happydaes]

Why tf doesn’t this have more likes? The people need to know!!

[@alonelyhyena4235]

that's actually really interesting

[@KysEcstacy]

Suprised bimbos less known, found out about him from the initiation specifically from a ghostemane video

[@codybrady6940]

Fascinating.. Adds so much context to this film. Thanks for sharing! I'm amazed I didn't know about it already given I'm a fan of Ghostemane

[@AccomplishedBoot86]

I always thought it was cool that Bimbos girlfriend in that is the original version of betty boop, back when she was still a dog

[@SquirmieWormington]

When it’s happening to adults it’s scary. When it’s happening to kids it’s heart breaking.

[@Sneeds_Feed_And_Seed69]

not a comparison, it is all horrific.

[@8-bitmonster624]

@@Sneeds_Feed_And_Seed69 yea, but kids are innocent, even if they're snot-nosed brats. They're still innocent and the idea of innocence being attacked in anyway is more distressing than watching an adult, who usually have experience and maturity. Rather than a kid who just wants to play Roblox, binge teen-titans go all day and drink apple juice. To have all of that taken away and replaced with whatever bad shit . it's definitely heart breaking

[@Sneeds_Feed_And_Seed69]

​@@8-bitmonster624 never said it was not, nor did I ask for an explanation. I just said it is all horrific.

[@8-bitmonster624]

@@Sneeds_Feed_And_Seed69 Ok

[@Misty067]

Completely agreed.

[@avaisvshiny8462]

I absolutely adore the detail of Kevin not knowing exactly what to do to comfort his sister so he thinks about what makes him happy and gets her juice.

[@Stars.-Bars.-n-Cheese]

That was my favourite part

[@officialJoCa]

i like to wrap myself under my blankets and fart.

[@sabrinatscha2554]

Where can I find this movie?

[@Max-ks2to]

@@sabrinatscha2554 in the video he says it’s on shutter

[@damiontrujillo3667]

@@sabrinatscha2554 youtube for 4 bucks

[@EmissaryofWind]

I love hearing you explain "we see this and that happening" meanwhile the screen just shows a smudge in the darkness

[@zazabroom]

LMAO

[@christophercortez7191]

Right? At this point it might as well be a black screen, and subtitles giving stage direction or exposition.

[@HitenNoRurouni]

A thought: If the idea of the movie is that it's a metaphor for child abuse, I think the kids are being abused by her new boyfriend. -The father disappears leaving them only with their mother -She tells the kids something that sounds like a divorce -The sounds of bones breaking and crying in the other room is the bf beating their mother -Kaylie is being assaulted where her little brother can't see, and when she wants to tell someone she's being abused, it takes her voice away. -When her brother calls the police, it goes through, but the phone disappears. He's telling the police nothing's wrong. -When the father finally comes for the kids, everything is good again. They're safe. This also works with the metaphor you put forward, because it's THE MOTHER that lets the "demon" into the house.

[@michelleh.5225]

Where in the film did the mother let the demon in the house? I don't remember that.

[@hellbunniez3]

@@michelleh.5225based on the comment above the demon is the mother’s boyfriend. with that, she lets him in to their home, thus terrorizing the household by abusing the mother and the kids. it also seems like their mother was not faithful, and her infidelity and then the parents’ eventual separation is also a bridge to the “demon” aka the bf being “introduced” into their home.

[@georgeofhamilton]

When does the father finally come back for the kids?

[@xayytoldemm4288]

kaylee*

[@NarutoSSj6]

You're probably reading into it. The producer just put random shit he thought seemed deep or creepy. Very similar to the ring, in regards to the stupid student movie with the girl and fly. Only this is almost 2 hours long with a nice fan noice to merciless put you to sleep.

[@connor48880]

As someone who works at a movie theater, let me just say that not a single person who has seen the movie has walked out happy

[@jesseholder8950]

Can you be more specific? I’m curious what people are saying. (Spoiler free if you can)

[@suetyhercules7717]

@@jesseholder8950 imagine going to see a horror movie and you see an experimental scary slideshow instead. It's not for everyone so it's not very popular if you don't know what you're getting into

[@jof1391]

Watched the first 20 minutes waiting for anything to happen.

[@hiimdarius1477]

The movie did it's job

[@GreatNegus]

I like this movie but I can also perfectly understand why people would be unhappy with it. My main issue with the movie is that it was a whole ass movie. Should've just been a lengthy video. Like 20 minutes, maybe 30.

[@ElementiaYT]

This movie isn’t for everyone, but I found it to be the perfect visual representation for what it’s like to have a nightmare as a child. You are alone. Helpless. And it feels like you’ll never leave. It’s incredible.

[@monabale8263]

mine were like that until many years later, my husband recommended that i make up an ending i liked then go back to sleep. nightmares fear me now...

[@sethmalcolm6955]

This movie looks like 2 hours of a bad youtube analog horror

[@rakiahbaker5589]

Hi ES! How ya doing?

[@ElementiaYT]

@@monabale8263 I’ve heard the same thing. Strange how the mind works like that, huh?

[@CursedCorvid.]

I agree!

[@richymess]

i think the poltergeist isn't exactly "evil" but morbidly curious. it has the mind of a child in the way it "wants to play". moving toys/furniture around, punishing kaylee by taking her face away, fussy that kevin refused to play, and attentively watching the cartoons. it keeps replaying the scene of the rabbit vanishing into thin air. over and over again. it tells kevin "it can do anything". by the end of the movie you see blood splatter on the carpet and then disappears. then it happens again. over and over again. it's a child playing with its toy.

[@wolfscarlover4984]

This, I was thinking the exact same thing

[@ink_stainn]

This ties into the theory I had about the poltergeist actually being some kind of unseelie fae! You worded it much better than I could, though. lmao

[@stuffland4371]

I mean as a child you tend to not know of how your actions can impact someone to make them feel either happy or mad. The scene where it gave the cell phone service to give kevin false hope, as well as the scene where the entity place a false door. Just displays true cruelty as its peak. This not a form of curiosity. Just pure evil.

[@Jon-O-11]

@@stuffland4371That deleted scene where it tells him to RUN FULL SPEED at the tunnel painted on the wall. YES, Pure EVIL.

[@chase_h.01]

The kids are just dolls in its dollhouse

[@AM-wk9od]

the "love you" "love you too!" was so cute and made my heart sink as I realized that these kids were absolutely not going to make it out ok

[@raymarinas2107]

In my honest opinion, feeling that you're not safe in a place where you're supposed to feel safe and secure is one of the worst feelings that you could experience. Home is a place where you're supposed to feel as if nothing can harm you, but if you do, then something is horribly- *horribly* wrong.

[@zxlty]

This. This comment is it.

[@Anton-de5vu]

It gets even worse when you realize that it you don’t feel safe in your own home, NOWHERE is safe

[@willyjf6193]

I lived in one duplex and had neighbors who were obviously hiding people and it was fucking weird. Never felt safe there.

[@IndianJokarDanceGarden]

Oh, the joys of an abusive childhood. Now that I'm in my 20s, I'm realizing how fucked up my mental (and physical) health is because of the lack of a sense of security and safety in my formative years.

[@lisavictoria1606]

I haven’t watched the whole video yet...but I never feel safe 😅

[@the_camera_man4854]

Walking around your house in the dark as a kid is the most uncomfortable thing to do. You know it's your house, but you don't at the same time.

[@goodlookinouthomie1757]

Even adults still feel it. Like we've all been in a dark cold room at night and thought this will be a completely different place in the morning with the sun streaming in the window.

[@BigOlBirb]

“you’re not afraid of the dark you’re afraid of not being alone in the dark”

[@heartiko2681]

Shout out to all the people who didn't feel this way because their parents kept the lights off all the time or they were always outside in the dark anyway lmao

[@SamuelBlack84]

I don't really get scared of the dark anymore. I just remind myself of all the other things that could and have happened to me in life

[@pinkfeet518]

our washer/dryer is downstairs. i still run upstairs once i shut the lights off and almost always have that gut feeling someone’s behind me

[@SavoryFilth]

When I heard the “put the knife in your eye” phrase, I sat up straight as a board and shouted “No!”, it could be because it’s children in the place of adults being hurt, but I’ve never felt such guttural dread having children being threatened or hearing them scream and cry. I love horror films, I can watch just about anything, but this film made me feel so unbelievably helpless, and made me want to scoop up those kids and love of them.

[@Anonymous-73]

Was this in a theater or at home?

[@theshabs]

Did you watch it in a theater?

[@Badficwriter]

Even unseen child torture is horribly upsetting. It was the worst part of the 1990 film Mister Frost.

[@meowford1638]

the childlike naivety is portrayed really well; he reacts nearly the same way to seeing his sister faceless as he does a toy telephone in the dark. the girl not pushing for information at all when the father asks her to look under the bed *twice* because she still blindly trusts him and, even after his mysterious disappearance and the mother's mysterious appearance, she *listens* when the mother tells her to close her eyes.

[@steveharrison76]

I think that 'Can we watch something happy' is simply just a statement of someone reaching their limit. And that's the only way they can express it. They're done; exhausted and giving up.

[@coldguy1292]

Whenever I saw that scene it made me really sad. He was just so done with everything around him and he was just looking for a small amount of comfort in his horrible circumstance.

[@RedLiteAlexi]

Yeah that part was so visceral and transports you to a moment when as a child you thought the same thing

[@springchickena1]

im about to take 200mg of promethazine lean concoction get delirious and talk to spirits. just for the hope that I can invoke Esther [for wendigoon (ishtar); ez mode quick explanation, they share the same name in time.]

[@kamikeserpentail3778]

It's relatable. My brother and I retreated into videogames with the same kind of conclusion. Now it's so hard to imagine being able to actually fixing things, just retreat to the one place where we actually have control.

[@Sarah-gd1hl]

I’ve never been in a theater so dead silent as when I saw this film. The tension was insane, I felt like everyone in the room was holding their breath

[@klaatuNaatu]

A girl in front of me was playing Raid Shadow Legends on her phone the whole time, so I'm jealous.

[@ronjones-6977]

I used to LOVE horror movies when I was young. Not so much anymore. lol I saw the original Halloween the week it opened. It was dead quiet, until ,,,...... someone yelled out "Go LOOK, he's not dead!" It was terrifying and then we all laughed. A good horror movie will make you wish you were ANYWHERE else.

[@Frogbear]

Aren’t theaters notoriously silent?

[@denniscowe3289]

@@Frogbear not anymore

[@Zorro7269]

@@Frogbear Used to be. Now everyone just expects a bunch of people to be talking over the film which it’s like. If they’re at a theatre. And they payed to watch a film. Why aren’t they watching the film. Not to mention there just being a bunch of iPad kids on their parents phones.

[@legokirbymanchannel]

I gotta say that I like that the monster of this movie is, in a way, how a kid sees an adult: a force of nature of sorts, beyond your control, that asserts it's dominance by taking things away.

[@Gabwabby]

I just finished the film and something I cant get out of my mind is one of the last scenes with the blood spatter on the floor ceiling. Because in the photographs of the children; one had a distorted face, Kaylee, and the other was missing a head. That spatter wasn't just Kevin getting hurt by the monster, it was the monster removing his head over and over and over.

[@thefundude1]

Over and over again like when the cartoon show kept repeating over and over again.

[@Gabwabby]

@@thefundude1 Oh my god

[@16floz]

The captions on Hulu during that scene were initially "(child screams)" but as it repeats, it changes to "(older child screams)" and I honestly don't know what to make of that

[@cousinmajin]

I interpreted it as him being crushed over and over, the same way the rabbit in the cartoon was crushing itself down into nothing

[@nineteenfortyeight6762]

​@@16flozhe is trapped repeating the horror again and again for eternity in hell

[@tarynbaz_]

An interesting detail is when Kevin tries to call the police, but the monster turns it into a play telephone. It’s very reminiscent of being in an abusive household and being silenced by new, shiny things.

[@dr.tursko2312]

The fact the monster appears in place of the phone could also represent him being physically silenced. The abuser shows up and takes the phone away.

[@Tanwolly]

That’s such a stretch Lmfao.

[@Tanwolly]

@@dr.tursko2312 Even more of a stretch than the OP

[@tarynbaz_]

@@Tanwolly the movie is about two kids being trapped in a house with a demon that can make stuff float and disappear, completely alter reality, and disrupt the flow of time. I’M the one stretching? 😭😭

[@SuperShyguy11]

oof dude. This one hit me in my feels :(

[@CephalopodsRock]

A trailer trash couple moved into the apartment beneath me for about eight months. They had two young boys and a newborn baby. They where constantly yelling, screaming at their kids, threatening to beat them, etc. Me and my neighbor reported them to CPS multiple times and nothing happened. Eventually the landlord told them they needed to move out because they had trashed the place. There where holes in the walls/doors, mountains of trash piled up everywhere, tons of bugs and roaches. I think about those three young kids all the time. Hell is real, and it's all around us. Its a place that the most vulnerable people in our world know all too well, they are trapped in it every day, and even though they live in the same physical space we do, they can't escape it.

[@MELLMAO]

Gotta love CPS services, they seem to fail victims in every country there is because of dumb ass laws and beurocracy

[@dismurrart6648]

Stuff like this is so sad. It's why I want to foster a couple kids

[@Compton3clipsed]

They used to let members of the community handle people like that, no questions asked. Violence does solve problems, quite often.

[@dismurrart6648]

@Cary Rumley violence often created those types of people. More violence won't stop the cycle of abuse. Also, no. Tons of us were never helped by that system. My grandpa lived to old age with the community doing fuckall about him and he was horrible. Imagine the environment that created him.

[@Compton3clipsed]

@dis murrart Nonsense. You are the reason the cycles don't stop with thinking like that bullshit. The parents beating the kids creates the cycle. Beating those parents into a puddle would teach them a hard lesson. They are protected by the law more than the kids. Your assertion does nothing while allowing everything to get worse. It's not a discussion though, I've done it, it worked. With my own step father who beat my mom and myself. Shattered his knee cap with a baseball bat and he's never touched a woman or child again.

[@millie5378]

I don't want to watch a 1:30 hour analog horror movie. BUT I do want to watch a 1 hour wendigoon breakdown about said analog horror movie

[@funnybones98]

this

[@juliarhoden8998]

This movie perfectly captures the feeling you get when you're half asleep and that pile of clothes looks like a person and you can't move

[@nootnoot2423]

I like the scene where the father tells his daughter to look under the bed. The cliche is checking under your bed for monsters, right? There's nothing there, but when she comes back up, her father is gone and her mother is there. Her mother is the monster and it doesnt even have to hide under the bed anymore.

[@Sailorplutoe]

This part scared the hell out of me

[@matjekchen8465]

That's not quite what happened. After she looked under the bed the actual mother showed up. The mother tries to warn the daughter that there is something else being there, and tells her to go back down stairs. This goes against what the demon instructed the daughter to do, and it gets angry.

[@thomasbarnard6719]

Its is 1150 why

[@MikeInHalifax]

@@matjekchen8465 Yeah. Definitely seems like a demon infestation problem. Mom was sacrificed by the dad to it or vice versa or all of them? Lol I need to see the whole movie

[@ShinAdamSmasher]

And here is the confusion caused by a movie that shows you nothing. Then when it did show you something, you didn't understand it. Her mom is not the monster, in fact, her mom tried to warn her of the monster. But your comment got 3,000 likes so I guess at least 3,000 people also want to be among the cinema avant garde so you are all willing to groupthink an alternate reality.

[@justrobin8155]

Just a personal point: the way the mother talks about how she loves them is exactly the tone my father had when he said goodbye before he, uh, Skinamarinked himself. Very eerie

[@WOUmurderstomps]

Im sorry for your loss

[@batmankills100]

Condolences to you and all it applies to

[@Eleanorscatmom]

same before my mother's attempts. I wish you strength.

[@Grag235]

Sorry for what you had to go through, I hope you’ve gotten better

[@v01ddw3ll3r]

I’m sorry for your loss but Skinamarinked himself make me chuckle I’m sorry

[@CynfulArts]

I'm really appreciative that you didn't put the sound of the children screaming when you were discussing it. Really, thank you. I work with dead bodies, I can handle any amount of simulated gore, but the sounds of pained screaming, especially children, I can't handle. I was actually worried about watching because other channels I've watched would put the screams in and it would mess me up for days. I will not be watching this movie because of it, so thank you for a succinct description of plot, without feeling the need to put the rough stuff in

[@Biggiecheeseness]

Me too man. ❤

[@TheSquizzlet]

Near 42:00 you mention that if you were directing, you'd make the cartoon mean something. But earlier in the video we see a cartoon character opening a door to be met with another closed door, in that infinite repeating door thing cartoons do. This clearly symbolizes the inability to escape, and it's right there for the kids to be reminded of.

[@franzsperginand113]

We also see two cupid-esque angels floating in the air and rising up. We also see a rabbit disappearing itself from a predatory dog.

[@kubistonek]

Yeah but actuall meaning

[@HateSonneillon]

It seems like it is an allegory for abuse. The time loop might represent how it repeats daily to the point of feeling trapped forever. The change from "close your eyes" to the mom not having a name seems to be the first steps into abusive behavior that then escalate to the point of not recognizing the person as mom anymore. If the parents are getting a divorce, it might be that the mom is punishing the children for reminding her of the father. Which would explain why its only started happening after that. The legos on the ceiling probably represents happy times moving further out of reach as further emphasized by the long stretching hallway.

[@CrystaICupid]

Absolutely, And Kaylee being mouth-less and eye-less seems like a way to show that she can't ask for help

[@ImseriouslyaJedi]

:(

[@gro_skunk]

I don't think it's an allegory it's just great visual story telling of things getting gradually more unhinged, taking away the comfort of playing with toys by putting them in unreachable and unnatural places. It strips away any comfort the children and the viewers had left until they're left alone in a house with an entity.

[@robinlove6981]

It's a possible theory but a bit more of a reach

[@wyattmas1576]

and you know the part near the end where there's the figure on the bed slowly disappearing? that could be a metaphor for how she's losing parts of herself and disappearing from.. everything. the fact her back is almost always turned could be symbolising how she's turned her back on her children? refusing to see them as who they actually are?

[@boochin]

My favorite part was when the skinamarink appeared and said "its skinamarinkin time" and skinamarinked all over the house

[@Decodedvirus]

Truly the moments of all time

[@muxx2810]

That was my favorite part too

[@daxon5203]

@@Decodedvirusindeed, one of the I’ve ever seen

[@yaegars355]

That house was COVERED in skinamarink, it was awesome

[@muxx2810]

I remember the first time I skinamarinked I was rly scared and my dad sat me down and told me all about skinamarinking and how to do it safely and when it was appropriate and now I'm not scared of it at all. I skinamarink 2 or even 3 times a week now.

[@TheyCallMeMrSchnappo]

I'll tell you what - I'm pretty hardened against jump scares but that toy phone jump scare made my blood run cold. It shows how effective jump scares can be IF they're earned and the atmosphere is right. If I see a Spooky Monster™ at the end of a hallway, I know it's going to facefuck the camera in a few seconds. When I'm trying to figure out the world and rules the movie is creating, I'm left totally vulnerable for that sort of scare.

[@Skidoo-mv1ux]

i love that description of a jumpscare (facefucking the camera) lol

[@MCSkiure]

as an evil nightmare being from hell, its really good to see some ACTUAL representation from skinimarink

[@kososka]

To me Skinamarink really feels like a nightmare. Things just disappearing and transforming, not being able to make phone calls, and just the sense of fear even if there is nothing directly attacking you.

[@nuggetanimations155]

I agree I haven’t seen the film only this video but when he described Kevin trying and failing to dial 911 for no explicit reason feels like many dreams/nightmares I’ve had where I try to pick something up or touch something and I just can’t and my mind just can’t comprehend why I can’t it’s horrifying

[@DeathnoteBB]

That just sounds like living with abusive parents

[@brillbillbutstill]

I wish my nightmares were so timid and mild mannered like this turd stank called Skidmarkadink. Consider yourself lucky. Some of us have really fucked up nightmares that medication either creates or exasperates.

[@friendly7empest]

I had nightmares like this but never seen any movies like it. I wish I would’ve wrote things down but I forgot my pen. I remember everything being first hand, and I was making choices, like a lucid dream. Completely and utterly terrifying with demonic themes, creatures know little to nothing about. I’ve seen people that weren’t necessarily people. Murder out of paranoia, whole 9 yards as the British said.

[@notanog9446]

I was in an abandoned metal factory, and a creature with a skull for its head chased me around in it. I could hear the clanging of its feet, so I hid in a locker. It found me and began to eat from my stomach. I woke up, and I felt like someone had pinched my stomach

[@mattackaigaming8527]

This story reminded me a lot of "I have no mouth and I must scream". An evil entity tormenting someone helpless, resetting time every time it kills them to make them relive it over and over forever, slowly eroding their mind. As a father, this movie was deeply unsettling but did an excellent job of conveying it's message. The parents bedroom scene in particular was the first time I've felt genuinely tense and afraid watching a movie in probably a decade. Excellent flick. One of those movies that can be rewatched multiple times over to discover new details.

[@LiamLoves]

"How did you do that?" "I can do anything." There is objectively nothing more terrifying than an all powerful malevolent force.

[@lamppost481]

"I got you juice" That line is so sad but so so so real As someone who grew up with a lot of nights going to sleep with aguring parents shouting at the top of their lungs this hits home. I remember doing this for my older sisters specifically, sneaking into the kitchen at risk of being spotted by the furious adults, just to get them a juice box or crakers. Don't yell around your kids, don't fight around your kids, don't fight at all if you can help it.

[@zachcarter7535]

You’re a good person. I’m sorry you had to go through that

[@collinb.8542]

Same. I wish someone could have told my parents this before they had me.

[@lL338]

Yeah.

[@nrg6245]

@@zachcarter7535 most people go thru that or don’t have parents at all I never met my dad.

[@meowmeow2427]

@@nrg6245 They didn't say that other people haven't experience the same thing. They were just expressing sympathy for OPs situation

[@aviem5887]

There is nothing that could've broken my heart more, and yet still filled me with weird hope, than Kevin saying "Can we watch something happy?"

[@loki1456]

For me, it was Kevin and Kaylee saying "I love you" to each other. That made me tear up.

[@angelchaiteaa]

666 LIKES OMG

[@ManBoyBaby]

Now 777 likes

[@evergreen3337]

⁠@@loki1456 that was adorable. I teared up too

[@jgravemans6076]

This movie was incredibly sad as well. The innocence of these two children make you almost think that there's no way something terrible could happen to them. And then it does happen to them.

[@Direfloof]

I think the parents getting divorced is actually a very evocative angle to view the horror in the film from. A divorce when children are barely old enough to exercise reason and critical thought would almost certainly feel like cosmic horror. Your parents are supposed to be an immutable truth of life. Their bond as your mom and dad feels like it should be just as immutable. The ambiguous ways we see the mother and father respectively feel perfectly in line with the confusion and even grotesque transformation of these truths that the kids were born experiencing. The stable foundation of their parents’ collective presence becomes morphed, complicated, compromised, even terrifying.

[@choko_mlk]

As an abuse survivor, the doors and windows disappearing feels very similar to how you can't just leave an abusive household. As a kid, it was terrifying knowing that my dad would hurt my mom and I if we tried to leave the house. I don't think I could handle watching the movie, but everything I heard about it in this video resonated so much. It sounds like this movie potrayed childhood fear perfectly

[@lucascole2232]

I related to the movie in a similar (though slightly different) way through my traumatic childhood. Honestly, it made the movie surprisingly less scary and stressful, as the first 50 minutes did not occur to me as particularly abnormal, given that the quite, passive melancholy which stems from the trauma seems too familiar. It's only the paranormal bits that were scary, but the atmosphere was no different from my childhood, making it of course uncomfortable but too familiar to scare me.

[@SketchyJohnny]

@@lucascole2232 same here but I've seen too much horror to even be scared by the actual scares so I was just totally bored

[@Tanwolly]

Cringe.

[@lucascole2232]

@@Tanwolly no

[@Katitorsi]

@@Tanwolly being edgy isn't cool like you seem to think

[@tenderdecay]

the line "can we watch something happy?" made me so incredibly sad, because it felt more like a sign that he has given up and felt exhausted by the constant dread that they both faced. it sounds like something someone would say when they're at the brink of giving up everything entirely and just want a sliver of hope, even the tiniest bit, to feel something.

[@AbsoluteRatBastard]

skinamabrink

[@fshhh]

@@AbsoluteRatBastard yes

[@BrooklyFire]

Dammit, this just reminded me of my life... Studying, working out and taking shifts from dawn to dusk; having headaches all week long, and blacking out at the end of the day; the only rest being Sunday and yet, I keep telling myself to keep fighting, to keep pushing forward in the war of life; yet comes today and I get a mild sea hipothermia and another headache after doing a Tylor Series, I ask myself: " can't we do something stupid for once?...Cant we do something casual...*this one time??*" *sob* Can't we be 17? Is it so hard to do? So I watch this... WE ARE THE CHILDREN!! And we have to suffer this timeless war of life our whole lives!!! Every moment!! When we sleep! When we feel out of breath! When we starve or when we eat "poison" to cope with it! When we have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night! When we exhale and our blood oxygen starts degrading! When you're part of a group of kids that need help and you have to pretend that you're not scared and know what to do because you're the only adult of the situation! (I have my religion ok pls respect or just ignore) I'm pretty sure nobody knows their life completely, from the fails i see around, Now I see that... The world is far too vast, and far too complex to understand fundamentally, even ask albert einstein: I'm sure he would say that his human finite imagination is limited to the infinite creation and expansion of the universe. And with this video, I get that life is too diverse, and complicated to be understood, yet we are so simple.. When our base gets destroyed we get scared and don't know what to do. By my memories facing my inner demons I renembered that.. There is no way of fighting them off by yourself. We have no power and knowledge compared to them. After years of fending them off, possesions and nightmares, they would simply put me trapped-sometimes by chains, other by an infinite house with curses objects, or trapped in the back of my head, and slowly wear me out to exhaustion, like a fisher catching a big fish. But one thing saved me once...it wasn't me. It was the idea that I stood up for as I was preparing to fade away. To most it sounds stupid and silly. It was the idea of love. It was love for life in mid of suffering. It wasn't by my own forces, it was by my will to offer myself and obey a bigger cause. I think I spent too much time being sentemental, I should go back to studying

[@oonooooooooo]

i think not necessarily giving up, but a confused child that doesn't understand what happened trying to escape or at least distract himsef and try to find shelter in a comfortable familiar thing. it's exactly what i would say as a kid after hearing a scary story, it's what would distract one from being scared and make them feel better. i feel like that “ brink of giving up feeling“ isn't necessarily common in children, especially if this is a metaphor for abuse, you don't want to feel “something“, you just want to cheer yourself up and forget about it after that “thing you think is normal and you don't understand why it upsets you“ happens, because at that point it's the only thing you can do about it at that age and the only thing you know to do.

[@biznichin13]

@@BrooklyFire ok

[@Yaboi-h]

I honestly prefer the idea of skinamarink being a child's interpretation of his family falling appart due to his own accident and him not understanding what it is, because that feels more real than a demon messing with a family for no reason

[@constantk8780]

Nah the metaphor lane is lame for this one.

[@ml8443]

Metaphor horror sux

[@Badficwriter]

@@ml8443 It does. The scenes work by themselves, but when you try to translate them to metaphor, it becomes boring. Anything that needs explanation, that doesn't work by itself, is a failure of the author.

[@Yaboi-h]

@@constantk8780 bruh it literally isnt a metaphor, it is a child's interpretation

[@Buzzer-lt3xz]

“One more video before bed” the video:

[@roul4842]

I love the little detail with Kevin bringing his sister the juice... It just feels so authentic and absolutely like something I would've done for someone when I was little.

[@K8aclysm]

At one point you can hear one of them tell the other "I love you..." in a sweet little voice and that part broke me so hard.

[@XXLSSBBW]

Skidamarink a dink a dink. Skidamarink a doo. I love you. Skidamarink a dink a dink. Skidamarink a doo. I love you. I love you in the morning. And in the afternoon. I love you in the evening. And underneath the moon. Oh! Skidamarink a dink a dink. Skidamarink a doo. I love you. Skidamarink a dink a dink. Skidamarink a doo. I love you. Skidamarink a dink a dink. Skidamarink a doo. I love you. I love you in the morning. And in the afternoon. I love you in the evening. And underneath the moon. Oh! Skidamarink a dink a dink. Skidamarink a doo. I love you.

[@iheartdyl]

@@XXLSSBBWBro are you good

[@B_H_J]

​@@iheartdyllmao

[@aeiztaloraezi7687]

​@@iheartdylthat's the nursery rhyme where the movie got it's name lol

[@DeadAccountdotdotdot]

Kevin getting his sister juice is the most genuinely sweet thing. I work with kids and this is absolutely what my 4 year olds would do for their siblings, despite the fear.

[@unknowndata3841]

Why no commets

[@bayek9869]

​@@unknowndata3841What more can you add to a dumb comment like that.

[@alicemalice1047]

The fuck do you want people to say. Why didn't you just say it yourself.

[@Artemis13579]

The fear of this isnt the adult known fear of monsters, demons, blood, gore, etc. Its the childhood terror where nothing seems the same in the dark, vulnerable, mommy and daddy are gone, the coat in the corner of the room looks like a faceless man, and not knowing what to do. Skinamarink is the childhood song "Skinimarinky dinky do, i love you" so in the day, mommy and daddy love you and are here to protect you, but at night when they are sleeping and things just arent alright. Fantastic

[@GriffithFromBerk]

Never have I been so happy for a film to release me from its clutches as I was with skinamarink because of how much fear it instilled in me. When it said “The End”, I felt actual relief because it was like waking up from a nightmare. I was streaming it to some friends and even that didn’t help me not be terrified 💀

[@andrew.jpeg_]

I watched it alone with all the lights off and headphones on, when that title came up I genuinely didn’t move for at least 40 minutes

[@emmamiracle344]

I love the way the "monster" is depicted because when I was little I wasn't scared of "boogyman" or clowns or ghosts or anything like that. But the fear was still there. Especially when I couldn't sleep.

[@KateCantDraw]

EXACTLY, it was never really a specific or definable thing, of course things like horror media or scary imagery could give it shape every once in a while, but most of the time, it was just there, unseen but ever present and unquestionably dangerous.

[@jejsos1575]

I can fully relate to this, even now. I love horror and it’s a big part of what i watch. I don’t think of myself as someone particularly fearless but the thoughts of restaurant mascots, mannequins, dolls, and the worst of all *the endless void which is darkness* has and always will scare me. Nothing from the things i have listed scare me as much as the void-like darkness but more specifically i absolutely fear the unknown, the uncanny and alien things masked in darkness make me want to shit myself and all I have to comfort myself is God The fear that emanates from the unknown isn’t terror, yet it terrorizes you in an unexplainable way

[@Kehwanna]

For me, I was never afraid of something killing me, I just didn't like the idea of something or someone looking at me sleeping. We did have some mean spiders in my country (Ethiopia), so there was that fear when sleeping too. Even though I don't believe in monsters today as I am 32, (embarrassing to admit, but you all will never know who I am) I still occasionally sleep with my covers over my head while my wife is in the bed because it somehow makes me feel less vulnerable when sleeping. Idk. I also sleep with my back against the couch from time to time because somehow my brain just tells me that sleeping with my back facing the room will mean someone is watching me sleep. I blame my child imagination decades ago for making sleep a chore.

[@void-master9077]

When I was younger, I was never particularly scared of anything, my sisters used to scare me all the time, and tricked me into watching most of the horror media of that time, but there was this one day, I was 9, I was fast asleep, but my sisters tell me and had recordings on their crappy flip phones of me just standing outside the door of the room they were in, one of my sisters got freaked out slammed the door, and when they opened it again I was gone, I slept upstairs, and I was in my bed when they checked, but what I don’t understand is how I got upstairs without making a sound in the span of minute or so.

[@glenngriffon8032]

When i was little I actually invented my own boogeyman of sorts. I had this idea that when night came and kids were supposed to be in bed asleep there were unseen beings that checked every person asleep. Like they had a little checklist with the name of every child alive and their bedtime and if you weren't in bed and at least pretending to sleep when they came to you they would ruin your life and curse you with misery and suffering before they ultimately would come and kill you. And thing is, even though I came up with all of that off the top of my head I was honestly more afraid of these beings having a disapproving opinion of me.

[@elizalol222]

Small things like the boy saying “mommy” and “can we watch something happy?” after being beaten absolutely messed me up. God it hits home for me. edit : i like that everyone is replying to this with “trauma twins” but I hope you all are okay

[@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong]

hooray! childhood trauma buddies!

[@headofathousandsheepswool]

can i join the club?

[@elizalol222]

@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong We can be in therapy together!!

[@sourgreendolly7685]

My people!

[@MELLMAO]

I am so sorry, none of you deserved that

[@Tremere]

As others have rightly said, its a very innovative style of storytelling telling and at times VERY effective at what its trying to achieve, but the length of it is too much. There’s only so much patience you can have when you’re 45 min in watching the camera pan to a wall to a corridor back to a wall waiting for all this build-up to resolve only for it go nowhere until the last 15 min

[@max-rdj9741]

This is the one flaw of this otherwise amazing film. It's subjective at the end of the day, but we have to ask why Skinamarink is 1h40m and Heck only 30m. I suppose Kyle Edward Ball wanted it to be feature film length ultimately.

[@constantk8780]

I thought the pacing was mostly ok. I like a really slow burn though. It's not really horror, it's more like a slow creep.

[@Randlelikesdogs]

Leave usurper

[@PinkApocalypse]

The “I got you juice”. Idk, they just care about eachother so much.

[@moneu1343]

My interpretation of the movie is how a young kid views a abusive household, the slightly older sister sees her mom as a faceless being, still her mother but twisted and absent of all emotion while the younger boy sees her as a snarling beast because he can’t grasp the concept his mother could do that to him so he twists his perspective of her into a monster, the loop of blood spattering on the floor is the constant cycle of abuse they went through, and when he says “mommy” during that he finally realizes that it’s his mother doing these things and to me that just breaks my heart. The sister tried to speak out or screamed too loud so her mouth was closed. the only escape the kids found when dad left was the tv/toys and each other because it distracted them. I could go on and on but I’ve seen other people with this theory and I’d probably just be regurgitating that but the thing that makes it horrifying to me and honestly more scary than a supernatural entity is that the monster didn’t become their mom, their mom is the monster

[@RealWhore]

thats a really good interpretation!

[@clairesleptinagain]

I have had yet to see this theory til now. It's honestly such a sad concept but makes quite a good bit of sense. As someone myself who dealt with abuse from my mother, I could see how this theory could apply to the film.

[@blackdusk6581]

Yeah, especially when you think about how early the dad is gone in the story. Especially when you realize how the mom doesn't start out as an evil and awful person. Especially when you realize that all the doors windows and phones disappearing could be analogies to friends, free time, hobbies and outside interactions. The idea that scares me the most is how nothing anyone on the outside could do would help, I think it translates perfectly to how you can't correct any parents, single parent or combined, on how they parent their kids.

[@FineNightmare]

I thought right away “This is about child abuse”

[@sian186]

Combining this with Wendi's theory about the mother "inviting something in" it could be an abusive boyfriend?

[@pillowmoment]

I agree with the abuse theory. The evidence adds up, Especially the part where kaylee just… loses her face. She spoke too much, screamed too loud, therefore she didn’t deserve to speak anymore. Abusive parents silence their children. The children are forced to stay quiet because of the consequences they could face. And it’s heartbreaking.

[@endervin]

Yeah, it adds up at many points. My personal theory is that mother has a disorder of some sort, which resulted in separation of parents, hence the kids staying with the dad and not mom. It may be a reach because I am not familiar with definitive symptoms but I think she may be bipolar, and like clinically so.That could add up Wendigoon's 'mother-turning-into-monster' thing well, and that may be the reason she sounded guilty in the bed scene. The fact that the closest and the safest person in the whole world has another twisted, sadistic and hateful personality may very well leave one with a feeling that there is no escape from it, hence the windows and doors disappearing. But that's a reach, I know :D

[@mtnentertainment3454]

@@endervin actually that seems to be the most accurate interpretation I've seen yet

[@endervin]

@@mtnentertainment3454 Thanks! Have you seen The Babadook? The delivery is very different, but the theme is there. One of my favourite modern horrors tbh.

[@j8246]

Oh man this made me think of an experience of my childhood. I was 6-7 and my little brother is 2 years younger than me so he was 4-5 (i can't remember exactly when it happened). My dad was an alcoholic at the time. I love him, but i had a lot of childhood trauma. My mom had a 2nd/3rd shift job at the time so on the afternoons/nights it was us and dad (usually drunk/high). He decided to go out with his friends and told me he would be back before it got dark with dinner. He wasn't. I remember my brother and i had microwaved ramen for dinner (my parents always told me to never use the stove). I figured he would be back soon and we were watching tv, playing video games, etc. It was 9-10pm and o remember we were getting so scared. We decided we couldn't be home alone anymore, we knew kids weren't supposed to be home alone at night, so we walked down the street to my friend's house (she lived right down the road). The mom and dad were so surprised to have 2 little kids at their door at night. The mom gave us a hot meal and we watched incredibles and played with our friends. The mom called our house to leave a voicemail (cell phones weren't really a thing yet). My mom came home to an empty house with the doors open and no kids. I can't image how scared she felt. She told us she was about to call the police when she saw there was a voicemail from my friend's mom. She came and got us and i don't remember my dad being out too late again after that. Idk why but this made me think of that probably just the feeling of being alone with no adults, knowing you're not supposed to be alone but not able to use rationalize stuff as an adult would.

[@Timoxa_who]

Note to self: DO NOT fall asleep to horror film breakdowns I am NOT waking up to bone cracking sounds again.

[@CookieCat-gp9cq]

The shots of the darkened hallways actually reminded me of a nearly forgotten bit in my childhood. I would randomly wake up in the middle of the night and walk around the dark house, eventually settling on the couch in the living room before my mom eventually comes and get me or I make my way back to my room. As a child the house at night was oddly peaceful to me. It wasn't until now that I realized that, having grown up in a toxic and abusive household, nighttime was the only time I felt safe.

[@keymacaroon-uh7kj]

An odd yet equally interesting reversal of what was shown, at least on the surface

[@Yuki-qs5mt]

Jesus loves you 🙏✝️w

[@Shibby4L]

It’s still the only time I feel safe for the most part and I’m 26 now. Obviously things have changed drastically but I find myself most at peace at night. Unless I’m watching Mandela catalogue and the paranoia kicks in lmao.

[@Thegamingdino133]

That's so interesting, most kids are terrified by the monsters that could be in the darkness and seek comfort in the day. However when your life is already surrounded by monsters you are no longer scared of what may be in the darkness.

[@freeloading_toad]

For me it’s the opposite. I was afraid of night time because my parents would often fight after the sun went down because that was the time when they were together after work and social obligations. We would go to bed at around 8pm and their yelling and slamming doors would wake us up much later, and all we could do was huddle in our rooms and hope that it would be over soon. They never hit each other, but their explosive shouting and occasional throwing things made us afraid that they would hurt each other by accident, so we stayed up just in case we had to call someone for help. This happened from the time I was around 4-12. When I was little, if I woke up at night when there was no arguing, I was afraid that if I woke my parents I would trigger them and they’d start yelling at me and then at each other. I had frequent sleep paralysis and the night was something evil to me.

[@livinglavishbp]

The part that really gets me is whenever the blood keeps splattering into the carpet. Seeing that a child is subjected to endless torture, and the one thing that she utters while we see her go through this is “mommy”. That just broke my heart in a way that no other horror movie has. Seeing a child go through so much pain and fear, and seeing her beg for one of the few people that made her feel safe is just so utterly terrifying.

[@idontcheckmynotifsdontboth7753]

It was the girl not boy

[@livinglavishbp]

@@idontcheckmynotifsdontboth7753 my apologies.

[@hooliganllamma]

@@idontcheckmynotifsdontboth7753 no? Kaylee disappeared before this scene, that’s Kevin

[@codygreene9067]

@@idontcheckmynotifsdontboth7753 It definitely wasn’t. By that point the girl was locked in the basement with her eyes and mouth gone.

[@MrKing-771]

It was Kevin

[@annanoga7848]

The story you shared at around the 27-minute reminded me of one of my biggest life fears: rejection and the feeling of being left alone. While some may find it amusing or trivial, this fear is a significant source of anxiety for me. When I'm alone in my apartment without my boyfriend, I often find myself needing to drown out the silence with music or by watching something, especially at night, because the quietness can be quite unsettling. I recall a particular instance when I woke up at 6:30 AM, which was the time my boyfriend was supposed to return home from his night shift. As I realized he hadn't arrived yet, panic set in. I began crying and repeatedly called him, but there was no response. It left me feeling utterly empty and profoundly alone. I wanted to share this experience because I believe many adults, like myself, carry different fears that often stem from our pasts.

[@sid7906]

I think this could also be the allegory for a suddenly abusive parent. Maybe something happened to the mom, most likely divorce with the father, that caused her to snap and become a nightmare to the Kids. Because they're so young, the disappearing doors and windows could represent them being trapped in a house that no longer feels like a home, and their mother's transformation/missing face could mean they no longer recognize the person she became, and they're trying to deal with the trauma by envisioning her as this malicious "other" so they don't have to come to terms with their mother being capable of such violence. My heart aches for these poor babies.

[@bout3fiddy]

The running gag of bringing out a gun every time Magic Spoon is mentioned is amazing.

[@the.floofinator]

They’re the only sponsorships I’m ok with watching because there so hilarious lmao

[@worstusernameintheworld9871]

@@the.floofinator tbh I prefer Drew's ad reads as they're funnier and more random but Wendigoon's are also really good, which says a lot as I still skip most ad reads

[@aliakimtheokay]

Reminds me of that one Jack Stauber lyric from Nurpo: “He speaks of what adults can’t remember and children haven’t the words to describe.” You can never really remember how terrified you were as a child sometimes. At least not truly.

[@ryebreadthebread]

Glad I wasn’t the only one who thought of that!

[@vi__o]

This comment. Is underrated . Never thought I’d say that but DAMN

[@ShottyAnimations]

Nice, a jack stauber quote

[@Sentanette]

bees

[@stonemorris5356]

11:20 it seems like Kevin DOES put the numbers in correctly, the first numbers we hear him put in are the normal digit length. Then he hits 3 digits. The last 2 digits making the same tone. So it seems like he tries to call someone he knows, then dials 911 twice. But the phone doesn't work.

[@jamesm.zippay8867]

Coming back to this video while rereading House of Leaves, it just struck me that Skinamarink is essentially The Navidson Record through the eyes of Chad and Daisy.

[@cheeseboy8241]

can we play always

[@littlegreenman609]

H Al ways L

[@bcollins3811]

idk why but the part where Kevin got some juice for his sister when she was upset really got me. theyre scared and they dont know whats happening but Kevin is still trying to be a good brother

[@snugray_p1659]

I know man. It really hit me. My brother and I have been alone and scared together and when we're genuinely scared we try to protect each other. Damn. That strikes a cord.

[@A_Black_Sheep94]

He's doing the only thing he knows how to do for his sister

[@4d1n39]

“Can we watch something happy.” That really got to me. Being so afraid that you just want to consume a media that makes you feel safe or content but all you can say is ‘something happy’ due to it coming from a child :(

[@tjrune3432]

What is most concerning in that line is that they are watching cartoons. As a kid, I put cartoons in the something happy pile, myself.

[@MrPear40]

@@tjrune3432 This might sound odd, but it reminds of that scene with Jesse and the Kid in breaking bad where the kid is watching a Random shopping channel because it’s all he has. Much like how these kids only have the television as an escape.

[@frogstronaut1220]

Yeah honestly out of everything in the movie, for some reason that line is the most chilling to me.

[@russiachan2]

That feeling even escaped to me after watching it. I would distract myself with KZbin videos and games to stop thinking about how intense this movie was, just like how Kevin played with his LEGOs to cope

[@thetwitchywitchy]

I didn’t take it like it was a separate entity, i thought the plot was around child abuse and the confusing fear children feel when the adult that’s supposed to love them and be there for them is scaring and hurting them. I genuinely took the events as the mother maybe has depression or is suffering from another mental disorder and is being abusive to the children (hence the daughter not wanting to talk about her) and then the mother killing her children because the father left (or she killed him and that’s why they said he wouldn’t wake up). All the exits leaving the home disappearing maybe tied to the mother/parents restricting the kids movement more and more and not letting them do things so they feel trapped in the house. The son “fell down the stairs” which is a common excuse in cases of children being abused by their parents. Just a lot of things make it seem like this is making a kind of statement on families and mental health.

[@michelleh.5225]

That's true, the doors and windows disappearing could symbolize how the children are ghosts and trapped inside the home.

[@goofyicerink9560]

people have free range to interpret things however but for me, it just kinda ruins the sense of fear I get from watching this it's purely subjective and there's absolutely nothing wrong with how you see it, it's just that I guess it's scarier for me when I interpret things literally (meaning that the doors and windows actually disappear and that there is a very real ethereal monster removing faces off of kids and telling them to gouge their eyes out) and my takeaway from this is that I'm a sucker for cosmic horror ig

[@ketaminepoptarts]

i think the interpretations being posted in these comments make perfect sense, but for me the scariest interpretation is that everything happening is completely literal. no metaphors, no allegories, just two little kids being senselessly tortured forever for a sadistic demons amusement.

[@ogdudu6872]

THANK YOU. How is a metaphorical interpretation scarier than a demon with the power to torment and alter reality all toward the singular goal of watching these poor young souls suffer. I completely agree

[@MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMD]

Sure, but that's much harder to relate to. I'm, on average, more scared of a home invasion than zombies. One can actually affect you.

[@RyuuzakiHideki619]

The part where Kevin can't dial 911 correctly reminds me of these somewhat recurring dreams I get where I'm trying to dial the numbers or write my own number for someone, mainly to help them, and I can't seem to dial them, or I hit the wrong numbers or something along those lines

[@sushi_xoxo]

That’s one of the worst feelings in a dream. Or when you’re trying to reach a specific location and just can’t get there. Running is useless. Screaming is useless. And mostly… trying to wake up is near impossible.

[@windude8013]

Or when you're trying to throw a punch out of defense and it feels like you're moving in slow motion or underwater

[@yeahg420]

@@windude8013 thats what i was gonna reply with. Its genuinely terrifying when theres things avidly attacking you and your body feels like a limp noodle but you can’t wake up from it

[@RyuuzakiHideki619]

@Windude oh yeah! Ugh, that's the worst in a dire situation

[@uncannyashes]

I have those dreams in a similar way, but mine is more often that I'm running from someone and I'm getting stuck in place

[@dezert956]

I grew up with severe Nightmare Disorder. My parents stopped responding to my fear. Skinamarink captures the childhood feeling of being helpless, and being terrified, as well as the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare perfectly.

[@burymeinjhenny918]

I hope you are doing better ❤️

[@Nameless-ny8nk]

Damn, I was never diagnosed with anything but as a kid and teen I never managed to sleep well, it wasn't until I finished high school 2 years ago that I realized how bad it was because I started actually sleeping, and as far as I remember my parents also ignored my fears and told me I was just looking fot attention, so I just had to lay all night in bed shitting my pants in silence so I didn't get in trouble, to this day I kinda dread going to sleep, and also asking my parents for help with anything, since every problem I had and they didn't know how to solve was caused by me simply wanting attention.

[@lofkii]

I will never understand why parents feel that if they don't acknowledge their child's fears, it'll just go away. that is definitely not how it works and could make the fears worse for that child hope you're doing better now

[@dezert956]

@@burymeinjhenny918 Don't worry I'm doing much better!

[@dezert956]

@@lofkii I'm doing much better, still have Nightmare Disorder though

[@goldenspork6749]

This thought is kind of out of left field, but as a potentially more optimistic ending, I like to imagine that the face at the end of the film is actually an angel that had finally found and was going to rescue kevin and kaylee. The white door, the angelic music. When told to go to sleep it isn't aggressive, plus in this universe where demons and hell do exist, doesn't that automatically imply the existence of a heaven, aswell as angels? Just as a final thought, I don't think a demon would take a break from murdering children just so they could squeeze a nap in. If this movie truly ended with them being killed in a loop endlessly, I feel like they would've ended it with kevin getting sprayed down the hallway, not with kevin being told to sleep.

[@michelleh.5225]

That's a good interpretation, since the entity says that it'll protect them and they'll be okay.

[@geometrak4999]

Oh my gosh, the house being flipped upside down, like with all the door frames being flipped- That hits freakishly close to home. I used to lie on the ground or stare at the ceiling and pretend I was walking on it and I would imagine what it would be like to live like that. I was obsessed with the idea when I was like 5 or 6. Seeing those images took me back in the freakiest way possible.

[@diochu2163]

the fact that you don't see the most disturbing things that happen, that you can only hear them or be aware of them is so terrifying.

[@connor48880]

Nah Show don’t tell

[@connor48880]

Especially when everything in this movie is so damn muffled and quiet

[@freedfg6694]

With the understanding that the film is a child's nightmare from their perspective. It also makes sense, since a young child of 4 has probably no knowledge of what gore looks like or even is since they've most likely never seen it in the media they consume.

[@annakiwi]

@@connor48880 "Show don't tell" is usually said in reference to overused or unnecessary exposition in media, it's not a blanket term for fucking everything. Especially not when it comes to horror or violence. You're just mindlessly repeating shit you heard someone else say.

[@lizh4244]

Diochu u might enjoy Pontypool

[@masochistic_art]

A recurring fear of mine throughout childhood, especially in nightmares, was that my loved ones had been replaced w people who looked like them but weren't really them / had sinister intentions - ESPECIALLY my mum. So the whole "mum being replaced" theory really fucks me up. It's so chilling and effective!

[@DarkCreedNinja]

This is a very (albeit almost too) common theme in Analog Horror, that this film very clearly took an aesthetic inspiration from.

[@Moody666]

i had the same exact freaking recurring nightmare, and i would cry and run to my mother because i didn't know what else to do, running away from her to her was also confusing and frightening.

[@masochistic_art]

@@Moody666 I actually vividly remember having one night terror so realistic that even though I was probably at least 15 at the time, I actually woke up in a cold sweat screaming bloody murder and when my parents came running in to see wtf was happening I started to defend myself against them thinking they were in fact the same non-parent entities as in my dream. It took me like half an hour to stop freaking out. I wasn't even embarrassed to have had that kind of freak out over a dream at such a big age, I was just so traumatised I was pure adrenaline.

[@scp-682-cu6]

Exact same with me. My mother wasn't exactly abusive, but was also dysfunctional and cold. She herself was from a broken family. I trusted her and didn't see how she was unhealthy, but I think my dreams saw that dark side and made it real

[@nade7242]

I had that too but im pretty sure im just paranoid either that or my parents are like, low key psychologically tormenting me by accident.

[@MrMrphelps]

This video reminded me of the scariest moment of my life when I also fell asleep on the couch when I was five, and my parents left me there thinking I would wake up in the morning, only to wake up at two, and wander around an alien and nightmarish version of my house that can only be felt by a bewildered child who just woke up and has no life-line

[@juxatiel6901]

My parents did this to me a lot, and each time it was just as terrifying as before. There's nothing more raw than being a little kid, surrounded by your family in the daylight, and awaking alone in the darkness.

[@baut1]

This movie is such an accurate representation of what a child's fear feels like, we as adults can't really comprehend it anymore. We hear a strange noise and we fear an intruder, a 10 year old hears a strange noise and he fears the monster, but a 5 year old, a 5 year old fears that which he can't comprehend what it is, he fears the darkness despite not knowing what could be lurking within it. We all fear the unknown, but as we grow up, that which is unknown grows smaller and smaller. Idk, I really like it

[@aclown7189]

this is absolutely the best and my favorite way I’ve seen his type of gut wrenching horror explained thank you, you’ve got it on the nail

[@jhonmiths1344]

A 5 year old only fear the threat in this movie is pure fear

[@woutertron]

Pretty much hits the nail on the head for me, although I might go even further: a 5-year old isn't even sure of the emotion he is (or should be) feeling, and that ambiguity sort of adds an extra layer to the whole situation. As I heard the director say on a podcast: "Kids that young are completely naive, to them [doors and windows vanishing] might just be a regular part of life." Viewing and interpreting the movie as an adult, seeing how innocent they are, just adds a whole extra level of dread and heartbreak. EDIT: Having now watched more of the video, Wendigoon makes many of the same points.

[@DrymouthCWW]

I still fear the darkness looool HELP!

[@elsienova4269]

I remember having a nightmare/sleep paralysis event where all my electronic toys I had on my desk turned on at once and a weird voice called out to me for like two hours straight as I was crying and trying to go asleep. I could not imagine having that sort of experience today.

[@masked_majora6475]

I will never forget a childhood memory When I was about 8 ish or so my mother bought a leather face animatronic for a Halloween decoration and me and my brothers being kids we’d sneak down stairs to play PlayStation. To keep us from sneaking down our mother placed the animatronic at the bottom of the stairs. One night I woke up to use the restroom and I walked down the hallway, took a left to the restroom and he was standing RIGHT THERE. I ran back to my room and eventually fell asleep After sleeping I had a nightmare in which I was running around my house trying to find a way out and almost every corner I turn leather face was there

[@meatymaggot]

Dude that reminds me of something that happened to me, my kindergarten teacher used to wear a Hulk mask when us kids would misbehave since she wanted to scare us. I remember I was little and was half as tall of the door or something, the bathroom was dark and I was dared to the do the Bloody Mary challenge, I went to leave the bathroom and she was right there with her mask. Dude I screamed my head off, thanks for that memory being brought back man 😂

[@hannahdesouza4565]

The way you explained your theory, with the mother letting whatever the monster is in, made me think of an abusive stepfather, and the way the mother is portrayed is kind of like she’s being abused as well, and rather than helping her children she becomes distant and just watches the violence happen to them.

[@vshiki4872]

I thought I was the only one to think about that. The children always look for their dad because that's the only adult they can trust. The stepfather is abusive and their mother enables said abuse because, otherwise, she will get abused instead. The children kinda merge the demon and the mom together because they belive their mom and stepfather to be basically the same.

[@joekonczal2808]

I agree. I don’t think it was a demon I think it was an abusive partner controlling the mother and abusing the kids.

[@A_Black_Sheep94]

I thought the dad was there the whole time though?

[@jasperlee1025]

that's what I thought! it feels to me like when mothers are also abused and become distant and hurtful towards their children out of frustration. it's incredibly common for abused moms to hit a breaking point and hurt their children so that's what I thought the scene of kevin saying "mommy?" before blood spattering on the ceiling was

[@Nikotheleepic]

@@jasperlee1025 what a pathetic excuse and diffusal of blame, if they allow their children to be abused, its on them, they should have more strength. stop making out a mother who allows their children to be abused, or abuse their children as a victim. Its thoughts like these that prevent women from having any blame because people like you.

[@robertkarnick1286]

When I was a kid I used to have this indescribable fear of mirrors in the dark. One time I was alone in my grandparents house walking down the hallway and saw my own reflection, and I just started crying and running until I found my parents. Skinamarink perfectly captured that feeling. Something about the way you never really see a human face throughout the whole film creates this horrible dread that you *might* see an unexpected face in the dark at any moment

[@OptimusPrimordial]

There was a mirrored tray and a hand mirror in the bathroom at work. It was probably decorative, but i used it. Someone put the little hand mirror face down... and I had to leave it that way until someone else moved it again. You could see darkness peeking out from the seam where the two faces of glass touched. There was this idea that darkness was gazing back at itself ad infinitum, and I had no right to disturb it. In the flickering flourecent light... alone and vulnerable in this little room... the mirrors behind me made me pretty uncomfortable.

[@roni-hu6jh]

I used to have the same fear (still kinda do) and I remember staring at the mirror that sat across from me in my room when I was younger. I was so scared, to the point I made my parents come into my room and take them out in the middle of the night. To this day I still kinda avoid looking at the mirror in my room while falling asleep.

[@pa5666]

@@Omaygot_Yugonmakmibus I remember being in Elementary school and my friends telling me about bloody mary. I literally started crying in the lunch line LOL. But that's okay, because I've been a horror fan ever since and rarely get scared of anything now! :D

[@cadenandthegirl]

I’m 26 and I don’t fuck with mirrors in the dark. That shit’s spooky as hell

[@pashazack]

in my culture, mirrors in the dark are super important. you have to cover all the mirrors in the house for seven days when someone dies, and you are not allowed to light candles in front of mirrors. Mirrors in the dark are generally regarded as passages to another world. I still cover my mirror at night

[@ronahunter7606]

There is a scene where a light goes out and the kids try to turn it back on. So i dont think they were using flashlights because they couldn't reach the light switches.

[@SchwererGustavThe800mm]

Seeing this as a horror film from the perspective of a child, it reminds me so much of an old indy game from about 10 years back. It was called 'Among the Sleep' I think, its a horror game played from the perspective of a baby or toddler.

[@flowersforthedead5182]

I really felt like this was about child abuse. Dad's gone. Doors gone. Then toilets gone. But first the phone call. The head injury. Kevin keeps "hurting himself" the eye. And also how the voice is like a guardian but also a tormentor when the toilet disappeared it really solidified this in my head because of horror stories where kids are abused and kept from using facilities. And locked away for let's say....572 days.

[@oonooooooooo]

and the fact that theres this thing that if the children don't obey they get hurt or in trouble. the hurting himself thing feels like what abusive parents typically reply when someone asks how the kid got injured, and its reinforced by the fact that it's the thing's fault, and maybe it actually straight up did it, and not kevin, impled by the line “you did that“.

[@casketman14]

I agree with you BUT I believe that the windows, doors and lights are off because those objects are somewhat foreign to kids. When you’re a kid, you only know of your parents and have that natural love for them so leaving is almost not an option. The part where he has that dialogue with police dispatcher but it ends up all not being real solidifies the fact that the kids started to understand something wasn’t right but didn’t have the means or just didn’t have it in them to seek help.

[@tekunoraizu]

I agree completely, I got the vibe that this film was about childhood abuse. Especially the doors and windows disappearing either being locked or boarded up in a way that there is no escape. The tormentor being a familiar adult or guardian but with their facial figures disfigured or distorted.

[@tekunoraizu]

@@casketman14 "The part where he has that dialogue with police dispatcher but it ends up all not being real" it could have been real but with how the police system/CPS in America works they could have been turned away or the case being dismissed when the parent refused to allow entry into the home. :(

[@casketman14]

@@tekunoraizu I don’t think that’s true or atleast it depends on state.

[@hyungette]

i watched skinamarink with subtitles, and i think the implication is that there are many instances of kaylee and kevin attempting to turn the lights on, but they no longer work. specifically in the kitchen at one point, you can hear the light switch clicking repeatedly, and nothing happens. i think it was the upstairs lights/staircase lights that first stopped working, which explains the flashlights.

[@AbsentMinded619]

Yeah even a toddler can reach a light switch so I doubt they’re too small.

[@Rayneworld]

Oh good to know! I was gonna say Wendi's comment about not reaching the light switches bothered me lmao. My 2yr old nephew knows how to reach the light switch ffs, moreso than me sometimes 😂I was babysitting him once and we were going outside and he reached to turn off the light before we went out since I had forgotten lol

[@geoffreymesser2121]

My very own Skinamarink toy telephone was a glow-in-the-dark soccer ball I kept in the top of my closet when I was a kid. Like it was said, I have that specific memory burned into my brain, but all the memory consists of is the image of a dark room with a pair of glowing eyes placed unnaturally high up in what I know is my closet, and the feeling of a pit of fear in my stomach. I truly commend Skinamarink for doing an excellent job of reminding a person what fear felt like as a child who is severely lacking in rational explanations for things. Bravo!

[@renoenjoyer9570]

For me, Skinamarink is like that feeling of waking up in the middle of the night to go get water, like, you know there's people in the house. But they're not awake. If you screamed, people would hear you. But still, if that dark shadow in the corner of the pitch black kitchen could kill you. But not really, it's not real. But it could be. Like, i cant explain it well, but it's very much the feeling of being scared of something that doesn't exist, but at the same time, it feels so real but so fake that you just kinda run back to your room after finishing your glass of water.

[@max-rdj9741]

It's irrational, but it's instinct. I laugh at how I get up to go to the bathroom at night and try to get there and back as quickly as possible because there's obviously a demon chasing me, but I do it quietly so as to not wake anyone. Only true altruists prioritise other people's sleep over their own survival

[@Helblind]

I am leaning towards the "growing up in an abusive home" scenario. The "falling down the stairs" as a common cover up for abuse, being trapped in your own home, a lack of help from the outside, the loss of self that can occur. Personal theory: the mother is suffering from Schizophrenia, which the kids translate into Skinamarink, a word they are familiar with.

[@badomen7199]

Then why would the children call out for the mother as though she wasn't even there? If she was the one hurting them, why would they call to her for help

[@ArchiveOfOurTaylor]

Yes. This exactly.

[@ArchiveOfOurTaylor]

@@badomen7199 because she’s their mother. Abusers sometimes manipulate situations to make their victims feel like they’re their only safe-haven, especially if it’s a parent. If I figure out how to describe it accurately, I will. Right now, though, I don’t know how to explain it. Abuse is weird and it fucks with your head in weird ways.

[@badomen7199]

@@ArchiveOfOurTaylor ig so

[@badomen7199]

@@glyndwr15 yeah

[@joeyk3134]

Wendigoon warning me with a straight face that a movie is disturbing is the most ominous thing I've seen in years and has convinced me to see the movie.

[@MrSandChess]

Fell for that and watched it before watching this video and I wish I had just watched this video instead. The movie wasn’t my cup of tea. If "Lynchian" experimental atmospheric suspense movies with excessive film grain, minimal dialogue, and obscenely drawn out camera panning shots are your thing then you’re gonna love it. The movie is fantastic and deserves all the praise it’s received but it’s not for everybody.

[@apothecurio]

It is also incredibly slow. So slow that most people will be bored to tears. If you can really enter a meditative state, sink, and not worry about what’s happening, going to happen, or has happened, It’s a one of kind world class horror experience.

[@AmericanGadfly]

Theres nothing disturbing about this movie

[@apothecurio]

@@AmericanGadfly It’s all subjective. Horror being the most. Though I would definitely agree. Not disturbing, just incredibly creepy.

[@DARTHNEWS]

This movie absolutely sucks. But hey, that's just me.

[@Set666Abominae]

Good experimental art is polarising. As a big heavy metal fan, you listen to something like Five the Hierophant either loving or hating it. There’s almost never anyone who falls in between. Skinamarink does this perfectly. You either left the cinema terrified, or frustrated. You certainly aren’t forgetting the experience though!

[@Kropothead]

Yeah, meaningful art means taking some risks. Skinamarink is certainly not afraid to risk alienating part of the audience to make its point.

[@Mursaat100]

Great video! However I don't agree on the demon analysis. I personally think the evidence is rather clear that this is a dream/hallucination that occurs within Kevin's head, likely as a result of falling down the stairs, due to the following: SURREAL CINEMATOGRAPHY - The strongest argument I see for this thesis is how the entire movie is shot; it is highly surrealistic: Space and time is distorted (windows are gone, objects move around/disappear, and things appear to not happen chronologically), the sound is also very unnatural, and the camera angles are completely off. All very much reminiscent of a dream. SURREAL REACTIONS - The dialogue between the kids is extremely limited; one would assume that kids would normally talk more at a difficult time like this to comfort each other. A plausible explanation for this is that Kevin is in a hospital bed in a coma with Kaylee sitting next to her. He occasionally sleep-talks (or imagines talking to her), and hears her voice in his dream as she is talking to him. - An extremely characteristic thing about dreams is that you suddenly find yourself in a very irregular circumstance, but don't notice anything particularly strange about it. This is consistent with the fact that despite the situation they are in, the kids seem at many places very calm about it rather than panicking. A clear example is where Kayle decides to go alone upstairs (when she finds the parents); this makes very little sense if this had been real-life, as a 6-year old girl in an empty dark house with a mysterious/scary figure would not dare to go away alone like this, and if she did, she would be absolutely terrified. KALEY LEAVES AND MEETS PARENTS - Kaley's ability to walk away and talk to the parents makes sense from the dream-perspective since she (in real life) is able to go home with her parents and speak to them, leaving Kevin behind at the hospital. The scene is very limited in dialogue and context, which makes sense as Kaley is only able to explain very little context for Kevin in the hospital. - After Kayle talks to dad, the mother tells her that they love their children, which is often done before something bad/difficult happens, and she also tells Kayle to look away. Shortly after you hear bones breaking, likely referring to the mother taking her own life (hanging) due to the circumstances. Kayle tells Kevin she doesn't want to talk about their mum, likely due to knowing somehow that she is gone (ambiguous if she has personally witnessed her mother dead). Of course, Kayle says this in a scene BEFORE this occurs, but remember that time is distorted, so events do not necessarily appear in a chronological order. HOSPITAL BED, SURGERY & DEATH - While much of the dialogue in the movie is unclear, the dialogue where the father explains that Kevin fell down the stairs is quite clear and also in the beginning of the movie, highlighting that this is important to the story. - The knife in the eye most likely refers to Kevin having some sort of surgery where they are cutting in his body, likely around his head due to his head trauma. In conjunction with this event, he stops being able to see (i.e recognize) faces due to damages to his brain (possibly due to the surgery). The "demon" forcing the knife into him is likely his imagination trying to explain what is happening to him, picturing an abstract separate entity (which commonly appears in dreams) which is forcing a knife into him. In the same way, Kevin's imagination also "blames" this entity for removing his sister's face (as he is unable to understand/know the true cause). - The blood you see in the end is likely the surgery taking place; it is repeated several times due to the dream being chronologically inconsistent. The doctors are unable to save him. He dies and gets to be with his mom who tells him to go to sleep. This line can be interpreted as: She is now with him as he enters the afterlife; it is still a sort of dream-state where the room for human dialogue is still very limited, so she cannot say very much, but she supports him by telling him that he can now sleep/rest in peace.

[@tomcruise8578]

A friend and I went to see it, and we were able to sum it up like this; Childhood fear boils down to: "I'm afraid of being alone. I'm afraid of the dark. I'm afraid of being hurt." When you're seeing everything from their perspective the movie does an excellent job of making you feel all of those fears, and when it switches perspectives to down the hall or around the corner it's normally so you can just hear the kids screaming and it plays off your adult fear of kids being in distress.

[@ratelimited]

@@KINGJERMARCUS ur mid asf and bl*ck 🤮🤮

[@Faeree]

I was under the assumption it was the other child witnessing it, but I just keep watching reviews of it. I can't watch it on its own XD

[@Dookieman1975]

Worse part is, you’re not really afraid of being in the dark, you’re just afraid of being stuck with any possible threat without sight to help you. And this is so much worse because you can’t do anything about it, you can’t wander and find it in the dark, and the light switches are right there but you’re too small.

[@elmamba7495]

@@Dookieman1975 it’s not the dark it’s the unknown

[@chips6042]

This film feels like what it was like to grow up in a bad household. There's an emptiness in my chest that identifies with this film too much. No windows, no doors, no escape. A screaming demon, a stab to the eye, the seal of a mouth, the screams in another room. "Let's watch something happy," I grew up with TV. Edit: Also, after thinking about it, the mom turning into a monster and telling her daughter to close her eyes could easily be how parents tell their kids "It hurts me more than you," , "This is for your own good," or "I have to do this," Before hitting them. Kids, specially young, sometimes don't see the angry/disciplinary version of their parents as their actual parents, they either pretend their parents are possessed or turn into a monster to protect their innocent minds.

[@ProbablyBees]

Absolutely agree from the perspective of another bad household. What hit me the hardest was the photos near the end and how easily they can be converted to coping strategies. Mouthless and Eyeless - don't see it, don't speak about it. Headless - follow orders. Do what you're told. Hope it's enough to satisfy them. The moments where you can tell the kids are listening, just listening, to see what is upstairs are almost nostalgic.

[@christophercortez7191]

I like the concept and idea around this movie a lot but i thought the execution was lacking and never made me forget that i was watching “edited film”. The illusion never took hold and i was aware i was watching a movie with a super stylized gimmick (for lack of a better word).

[@rubenhinze7695]

I had a similar experience to your story about waking up alone. When I was about eight, we lived in a really old house that had been abandoned for about a century. It was always my parents' dream to fix up an old farmhouse and live there. They'd been working on this place for 2 years at that point, but when we moved in it was obviously still a bit dilapitated and we'd only moved a few pieces of furniture into the house - beds, some couches and a microwave. I remember this one night I woke up for some reason. You know when it feels like you had a bad dream but you can't remember any of it, just that you're happy to be awake? Anyway, I whispered to my older brother who slept in a seperate bed in the same room and asked if he was awake. He didn't answer so I assumed he was still asleep. I tried going back to sleep, but I just had this unsettling fear from that forgotten dream. The room was also pitch-black, whereas there was usually a light on outside just to show any homeless people that someone was home and they couldn't live there anymore. Anyway, the light was off for some reason, which made me more unsettled. Eventually I whispered to my brother again, but he still didn't answer, so I got up to wake him up he wasn't there. I think that was the first time I felt pure dread, because my brother had always been there to protect me and now he was just gone. I tried to turn the light on, but there was no electricity. I wasn't really scared of the dark since power outtages had been common in South-Africa for as long as I could remember, but I'd never woken up so late before and hadn't fully understood the concept that if there's a power ottage at night there's no light. I started calling out to my parents but no one answered, so I went to their room, and to my terror they were gone too. I don't know how long I stumbled through the house but it felt like days and after I stopped crying I just remember this feeling that things wouold never make sense again. Eventually my parents and brother came back. It turns out that there was this whole ordeal where a cow was struggling to give birth and my parents had to perform a C-Section on it and called my brother to help out and I was a heavy sleeper, so wasn't aware of any of this. Luckily, both the cow and the calf survived, but I'll never forget the terror of feeling like I've woken up in a desolate world where nothing would ever make sense again.

[@MrSkysenGames]

Now I want a looping horror story where the people in the loop are able to age, even if slowly, and gradually become accustomed to the horror aspects and start living their lives normally and just rolling with the horror moments between loops. Starts out with a full family, ends up with whatever children grown up, maybe the parents too old to do much.

[@johngriffiths118]

Brilliant comment Dude

[@riotx0034]

I'd love that

[@Pale_Empress]

that actually reminds me of that spongebob episode where the flying Dutchman haunts or moves in with Spongebob and he always scares him but after some time Spongebob gets acustomed to it and is just like "meh" and then the flying Dutchman has a (after) life crisis or smth

[@peachdoesart7175]

What if it goes in reverse and after whatever entity is torturing them gets bored they age backwards and lose their memories of the torment and slowly re age over and over in the hell loop of aging and de aging, remembering and forgetting

[@samuelsmith5400]

brilliant idea, could implement themes of generational trauma and how everyone is "born into it" yet because of its normaility no one seems fased.

[@Rachelprincesszelda]

As a child in an abusive household: there is nothing more terrifying than finally asking for help…just for nothing to happen. It’s giving “I have no voice but I must scream.”

[@cesiumverbal102]

it's "i have no mouth and i must scream".

[@billvader6433]

i opened this comment as i said it out loud

[@kozukitonio740]

no not really. screaming doesn’t change anything if you asking for help didn’t

[@tylerhamilton9464]

Did y'all really ignore the abuse part? Homie I feel you. I was abused too and I know it's tough

[@kozukitonio740]

@@tylerhamilton9464 who cares?

[@OliverCrixton]

the idea of skinamarink in my head is wayyyy better than the actual act of watching all 100 minutes of it. usually disagree with ppl who say something would work better as a short but id like a 25 minute version a whole lot more. but its kind of miserable to sit through as it is

[@johnwaggner9143]

I have a similar story of being alone. When I was probably about 6 or 7, I had woken up in the middle of a cloudy night in the complete darkness. Usually my parents would have left the light in my closet on as a nightlight, but for whatever reason they hadn't and my room was PITCH black. The darkest room I have ever been in, the kind of darkness that makes you uncertain which way is up. I wasn't scared by the darkness necessarily, but I was uneasy because I literally could not see anything. I had woken up thirsty, so I climbed out of bed, hands outstretched and groping in the darkness, and before taking even 3 timid steps my hands met something solid. A wall. There was a wall in front of me, cold and rough against my hands. This was distressing to me because I knew I had gotten off the right side of my bed, towards my door, and I had walked about halfway into my room, so the only explanation was that there was now a wall between me and my door, trapping me in my room. I started to panic, I called out for my mom who was just in the other room, I felt around to see if there was a way through the wall to no avail. I started crying and pounding on the wall, which hurt my hands because the walls in our house had textured paint that scratched my hands, I pushed on the wall to try and knock it over but got nowhere. I cried and wailed for my mom and slumped against this wall that trapped me in my room, defeated, surrounded by the absolute darkness that had swallowed me whole. I don't know how long I was there crying. It may have been an hour, it may have been 5 minutes. But eventually I regained the courage to try and escape, and I decided to get back to my bed. I turned around, hands outstretched, and immediately felt my bed. I had not walked nearly as far as I had, and I realized what had happened. My bed was in the corner of my room, but not close enough to the wall that I would hit my head on it as I tossed and turned at night. In the disorienting darkness, I had woken up in a different position than I'd gone to sleep, and I'd climbed down into the gap between my bed and the wall. I crawled back into my bed, got down on the opposite side, and after a few tense moments of padding in the dark I found the opposite wall with my door. I went downstairs, got myself some water, and went back to bed, making sure to turn on the closet light this time. The absolute terror and despair I felt in that moment has stayed with me since then, and to this day my bed has ALWAYS remained fully pushed into the corner of my room, so this could NEVER happen again. The only person I think was more upset about it was my mom when I told her about it, because like I said she was sleeping in the room across the hall from mine. It was her worst nightmare; her child screaming and crying for her and pounding on the walls for help, and she hadn't heard any of it.

[@PinkBarbarianBucket]

This movie reminded me so much of the worst nightmare I ever had, back when I was 8 years old, the fear was so palpable that 20 years later, I remember it like it was yesterday. It started with me sitting on my childhood bed, wondering where my brother was, only to see my dad running into the room, terrified. He begged me to close my eyes and to not open it, no matter what, he looked back at the door, scared, and proceeded cover his eyes with his hands and to lay face down on a bed next to mine. Scared out of my mind, I copied him. And just as I had done that, I knew it was there, I don’t know what it was, or what it wanted, but I KNEW it was there. It just…lingered, and slowly made its way into the room. It never made a sound, it never spoke, I didn’t even hear footsteps, it was like a shadow making its way in. And it stayed there, I could feel it looking at us, just waiting, waiting for me to make a sound, waiting for me to give into my curiosity and just take a peek. It only needed a peek. It was almost like, looking at it would give it permission to do what it wanted, somehow I knew that. I could FEEL it looking at me, inches from me, waiting. It stayed there, for what it felt like an eternity, till I heard my dad screaming. I didn’t know if he had looked at it, if it forced him, or if it was the creature playing tricks on me, but the scream was so real. I kept my eyes closed, wondering if I should just open them and get this over with, just end it already, and just as I did that, I woke up. I sat in bed, telling myself it wasn’t real, trying to calm myself down. I had that nightmare as a 8 yo kid, and I still remember so clearly.

[@nitroglycerin6633]

Having nightmares when you were a kid was the most terrifying thing I swear. When I was 7-8 years old I had a reoccurring nightmare where I would be in my room or some other familiar location, and time would freeze around me and it was usually really dark for some reason, or during night. I would then get a feeling of intense fear and I wouldn't be able to move cause of how acute the feeling was. Then I would just stare as a tall lanky figure would slowly approach me and I would wake up. I have a terrible memory yet I remember that very clearly

[@skittlewizard8537]

Weirdly enough I had a similar dream. It started off with me sitting on a bed with my brother and cousin. The lights were on and it was daytime. Nothing to give me a heads up that I was having a nightmare. Then we heard this sound coming down the hallway. It was an incoherent chorus, just a bunch of voices repeating the same word over and over and it was coming fast. My brother and cousin immediately covered their heads with a pillow (didn't have the courtesy to tell me to do the same thing), so I was slow in following them. I remember reaching for the pillow when the sound spilled in from the open door and I seized up. I didn't see anything, but I knew something was there. I got the sensation (or image I guess? It was a dream after all) that my head was being separated from my neck. Not in a violent, bloody way but it was as if it were never even attached to my body. I woke up after that.

[@GoldPrince2468]

@@chocolate_maned_wolf Did you even read the comment? Their dad, typically seen as their child’s protector, is witnessed absolutely terrified of something he can’t defend against. That nightmare was in psychological warfare mode off the bat. Guaranteed self induced trauma.

[@The_True_Mx_Pink]

I know this exact feeling. I had a nightmare where I laid in a bed people told me not to, a bed where I was told by those same people to not open my eyes. When I laid down and closed my eyes... the dread was indescribable. I never saw what it was, but I didn't need to to know it was there. I could feel it's eyes staring at me, patiently waiting for my eyelids to rot, to weaken, to burn away, so it could do what it felt like it could. It was as if fear itself believed I didn't understand what it truly meant to be afraid, and saw to it this sin would be corrected. Eventually, it left as it came, completely soundless and unnoticed, save for the weight of a thousand tormented souls disappearing. Not a whisper, not a creak, not even a step, but the undeniable presence it held slowly faded away as the intensity decided it wasn't worth it anymore. My eyes still remained shut for a while after that. After some time, I opened my eyes and I was back in my bed.

[@cyberostrich3460]

Honestly that seems to be a common theme in some nightmares because I've had a lot where my mind told me not to look at it at all. And every time if I did the dream either ended and I woke up, or a face would jump out at me like a jumpscare and it would scream at me. One dream for example that I had was when I was 7 or so, I was in the bathroom with the lights off facing the shower. I called for my mom out of terror because I had no idea what was going on but nobody else was in the house. All of the electricity in the house was just off for some reason too. The only way I could see is that it was daytime and the duplex I was living in had a window in the shower for some reason (yes it really had a window literally in the shower in real life too), but the light from outside was shining in. I couldn't stop myself from slowly walking to the shower even though I was crying and screaming for help. I eventually stopped right at the shower and pulled the curtains open fast and something jumped out at me and all I could see was a face. It was something human, but not. Something was wrong about it but I don't really know how to put it. It looked so alien, but so normal at the same time. Then I woke up crying. I'm trying to figure out why it's something instinctual and in our instincts that would make us fear looking at whatever it is. Like I would think we would do whatever we can to see a threat so we can fight or flight, but it seems like for some reason when it comes to this our instincts are telling us no matter what, do NOT look at it or it will get you. What in our history of humans could have caused an instinct like that?

[@derick1908]

I figured the mom had died before the movie starts. It seemed like the dad was taking care of both kids by himself. The line 'i dont want to talk about mom' reminds me of a young kid unable to process their mother is gone

[@maloryfunction2260]

The dad could have been on the phone with his own parents

[@derick1908]

@Malory Function it also explains why the demon/entity was so interested in taking the mother's form. If she's already dead it makes sense why they would use her as a fear tactic

[@NyanCatHerder]

My impression was that she was abusive (although I don't think that the movie is *about* abuse), and the two children are being raised by their father. Kaylee is able to process that to a limited extent, while Kyle is too young to really understand that.

[@gamesunlimitedgames]

i believe the mother is dead, and the father had fallen into an addiction that makes him abusive towards the children. i think the movie is the personification of the abuse towards the children from the father, also mixed in with greif for their mother. my theory is that the torture is performed by the mother in the children's eyes (even though it's their father) because they somehow feel like its their mom's fault for dying and their father becoming a monster, all the while they still miss and love her. explains why the voice will switch between their mother's and a monster. the altering state of the house and disappearing exits symbolizes how trapped the children feel, and the disappearing toilet might represent the lack of care and negligence from their father.

[@maximilianschulz6455]

I got to watch it yesterday and am still blown away by it. It's been a while since I felt that kind of dread and despair in a movie theater. But also one person fell asleep, we could hear him snore, what kind of counter caricatured the experience.