Gabriel Barcelo

I came to this movie "almost" completely blind, due to the amount of praise and reach I've seen through the internet, especially TikTok. So with that being said, I knew that this movie was, for the most part, very unique to most blockbuster horror movies I've seen previously. I never got to researching beforehand about the story, what It was about, or how scary it was, I just knew for a fact from word-of-mouth that this movie was interesting. So, let's go over the main "story plot" of this movie. From what I can remember, its a story about two little children named Kevin and Kaylee (I believe).As they wake up from their slumber, they notice that their father is nowhere to be found. They also notice that, in their house, it appears that all of the windows and doors seem to be missing, meaning that there is no possible way of leaving, and with that, there’s an unknown demonic entity pledging and tricking the two children into a long goose chase. I wont go into any further details due to any spoiler reasons, but If you want to, you can watch it. First, lets talk about the positives about this movie. From a creative stand-point, I really did enjoy this movie. The Cinematography of this film, though very simple and straightforward, really gets it's point across. From it's story, I'm a little mixed with both negatives and positives, but for this case, I believe that there's more positives than negatives. Again, the story is simple and to-the-point, but from other horror movies I've seen, It was really interesting to see how they implemented the story. The environment. Oh boy, I have a lot to talk about that. The environment, I believe, is the only reason why this movie stands out. The usage of grain from an old cam-recorder from the 80s, to the sound of old, vintage television cartoons, is really selling the effect of it's "scary-ness." It kept me on edge, most of the time. Now, let's talk about the negatives. I feel like, for me, the only reason why I didn't particularly enjoy this movie is it's length. It really goes on for far to long, and a lot of people seem to agree with that, as well. Like, for instance, as of recently, Analog horror, which is semi in the same group or category and Skinamarink, has been going though a huge surge in popularity, which the majority of Analog horror is uploaded on Youtube. Analog Horror's length usually ranges from 10 to maybe 45 minutes, at best. But for me, and this might be a biased opinion so take this with a grain of salt, Skinamarink is WAY to long. In addition to that statement, I feel like it would've best been suited if It were a 30 to 45 minute film instead of it being almost two hours long, which is WAY to long, for me at least. Another negative about this film is the length of shots. There's some shots, in specific, that are too long. From what I can remember, there's one shot that goes on for maybe 4-5 minutes of just a shot of a long hallway. Another thing to add. The environment was a lot more scarier than the actually jump scares. Considering that I LOVE horror movies, and maybe jump scared don't affect me at all, again, take my opinion with a grain of salt, I feel like the jump scares weren't really jump scares, at all. And if they were actually jump scares, they felt more like cheap scares just for the heck of it. But, a lot of people have different ranges of emotions to scary movies, so I don't know. Overall, I would give this movie a 6 to a 6.5 out of 10. Great movie, HUGE flaws.