LOS ANGELES — "Skinamarink," the runaway success story of the moment, is at once the stuff of literal nightmares and every indie filmmaker's dream: a $15,000 chiller that's earned $1.8 million in theaters in a matter of weeks. And, love it or hate it, polarizing reactions have made writer-director Kyle Edward Ball's experimental debut feature — in which two young siblings wake up in the middle of the night to find their father gone, the doors and windows missing and a malevolent entity in the shadows — cinema's latest word-of-mouth sensation.
Crowdfunded and filmed over seven days in Ball's childhood home, the film's unlikely journey to box office success has not been without stumbles. It premiered last summer at film festivals only to be leaked online in the fall, leaving Ball "panicked and terrified," then was discovered and hailed on TikTok, Reddit and other social media platforms as one of the scariest movies ever made. In a strategic move, IFC Films shifted its theatrical release from October to January, and the outsize reactions to the film have only strengthened "Skinamarink's" must-see mystique. (It's also streaming now on Shudder.)
It's no wonder that the Edmonton, Alberta-based Ball, in Los Angeles for the first time this week to screen his viral horror hit, is still processing the roller-coaster ride that landed him here. "Everything that a filmmaker dreams that would happen to them, except for winning an Oscar, has happened to me in the span of just a couple of months," he said ahead of a special screening Thursday night at the Ace Hotel.
