Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Skinamarink.
Imagine waking up in a dark house as a child with no sign of your parents anywhere. Instead, all that consumes your senses is pitch-black corners and sheer emptiness. It’s a crippling, terrifying feeling that all of us undoubtedly know all too well, but that certainly doesn’t make it any less scary.
This is essentially Kyle Edward Ball’s Skinamarink in a nutshell, which perfectly explains why the experimental feature has become a bonafide cult classic in the horror realm.
And after the eerie flick went on to recoup its budget 60 times over, the fascination has almost become too insane to even imagine. With that being said, one of the hottest aspects surrounding the fresh-faced feature is its bizarre premise and bone-chilling ending — both of which have generated heavy discussions all over the web.
What is Skinamarink about?
Although the title of the film feels incredibly silly, being that it borrows lyrics from a children’s song, the movie is anything less than silly. The story centers around Kevin and Kaylee — a four-year-old brother and six-year-old sister who awaken to find that their parents are nowhere to be found and that their house is missing all of its doors and windows.
All that’s left in the house are scattered toys, Lego blocks, darkness, and a presumed reality of perpetual sorrow.
At the beginning of the movie, it’s revealed that Kevin suffered a horrible accident after falling down the stairs. While Kevin seems perfectly fine later on in the film, there are credible reasons to believe that Kevin’s injury was much worse than it appears.
In the aftermath of the accident, Kevin and Kaylee must coexist in their dark house to try and locate their parents, who have mysteriously vanished. However, a faint voice can be heard at specific moments, in which the voice instructs Kevin to do certain things.
The Skinamarink ending, explained
In the end, Kevin appears to “die” as blood is splattered across one of the walls in the home. Kevin is heard screaming over and over, with folks convinced that the entity was finally able to take over Kevin and do what he wanted. However, the ending isn’t exactly clear-cut on paper, and a hidden bed of theories unsurprisingly rests beneath the surface.
During the movie, it becomes quite clear that the children are not alone in the house. Rather, a mysterious and demented entity appears to be toying with them, torturing them with barbaric intentions. And while some fans are convinced that this entity is one of demonic proportions, other moviegoers have dissected the details and reached a different conclusion.
Is Kevin in a coma?
One of the theories surrounding the movie’s ending is that Kevin’s fall down the stairs resulted in him being trapped in a coma. As a result, it’s believed that everything Kevin is experiencing — his sister’s face disappearing, his parents being too far to find, and a strange voice whispering to him — is the manifestation of his subconscious.
During most of the movie, numbers are displayed at the bottom of the screen, which could indicate how long Kevin has been in his coma. Eventually, the numbers trickle down, and it’s assumed that Kevin succumbs to his injuries — which would explain his screaming and feeling trapped in a constant loop of time.
Is Skinamarink about child abuse?
This theory assists with another theory, which alludes to the fact that Kevin and his sister were being abused by either one parent or both. When the voice whispers harmful things to Kevin, it could likely be his mind replaying moments from which his parents would whisper unsettling things to him in fits of abuse and rage.
On the other hand, the movie could also be taken at its face value, which includes a demonic presence that is haunting the home — having killed Kevin and Kaylee’s parents and now sticking around to harm them. Either way, the film is a truly horrifying cinematic experience that fuels childhood nightmares — although it’s most certainly worthy of a watch.
