Skinamarink is dripping with atmosphere; it’s an experience, one that requires you to keep talking to a minimum, or none at all, and to watch and listen. Even if you gave the film your undivided attention, you’d be forgiven if you missed a few details considering Skinamarink doesn’t blatantly clue you in on what’s going on except through context. Still, it wouldn’t hurt if you just got the Skinamarink plot summary from us.
Spoiler Warning: The following article contains massive spoilers. This is a summary of the film, after all. You have been warned.
Plot Summary for Skinamarink
Skinamarink opens to a dimly lit home in 1995. Television shows can be heard in the background as two kids, Kevin and his older sister Kaylee, roam the house playing with toys. Suddenly, the house goes dark, the house creaks and moan. Silence for a moment, only to be broken by Kevin falling down steps and crying.
Lights turn on, and Kevin and Kaylee’s dad starts the car and takes Kevin to the hospital. He sustained an injury to the head but apparently didn’t require stitches. However, when Kaylee goes to look for her dad in the middle of the night, he’s missing. It’s just her and Kevin, but that’s not the worst of it: the windows and doors are disappearing.
The children attempt to call 9-1-1 for help but are unsuccessful. Out of fear, Kevin and Kaylee decide to camp downstairs in the living room, where there’s light and cartoons. After a short nap and some food, the children hear a loud thud and scraping. When they investigate, they discover a chair stuck to the ceiling.
Part 2 – Father Returns and Mother, Too
Nature calls when Kevin awakens to what feels like another day passing. He wakes Kaylee, hoping she’ll come with him to the bathroom. However, like the windows and doors, the toilet disappears, leaving them no other option than to use buckets because there’s no way they’re going upstairs.
At this point, things are getting even worse. Whatever entity invaded their home isn’t playing games anymore. Sticking dolls and chairs to the ceiling was cute, but it’s now beckoning to them, starting with Kaylee. From the darkness, a distorted voice calls, and Kaylee obeys.
Kaylee makes her way upstairs, to her parent’s bedroom where she finds her father sitting alongside the bed. He’s unresponsive, other than to utter “Look under the bed.” Kaylee complies, looks twice, and finds nothing. While she was looking, her father disappears again, but Kaylee isn’t alone: her mother is on the other side of the bed.
What should have been an alleviating moment for her, in either case, is quickly twisted into a nightmare. After professing her love for her children, Kaylee’s mother tells her that someone else is in the room with them and that she needs to go back downstairs. Incoherent muttering can be heard, followed by struggles and the sound of bones and chewing.
Kaylee returns to the living room with her brother, but the entity isn’t done with her yet. Heavy breathing emanates from the pitch-black hallway, followed by the same distorted voice calling to her. Kevin calls for Kaylee, but she doesn’t respond.
Part 3 – I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Poor, sleepy Kevin is awakened by the entity. It calls to him, to leave the safety of the living room and down into the basement. Kevin listens and as he slowly descends into the basement, his name is called more frequently and in a manner that sounds muffled, like someone is talking against their hand. Is it the entity again?
No, it’s Kaylee, at least what’s left of her. Both of her eyes and mouth have been taken, smoothed over as if she never had them to begin with. Naturally, Kevin runs away, back to the safety of the living room, but what he doesn’t realize is that the entity is there, too.
It keeps calling to him, to play with toys, to go to sleep, even showing off its powers by sticking toys to the walls, controlling the TV, and making toys disappear. It continues to make demands, but Kevin isn’t having it.
After demanding to play several times, the entity retrieves a safety knife and tells Kevin to stick the knife in his eye. Screaming pierces the painfully quiet house; Kevin’s labored breathing can be heard. Eventually, Kevin attempts to call 9-1-1, but this time he gets through to someone and tries to explain the situation, only for the entity to turn the phone into a toy.
Part 4- The End
As if it didn’t already take enough from him, the entity commands Kevin to come upstairs. What choice does he have now? Kaylee is missing her eyes and mouth, and the entity is certainly capable of anything. Up the stairs, Kevin goes into a room full of darkness and horrifying noises.
The next time a light turns on, it’s Kevin’s flashlight, which also revealed that it’s been 572 days since Kevin was trapped by the entity. It’s nothing but him, an ever-expanding hallway, and a pile of toys the entity likely stole from other children over time. What follows after are images of other victims, faceless, distorted, and disappearing.
Finally, the entity revealed itself, but even then only barely. It practically blends in with the darkness, a featureless face just like the rest. It wants Kevin to sleep now, completely ignoring his request to tell Kevin who it is.
With Kevin seemingly trapped forever or perhaps dead, this is the end of the road for our Skinamarink plot summary. We’ll leave the interpretation up to you, though. What do you think happened to Kevin, Kaylee, and their parents for that matter? Are they in hell? Purgatory? Maybe Kevin’s injury put him in a coma. Sound off in the comments on what you think is going on.
