Lo-fi microbudget horror film Skinamarink is headed to theaters after scoring a distribution deal with IFC Midnight. After a buzz-making debut at this year’s Montreal Fantasia Film Festival, the Canadian indie has been acquired by Shudder, which will stream the movie following its theatrical run. The deal will provide a legal way for fans to see the film which had been plagued by a premature pirated copy that made the rounds following the film’s festival premiere.
Filmed digitally, Skinamarink affects the feel of 1980s-era video rentals and a movie night gone bad. When two small children awake to find their parents gone and all the doors and windows of their house vanished, they craft a fortress of sheets and pillows in the living room, playing old cartoons to escape their fears hoping their parents will return before the otherworldly presence they begin to feel comes to claim them first.
The movie is the debut directorial effort of Kyle Edward Ball who also wrote and produced the film. “I’m thrilled that after months of keeping it secret, I can finally tell everyone that my weird movie is going to be in theaters and on Shudder,” Ball told Variety. Ball had previously asked fans to avoid watching the film until a non-pirated legal version was available to them.
The film has generated a minor following on social media platforms already, with users on TikTok, Reddit, and the movie social networking site Letterboxd with users praising the film’s feel and look as a combination of found footage and the early work of indie directors such as David Lynch. Reviewer Josh Korngut of Dread Central praised the movie as “a deeply unsettling exploration of death, childhood, and the house you grew up in.”
Skinamarink stars Lucas Paul and Dali Rose Tetreault as the two children and Ross Paul and Jaime Hill as their parents. It’s set to debut theatrically on Jan. 13.