An Edmonton-produced film has received rave reviews from The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Rolling Stone — and has now grossed over a million dollars at the box office.
director Kyle Edward Ball’s debut film, skinmarkScreenings have been sold out in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles, with audience members calling it ‘the scariest thing I’ve ever seen’.
The film was shot in the Edmonton director’s childhood home with a small budget of US$15,000 and is quite possibly the talk of the horror film world right now.
John Kemech, the film’s associate producer, is also a novice in the film world — his only other credit is on a documentary about Edmonton’s Waste Management Center — and has been blown away by the support so far.
“I don’t think anyone thought something like this was going to happen. It was really just meant to be his local feature film debut,” Kemech said.
Poster for the horror film Skinmarink, created by Edmonton.
Kyle Edward Ball / Shudder
The synopsis states that the film is about two children who wake up in the middle of the night to find that their father is missing and all the windows and doors in their house have disappeared.
Kemech became involved with the film after seeing Ball’s YouTube channel, where the director brought nightmares to life. Ball will ask viewers to describe their nightmares in the comments and in turn create 5-minute videos that are “best viewed with the lights off and headphones on,” according to the channel’s description for Bitsized Nightmare.
The production of Skinamarink was crowdfunded online, generating nearly $8,500 in donations.
Ball reached out to Kemech after making the first cut of the film in November 2021, as Kemech was the only person on the crew who had not read the shooting script.
“Despite the fact that many people are calling it a found footage film, it had a 96-page shooting script. It was very densely plotted and visualized by Kyle,” he said.
Kemech saw it himself and said he was filled with adrenaline and tension.
“I really think it’s really like nothing I’ve ever seen in a movie before.”
Kemech said that TikTok helped generate publicity for the film after it leaked online and the makers started talking about the relentlessly eerie atmosphere of the 100-minute film.
“Some of the initial reactions people were having were saying ‘this is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen,’ … people who were saying it made them cry,” he said.
As for what’s next for Kemech and Ball, they’ve been very busy basking in the virality of their movie, and that isn’t leaving much time to plan future projects.
“I hear he wants to start writing something else in the next few months, when he’s able to get past this initial fling. But I haven’t talked about anything—like it’s really was completely unexpected,” Kemech said.
Kemech mentioned another production that put the province’s film and TV industry on the map: The Last of Us, the HBO series that filled Albertans with pride after it was filmed in multiple locations in Calgary and Edmonton.
“They’re really the polar opposite of, you know, a $15,000, micro-budget experimental film and I think The Last of Us is one of the greatest TV productions ever,” he said.
“But they were both filmed here. So I think that’s incredible as well.
There are only two more chances to see Skinnamark in Edmonton, on January 29 and 31 at indie theater Metro Cinema.
These screenings were added after the first run completely sold out and prompted lineups outside the theater, so don’t hesitate Get your tickets online.
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