Review by centinel822

When I was 4 or 5, I had a nightmare that my parents had gotten on a train at night and left me alone. I woke up crying and ran to my parents' room to make sure they were there. As an adult, this seems a bit silly, but as a child, it was terrifying. What could be worse than being abandoned by the people who were your protectors and your bridge to the rest of the world?

Skinamarink tries to capture that feeling -- to make you remember what it was like to need a caretaker and to feel helpless when alone. I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like this before. I have seen reviewers mention Lynch and Kafka. To me, it felt most like Tarkovsky - particularly Stalker. Clearly, this is a divisive film. As others have said, if you don't buy into the concept, it will be a slow 100 minutes. That said, my advice to help people connect with this film is twofold. First, watch this at home, preferably in the dark and alone. I think this is the only way to feel the sense of abandonment and lingering dread. You will not get the emotion of this movie if there are distractions. Second, if you can, watch it with subtitles. There are some hardcoded subs in the film to help the viewer understand the quiet voices, but the subs I used helped identify some of the random sounds and who is speaking. This is important because most of the action occurs off camera.