10 Horror Movies That Weren't What Anyone Expected

1. Skinamarink

Spring 2014
Shudder

To take a peek at the trailer for Skinamarink, and you might immediately assume it to be a found footage film. 

The scuzzy aesthetic, rough-hewn camerawork, and domestic setting are certainly all popular characteristics of that horror subgenre, so it was a reasonable deduction to make. But Skinamarink isn't that movie at all.

Skinamarink isn't found footage but rather an experimental narrative horror film centered around two young siblings who wake up in the middle of the night and can't find their father.

Even if you hear the word "experimental," you're probably not ready for quite how out-there Kyle Edward Ball's directorial debut is. It eschews a typical narrative structure in favour of a dreamlike style, refuses to spoonfeed answers to the audience, and even shies away from showing the faces of its protagonists.

It basically does everything a big, studio-backed horror movie never would, and so it was little surprise that Skinamarink instantly split audiences down the middle.

Some appreciated its bold swing and stirring style, while others simply found it a tedious, overlong exercise better suited to the format of a short.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.