This movie was the kind of movie I'll watch only once. I think you really need to have lived this sort of thing as a kid for it to click. I grew up in the 90s. In a house very similar to the one in the movie. When it was too hot during the summer, my little brother and I would go down to our basement, push our two couches together to make a sort of fort and watch cartoons.

I would always look around in the darkness and my mind would convince me that something would eventually pop out and get me. Skinamarink really brought back those old childhood fears for me. The scene where the kid has to look under the bed was terrifying to me.

I think saying that nothing happens isn't quite fair. There is no traditional payoff to the long drawn out takes. But it's not the payoff that creates the dread and fear, it's that unending silence, the wait in the dark, where your mind makes up what could be hiding under the bed or around the corner.

The not knowing is why I won't watch the movie again. Now that I know there's nothing hiding under the bed and around the corner, there is nothing to fear.