Skinamarink executive producer Edmon Rotea hopes the breakout success of Kyle Ball’s hit Canadian microbudget horror will provide a boost to the global indie scene as the filmmaker fields major interest from south of the border.

Edmonton-based Rotea (pictured) was an early investor in the feature, which was written and directed by Ball and premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal last July. It picked up steam after a copy of the film leaked online during its festival circuit run, with fans spreading word of it like wildfire on social media.

Skinamarink had a theatrical release through IFC Films last month and was featured in Comscore’s top 25 film chart in its first three weeks with estimated cumulative earnings of US$1,861,725 (approximately C$2,523,376) for the weekend ending Jan. 29. It’s also made a splash with coverage in international publications, including the New York Times.

“We’re hoping that Skinamarink will launch Kyle into a steady career of feature filmmaking,” Rotea tells Playback Daily. “We hope that it’s going to raise the profile of independent filmmaking, not just in Edmonton, Alberta or Canada, but the rest of the world, especially in the U.S.”

Skinamarink, about a family that is being terrorized in their home by a disembodied voice in 1995, marks Ball’s feature directorial debut after helming shorts on YouTube. Rotea, who is an old friend of Ball from his days working at the Vistek camera store in Edmonton, says Ball spent the last 10 years figuring out how to create a feature film, including attending and graduating from the NAIT Digital Media and IT program in 2014, specializing in digital cinema.

Ball’s YouTube channel Bitesized Nightmares is where he “honed his craft,” developed his storytelling and filmmaking style, and became adept at working with a limited, if not non-existent, budget says Rotea.

Ball would use his channel, as well as social media platforms such as Reddit, to interact with his audience to consolidate ideas and concepts they felt were scary, including recurring nightmares as well as fears of the dark, ghosts and the unknown, leading up to the 2020 release of his short film Heck. Not only was the film a “prototype” for Skinamarink, it also served as proof of concept for investors as well as film distributors.

Ball was unsuccessful at securing funding from various organizations, save for a $500 development grant provided by the Alberta Media Production Industries Association, so Rotea organized a crowdfunding campaign for it.

Much of that crowdfunding came from friends, family and people from the local Edmonton film community, and was supplemented by support from the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta. Rotea, an aspiring filmmaker who has done lighting, electrical and camera operating in the screen industry, also invested $1,300 and was the first to contribute to the Seed & Spark crowdfunding campaign in June 2021. The film’s total budget came to $15,000.

Ball spent just under a year on script writing and development as well as applying for artistic and filmmaking grants, says Rotea. Principal photography got underway in Aug. 21, 2021 at Ball’s childhood home in northeastern Edmonton.

Rotea supplied props for the film and was a voice in pre- and post-production meetings. The cast includes child actors Lucas Paul and Dali Rose Tetreault as siblings, as well as Ross Paul and Jaime Hill as their parents.

Ball also edited the film, working on the colour grading, sound mixing and the visual effects on his gaming PC.

Ball was “meticulous” while planning and staging, says Rotea. Most of the filmmaking gear, such as cameras, were borrowed but Ball was able to get even more creative to stretch his budget.

“When you watch Skinamarink you don’t see the character’s faces,” says Rotea.

While this was a money-saving venture to cut down on multiple shoots, as well as allowing the actors to be filmed separately, the lack of focus on the characters’ faces added to the foreboding atmosphere of the film. Furthermore, the actors’ lines were recorded and dubbed into the film in post-production, which also cut down on principal photography that was on a strict deadline of Aug. 28, 2021 to wrap.

Skinamarink has drawn comparisons to similarly experimental horror films, such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity.

Rotea says Ball is now gearing up for his next feature film and has had a “meet and greet” of sorts with the likes of Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema, and Legendary Pictures as well as indie prodcos like Neon and A24 for his follow-up feature.

As for the future of Ball’s viral hit, Rotea says don’t count on a Skinamarink cinematic universe any time soon.

“Kyle has expressed that he doesn’t want to make a million Skinamarink sequels,” he says. “This isn’t a franchise, but maybe a prequel to describe the origins of the monster the ghosts in the house.”