Post #3227354

@nepetalactone@social.xenofem.me @unmind@social.xenofem.me when I first watched it I had really wanted to write a long review of it but I decided against it because I've been trying to resist the urge to talk-about other things instead of posting my own original thoughts on stuff (not that this hasn't resulted in me doing that haha... >_>). but the last two sentences of my letterboxd review were: "Like all good art, you aren't going to be spoonfed the point, and like all good horror, the point is entirely visceral and emotional, almost beyond words. You need to be able to let go and let yourself feel that kind of fear that you may not have experienced since being yourself a kid waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare." something else I mentioned in my review is the Lovecraft quote about how fear is the oldest emotion and the oldest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown, which is why Skinamarink is not just a perfectly executed horror film but also understands horror as an affect better than few other things I've ever seen or read. all horror (channeling Thomas Ligotti rn) is ultimately about the paradoxical nature of abjection, of an eerily lively object, and precisely have *nothing* to do with "knowing" better. fear is fundamentally opposed to knowing and the experience of fear is an anticipation of the unknown, death being one of the most obvious and universal unknown, because such things being beyond words are beyond rational thought and language that from the perspective of a conscious and rational mind is essentially to be reduced to an object. but much like with intuitive thought, a productive imagination, paranormal phenomena, and the Dao, being a child is inherently a state of being able to be best acquainted with the purest forms of fear possible. that's part of what's so genius about Skinamarink as a horror film is that even if you've never had anything bad happen to you as a child (but especially if you have), everyone at some point in their lives has experienced that state of pure animal fear if only as a child having a nightmare and probably as an adult don't even remember it. it's not just universal in what it evokes but is even capable of channeling something that isn't even universal but properly Outside or *virtual* in the Deleuzian sense.