Sitting in the Dark

One of the things we find so interesting about Skinamarink is that it might just be unspoilable. Don’t get me wrong… we try to spoil it, sure. But, just as all films are largely a partnership between viewer and creators, this one is supercharged by your own fear in a way that we find difficult to classify. 

It was Tommy’s pick this month, and he went with this single film as a marker of the first time in his own memory as a horror movie lover that he reports geniune fear in the watching of it. Turns out, writer/director Kyle Edward Ball’s journey through childhood trauma and fear in western Alberta has some real legs. 

If you haven’t considered it, this show is just a part of The Next Reel Film Podcasts membership program. Join todayand get access to early and extended editions of every show we create, along with the super-secret community channels in our Discord Server. But even if now is not the right time to join, you can hang with us and talk about the movie in our public Sitting in the Dark channel today! 

Links & Notes
  • (00:00) - Welcome to Sitting in the Dark
  • (02:25) - Nightime Tales
  • (05:14) - News and/or Announcements
  • (06:16) - Meanwhile... Skinamarinking
  • (14:26) - Going in Cold.
  • (18:23) - Camera & Grain
  • (23:57) - Slow Cinema
  • (31:07) - Soundscape
  • (34:59) - What Is Happening!
  • (48:37) - Coming Attractions?
  • (49:41) - Letterboxd

Support The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:
The Next Reel Family of Film Shows:
Connect With Us:
Shop & Stream:

What is Sitting in the Dark?

Sitting in the Dark is a podcast about horror, but not the kind that hides in a single shadow. Each month, hosts Tommy Metz III, Kynan Dias, and Pete Wright pick a theme — an idea, a trope, a nightmare that keeps winding back — and explore it through three films that share its DNA. Sometimes the connections are obvious, sometimes they’re unexpected, and sometimes they lead you deeper into the maze than you expected to go.

One month might bring The Drac Pack, three wildly different takes on cinema’s most famous vampire. Another, a journey through The Bride, the Boy, and the Firetruck, unpacking coded queer horror across decades. We’ve explored maternal terror in Mommy Acts This Way Because She Loves You, broken into the home-invasion subgenre, tiptoed through haunted houses, and stared down both classic monsters and blockbuster franchises.

What ties it all together is a love of horror as a labyrinth — a twisting path where every turn reveals something new about our fears, desires, and cultural obsessions. With smart conversation, dark humor, and a willingness to look behind the curtain (or under the bed), Sitting in the Dark invites you to settle in, turn down the lights, and find out what connects the nightmares.