‘Skinamarink’ Director Kyle Edward Ball Teams With A24 for Next Horror Film ‘The Land of Nod’ (EXCLUSIVE)
by Ethan Shanfeld · VarietyKyle Edward Ball, the writer and director behind 2023’s micro-budget horror hit “Skinamarink,” has teamed up with A24 for his next film, “The Land of Nod.”
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Ball will write and direct the project, which will be released globally by A24.
“The Land of Nod” will be produced by Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush and Josh Safdie under their new production banner Central Pictures; SpectreVision’s Lawrence Inglee, Daniel Noah and Elijah Wood; as well as Tatiana Bears and Bruno Vernaschi Berman. Theo Vieljeux will executive produce.
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Speaking to Variety in 2022, Ball teased two ideas for future projects: One is a take on the Pied Piper legend, the other about three strangers who all see the same house in a dream. It’s unclear whether either of those ideas evolved into “The Land of Nod.”
Ball made “Skinamarink,” his feature debut, for only $15,000. The film, which combined David Lynch’s lo-fi style from “Inland Empire” with the aesthetic of dusty ’70s family movies pulled from the attic, opened to theaters in January 2023 via IFC Midnight and pulled in more than $2 million.
“Skinamarink,” which landed at No. 1 on Variety‘s ranking of the best horror movies of 2023, follows two children alone in a house who are haunted by an unseen malevolence.
Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman gave “Skinamarink” a rave review, writing, “Horror films are often set in the dark. ‘Skinamarink’ is one of the rare ones to evoke the terror of genuine godforsaken night.”
He added, “What happens in ‘Skinamarink’ sneaks up on you so quietly that you aren’t just scared; you believe. But you also want to believe your eyes, and in the magnificent final shot the film gives us the vision we’ve been waiting for, a revelation of evil that has emerged from the next world, and from our world as well. It’s the movie that’s the portal, connecting the audience with the beyond.”
“The Land of Nod” joins A24’s slate of upcoming horror movies, including the Hugh Grant-starring “Heretic” and the comedy-horror “Y2K,” directed by Kyle Mooney. Variety also broke news of the studio’s upcoming horror film “Altar,” starring January Jones, Kyle MacLachlan, David Krumholtz, Lily Collias and Hudson Behling.