Ink
Tags: good versus evil, psychedelic, alternate reality, flashback

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with a businessman, John Sullivan (Chris Kelly), in a hurry to get into his car. He appears to be severely stressed as he begins driving down the city streets. When he goes through a lighted intersection he is broad sided by another driver that is distracted by hot coffee in his lap. As he becomes unconscious, he dreams of playing with his young daughter, Emma (Quinn Hunchar). Emma pretends to be kidnapped and tells John to "save" her from the "monsters", although John seems exasperated and tells her to have her mother do it instead. Eventually, however, John gives in and runs to "save" his daughter, while Emma laughs and embraces him.
It is revealed that dreams are controlled by beings from an alternate plane of reality. The beings are spirits of deceased people from earth and are divided into distinct groups: Storytellers (bearers of good dreams), Incubi (cause of nightmares), and Drifters (those in a state of limbo who cause neither good or bad dreams). As the Storytellers and Incubi perform their daily work in the night, a Drifter known as Ink goes to Emma's room and removes her soul from her body. Although a number of Storytellers try to prevent the action, Ink escapes with the girl's soul into the dreamworld, leaving Emma's body unconscious. However, in the dreamworld, Ink is unable to open a portal to the Incubi's headquarters, where he intends to take Emma's soul. He is told that he must find and barter with two other Drifters to acquire parts of a code that will enable him to achieve entry into the headquarters.
Meanwhile, John, whose life has attained a sense of repetition and perfection, faces turmoil when an account he has been working to acquire is about to be swept out from under him. Soon after, Ron Evans (Steve Sealy), John's estranged father in law, comes to inform John that Emma is in a coma and has been placed in a hospital. Although Ron begs John to go and see the girl, John refuses and berates Ron, saying that the father-in-law turned the world against him. Shortly after, Ron is ordered out of John's office. It is revealed that Ron and his wife were given custody of Emma after the death of John's wife Shelly (Shannan Steele) in a car accident, due to John's grief-induced addiction to alcohol and drugs.
At the same time in the dreamworld, the Storytellers Allel, Gabe, and Sarah (played by Jennifer Batter, Eme Ikwuakor, and Shelby Malone, respectively) work to find a way to awake Emma. In order to do this, they receive the help of Jacob (Jeremy Make), an eccentric blind spirit known as a "Pathfinder". Meanwhile, a Storyteller named Liev (Jessica Duffy) confronts Ink and attempts to discourage him from delivering Emma to the Incubi. After Ink threatens to murder Emma if Liev continues to pursue him, Liev surrenders to Ink as a prisoner. It is revealed that Ink is taking Emma's soul to the Incubi in order to become one of them and cease to be a Drifter. Soon after, Ink successfully barters with two Drifters for parts of the code. As Ink's prisoner, Liev tries to bolster Emma's bravery in order to thwart Ink.
During this time, the Pathfinder Jacob unveils his abilities to the Storytellers: tapping into the "beat of the world" in order to cause physical changes that affect the course of time. Through a chain of events, Jacob causes several small accidents that culminate in a truck running a red light and crashing into John's car, revisiting an opening scene of the film. Due to his injuries, John is taken to a hospital, which turns out to be the same hospital where Emma is checked in. After recalling his happiness before his wife died, John walks to Emma's room, guarded by Allel as an unseen battle ensues between the Storytellers and Incubi.
In the dreamworld, Liev discovers that Ink arrived after his human counterpart committed suicide, and that he, being ashamed of his hideous and scarred appearance, believes the Incubi will help him. After making their way to the stronghold of the Incubi, Ink offers Emma and Liev as his payment to the leader. As Liev attempts to stand up to the leader of the Incubi, she is mortally wounded. While dying, Liev pleads with Ink to "remember". Suddenly, Ink has a revelation: he recalls that Emma died in the hospital without her father's presence, and John, driven to further depression and regret, shot himself in despair, when his soul entered the dreamworld and became the Drifter known as Ink. Ink understands that he is, in fact, John Sullivan's soul from a future in which Emma dies and he does not visit her at the hospital. In this realization, Ink rushes at the Incubi and kills them to rescue his daughter, mirroring the dream scene in the beginning of the film. After the fight is over, Emma's soul embraces Ink, realizing that it is her father. In the normal world, Pathfinder Jacob activates a device that calls the other Storytellers as reinforcement, with the onslaught of Storytellers defeating the Incubi. John finally makes his way to Emma's room. The film closes as Emma awakes to find her father at her bedside.

Review: I admit, for the first 20 minutes or so of the film I did not enjoy it, and was thinking to myself, "oh, this is going to be one of those movies that no one understands with gaping plot holes and a messed up timeline that is nearly impossible to follow." It quickly turned around.
The film is absolutely outstanding for an independent production, with solid acting from the whole cast, BEAUTIFUL cinematography, a good script, and excellent music.
When a Storyteller (part of the race of people who bring us good dreams) encounters Ink trying take the last step to becoming a full-fledged Incubus by kidnapping a little girl, a great battle ensues.
And those critiques are too small to mention here.Ink has proved to me what can be done on a low-budget and with limited resources when you have a great script and take the time to do it right.
Ink looks, sounds and feel like what we all hope for when going to see an indie: a "real" movie.Folks, you are going to be hearing about this one.
The use of off-color green was effective and quietly disturbing, as was the black ink-like flow covering the protagonist at specific moments throughout the film.
It doesn't let it's budget get in the way of a great story, startlingly impressive special effects (car crash scene is top-notch), visionary directing, and chameleon acting.
In fact, if you're reading this post and are interested in watching it, try to find it legally - only because it's worth the purchase and it lets investors see audiences appreciate intelligent independent film-making.
It's slow starting, but give it a chance and the film is inescapable and deeply affecting.I've seen enough movies of all sorts that I genuinely appreciate when a filmmaker shows me something entirely new and different.
Ink is a nicely done low-budget indie film with an interesting visual style.
The basic premise is good , if only they had executed it better , and made it watchable rather then risible.Avoid at all costs , if you want weird quality film making watch City of Lost Children instead..
A friend recommended this as being an exceptional film with great characters and a wonderful, intelligent plot; at least I now know not to trust his opinion again!There is simply nothing good in this film.The script seems to have been written by a twelve year old, the dialog is stilted and unconvincing and generally only one step away from being completely moronic.The "special effects" are terrible, if you can't afford good effects then don't use any, cheap and nasty soap opera effects are annoying and distracting.On the soap opera theme, the acting was bad soap opera quality, none of the cast seemed at ease or delivered anything of note, maybe that's the fault of the script but surely they could have tried harder.To tie this all together the direction was also awful!
Furthermore, the characters are all either one-dimensional or archetypes that have been recycled too many times and in better films.To say that the acting is subpar, would require a Ghandi-like generosity of spirit that I simply do not have.
(Dark City from which Ink stole the portrayal of the incubus had far superior special effect over ten years ago.) The pacing of the film is unnecessarily slow.
You've no doubt already read the summary, now hold on a second and hear me out: I'll start by stating that I like many others had heard the comparisions and praise this film has been receiving, so I decided to stoke my curiosity, bad idea.
The film lacks dialoge too, for the slow pacing you would expect some dialoge to keep things moving, but all you get is a mediocre score that only aids the snail-like pace of the movie.So why did I even bother giving it a 3?
Ink is unlike any other movie I know.Its definitely the most original movie I have ever seen and visually, it is quite stunning,the special effects really enhance the film.They're not state of the art GCI but they are tremendously effective.The soundtrack is wonderful and very suiting.The acting was good, specially Quinn Hunchar,this little girl is not only beautiful but she played her role with a maturity way beyond her age.The story its kind of a grown up fairy-tale and has an epic feeling to it,unfortunately it gets too confusing and complex at times,its one of those films you have to watch more then one time to fully comprehend everything that happened.My other complaint is the following: I think the movie is a bit all over the place.It has many great ideas and elements but it ends up being a bit messy.Having said that I'm amazed by what this director was able to accomplish with a low budget and probably not many resources.I see a LOT of great ideas here and I see a lot of potential.If Jamin Winans can do a film like this with this budget, I could only imagine what he would do with a Hollywood budget.
In conclusion,Ink is a crazy and surreal journey that deserves to be seen.A very original and refreshing piece of work and the director is one to watch!7/10.
I think that the demographic of movie watchers that go for this kind of dribble are also the sort more likely to write reviews, so it ends up being a lopsided thing.
How can the disparity be so great?On the plus side though, I found the soundtrack of the movie, seemingly done my the film's director, to be a quite decent affair, with plenty of moving electronic string pads soaring away.
And the nightmare baddies with TVs for faces actually looked rather good.In summary, I feel slightly guilty for not liking this move, as it is clearly a small independent affair, and movie makers have to start somewhere I guess.
I also watched this movie because of the good reception this movie got, and sadly it was a waste of time.I watched the whole movie, which was pretty difficult sometimes, and I had to split it up in two days, because it was so damn boring.But well, let's start with the good things: The effects are astonishing for this low budget, some scenes are really great, there are a some good ideas in this movie (first fight scene), soundtrack is OK and the little girl and her father played their roles very well.However, that's the whole good stuff.
You can watch a second movie at the same time and still know at the end what Ink was about.
The story executed in this movie is poor (I don't talk about the idea), the dialogs non-existent and action not available (fight scenes look ridiculous), the story and the characters have just no depth and the background music in dialogs too loud most of the time (maybe so we don't notice how poor the dialogs really are).It was one of the most boring movies I've ever watched.
The film on a whole is slightly above the quality of entries you would find on Youtube but not nearly as original as some.I am not telling you not to watch this movie but I write this review to temper the over abundance of propaganda..
First off, for a low-budget indie production, this movie is great, no doubt.
The movie raises questions about family values, moral obligations, self-esteem and shame, all of them well developed and executed.The actors are mostly doing a good job, although some of the supporting actors' (one actress in particular) emotions are a bit too extreme to be believable, but this does not really disturb the illusion and is merely a minor inconvenience.The effects are worth their money and quite impressive for a low-budget production.What ultimately makes this movie worth watching, however, is the truly great ending.
In fact you won't understand it and it will only aggravate you, but it will provide you some time to pull out some unwanted nose hairs and then conclude by posting your review here and rating this movie 1-5 stars.On the other hand if you are a person with a multidimensional mind who believes in the complexities of life and the hereafter and the effects of your choices this film will portray a unique example in its characters, cinematography and story-line.
I do not want to tell you too much about the story but will say it involves like a alternate dimension with good and bad dream weavers of some sort.The only complaints I have are the movie moves a little slow at times, which is common for new directors.
And some of the acting is a little rough...but still good for low budget actors.Anyway...this is the kind of Independent movies that should win awards.
But what sets Ink apart is that it is simply a beautiful film, founded on highly original storytelling, that doesn't get caught up in trying to be too cool for its own good.
This film reminded me of why I always loved to watch movies as a child and in my adult life.
This movie shows us why we live in the world so full of fear,war,hate and lie.Because at the end of the day we choose the wrong side, unlike what John does at the end of the movie.We let the ego/pride to control us though we choose money,position and power over our happiness and we think we didn't have another choice!Clearly every element of this movie is well done.(Acting, Music, Story line, CGI,...) and they made a synergy altogether.One of the "Must see" movies.
At one point a character says "anything can look good in the right light." This film proves otherwise.Most of the what's bad about the film has been mentioned in other reviews, but I just wanted to add that the fact that the film has a low budget ($250,000 apparently - not as low as I would have guessed after seeing it), doesn't excuse the terrible performance, directing and technical execution of the film.Waste of time for all involved.
Truly awful.The only thing that could have possibly redeemed this movie for me would have been if Tim Curry came out in the final scene dressed in drag and lead the cast in a rousing rendition of "The Time Warp", thereby letting the audience know that the movie was supposed to be ridiculously pretentious and cheesy.On second thought, not even Dr. Frank-n-Furter could have saved this movie.That said, I will probably watch this movie again.
However, if you've seen Waking Life, or Donnie Darko, or films like Martyrs and Irreversible, Ink is a must-see..
I don't justify an indie movie's success to me personally by their budget, I justify an indie movie's, or any movie's success by how it captivates me as the viewer.My girlfriend and I are avid movie watchers, and we both agree when it comes to movies when we're picking one that we want one that respects our intelligence as the viewer.Ink did not.Ink exploits so many borrowed rhetorical devices to make this seem like an allegory, when in reality, a good allegory occurs when you have actors that play a character you care about on top of an elegantly (or even decently) constructed plot that is delivered in an intelligent way, and the components left out to make it an allegory are left out for you to construct your own theories about, but it only works the story has elements for which you care about.About 40 minutes into the movie, my girlfriend literally turns her head into the couch and falls asleep.
This is one of those movies that some may simply not like because the way it makes you think...
I would definitely recommend it.This is one of those movies that some may simply not like because the way it makes you think...
The dark forces in this movie were creepy as hell to look at; probably one of the weirdest creations I have ever seen in film.
The one semi-good review I read had someone stating that they "got" the movie, but that it was "too difficult", so it basically made them angry that they had to try so hard.Look, if you just want some cheap thrills, go watch the latest Nightmare On Elm Street movie.
Don't sit down to watch an independent film where the funds are lacking and the only OPTION is to fill the movie with moving and meaningful material in order to obtain an audience.
At least two of the one star reviews I read, the people said they didn't even watch more than 20 minutes of the movie.
Although the story takes a while to "take off", we're rewarded at the end with the idea that cinema deserves it's place along with other art forms such as painting, sculpture or music, due to films like these...
I really don't want to leave any spoiler in this review, but only to help others to understand that you can't call yourself a movie lover if you haven't seen Ink. The story is so creative, the soundtrack so well chosen and the direction so amazing that you have to see it to believe it!...
This is the type of movie we would like to see with the budget of lets say a Matrix Revolution which was horrible btw, but had all the money and the great actors.
If you are looking for something a bit more thought provoking and different then you will love this film like i did.
So, at the end I want to say thank you very much Jamin Winans for this masterpiece, not like many Hollywood commercial movies.
I realize it might not be for everybody, if you're into the 'normal' big-budget films you probably won't like this.It's kind of an artsy film, but really not in a bad way (I don't like that kind of movies that just seem to be artsy because the directors think it makes them look interesting).
This low budget movie is a good example for indis.
The direction excellently frames the story, while the amazingly executed cinematography, sound, and editing complete the film.Please watch this movie: it is a true pleasure..
My Son and I just watched "Ink" and it is beyond a doubt the BEST movie we have ever seen.
Ink really does the best it can with the small budget and it becomes a really heart felt, genuine, unique and overall interestingly good movie.
It is definitely not every day that a film like Ink is made.
It is very unusual for filmmakers to openly point out the struggle indy films experience on the market these days – even the problems with getting paid by the already established bigger distribution companies – and go out of their way to make their film available to those who films are actually for.The film is a celebration of creativity, fantasy, a never-ending game of lights and film-making experimenting all wrapped into a story everyone understands and can relate to: When Emma, a little girl, is taken at night by a creature called Ink, into a different world that exists parallel to what we can see and comprehend, a fight between good and evil unfolds for the girl's life, a result of which largely depends on the path her father chooses.Apart from some of the weaker performances by some of the actors and actresses and the little slow of the pace in the second half, the film is just one big spectacle of what I call a film-making art.I was so reminded of Aronofsky's The Fountain and Requiem for a Dream from the first till the last shot, which, surprisingly, did not bother me at all.
I had no idea I was in for a treat.The story itself is quite imaginative and unique in it's own way, from the movies I've seen anyway.
If you like those types of movies I think you will love this movie.It has a great plot twist at the end and is emotionally touching.I give it a 10/10 for originality and great film making on an independent budget.I have watched this movie several times.
OK now the good stuff.Watching this movie was like listening to Mozart play while staring up at the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.The special effects were beautiful.Maybe they were just tricks of the light and cameras but 50 years ago thats all they had and those tricks still work.The soundtrack captivated me.I have never see has ten minutes of people looking sad been made magical simply because of the music.Finally the plot I'm not gonna ruin it but when it came together it brought a tear to my eye.From start to finish it paints a picture and you wont know what it is until the end.Maybe not even then.Just think real hard or watch it again!.
If "Donnie Darko" had been filmed for less money, it might have looked something like "Ink".This is a movie that will divide people.
At first it may seem hard to understand but it's a more complex film than what you usually see in theaters, however if you actually watch the whole movie it all comes together and it's quite heartwarming.
I have watched this film 4 times now and, much like Eternal Sunshine, it get exponentially better with each viewing.
I really wished I saw this at on the big screen.It's stylish beyond words, as many have pointed out, it's so bold, ambitious & confident that it feels so natural.The story and message is so simple yet it's told in such a poetic way that you can't help but think about your own life.I really wish there were more movies like this.
At the end I felt like I was a slightly different person to when I started watching, and my mood was certainly different.I don't know how, but the film seems to reach inside of you and pull on all those personal bits that make you feel something.