Every night when you sleep, two forces emerge from their parallel world to join in battle over your very soul. They do so by manipulating your subconscious. The Storytellers try to help you with peaceful sleep infused with good dreams of happiness, confidence and strength. Tilting the scale on the other side are the sinister Incubis who use nightmares of death, fear and humiliation. In InkINK reviews, the focus of their attention is on the souls of John (Chris Kelly) and his daughter EmmaEmma reviews (Quinn Hunchar) after Emma is snatched from her bed by a creature named Ink. If he delivers Emma to the Incubis, Ink will finally join their ranks and “become numb.” What follows is a fantasy-action tale detailing two separate journeys. One is Ink’s as he holds Emma hostage while meeting various other characters in order to complete his task. The other journey is Emma’s father’s who has lost himself long ago after succumbing to grief, guilt and pride. He has been offered a chance at redemption while unbeknownst to him, a fight for his soul – and that of his daughter’s – is being waged by forces unseen.

So I anxiously awaited the day I could finally see Ink, a film that has been praised all to hell by other sites. I couldn’t wait to see what all the buzz surrounding this indie-film was about. Compared to such high concept sci-fi as Dark CityDark City reviews, BrazilBrazil reviews, and Donnie DarkoDonnie Darko reviews…well, that’s some mighty big shoes for an independent film with no distributor to fill. So does it live up to all of the accolades it has been getting? Yeah, in some cases it does. But it does have a few large hurdles.

Have any of you seen Animal House? The classic scene with Pinto and the passed out chick? For those of you who have not, Pinto is faced with a dilemma. Does he get sexual with the half-naked chick passed out on the bed or not. His moral quandary is visualized by the classic Shoulder Angel and Devil. The Devil yells “Fuck her! Fuck her brains out!” while the Angel chastises Pinto and tells him if he does it, his life would be ruined. Date rape has never been so funny. Anyway, that’s basically the premise behind the world of Ink. In real life, everyone has the ability to recognize and make the decisions that alter the course of his or her life for better or for worse. In Ink that is still the case, but you also have two unseen groups trying to influence your every decision. The Storytellers on one shoulder guiding you to do the right thing, while the Incubis, a cross between Hellraiser’sHellraiser reviews Cenobites and Dark City’s The StrangersThe Strangers reviews, are on the other trying to lead you down a path of doom and destruction. But instead of just bickering back and forth, these two do a lot of ass kicking and wire-fu.

On this level, Ink works. It’s an emotional type of movie that seems to resonate a lot with the older crowd. Not saying that young people would not enjoy Ink, but those of us who have lived long enough to have the shape of our body formed into the beds we have made, those who have lived long enough to have experienced the loneliness that can come along with a successful career, distant children created by absenteeism, the grief of losing someone close or one of the worst feeling ever created – regret. The “look back on your life” type of regret. For those viewers I think Ink works on a completely different, more effective level even with some of the flaws.

Ink shows how one man who has experienced all of this, most by his own doing, and has been offered a chance of redemption. He is about to be given a second chance of sorts. Shown that the ramifications of wrong decisions does not necessarily include a life of continually making the same, wrong decisions. Nothing new, really. It’s the standard HeavenHeaven reviews versus Hell, It’s A Wonderful Life type story we are all aware of and in more books and films than I care to count. Winans just dressed it up with some gorgeous, sometimes stunning visuals and introduced a new cast of angels and devils. That’s not trivializing what he has done, as he did it quite well as far as I am concerned. At times I actually felt inspired by Ink and that alone is about the best compliment I think I can give someone’s movie. But that’s not to say I didn’t have serious issues with it as well. Part being the story itself.

Ink’s world has a handful of characters who do not belong to either the Storytellers or the Incubis. They are DriftersDrifters reviews like Ink, beings who have entered this dream world and have not chosen a side. These Drifters have various roles to play in this world for no discernible reason and often help out either side depending on who they are loyal to. You meet some of these Drifters because Ink needs a new key to get to a particular location, but the key is made by an assembly code. This code is broken in two – each piece being held by a different Drifter. A chunk of the movie follows Ink and his hostage as he visits these two Drifters to obtain the codes. I was not a fan of either of these scenes as their function is not fleshed out enough for me to have seen them as anything more than reasons to show off two eccentric characters – both of which performed horribly by their respective actors. It was very Matrix Reloadedy and reminded me of all the silly Keymaster, Oracle, Frenchman shit I hated about that movie.

A very happy Incubis

Another mostly miss in the acting department would go to Jeremy Make who plays Jacob, a PathfinderPathfinder reviews. He has the ability to hear the beat of the world and if he wants, perform a form of Divine InterventionDivine Intervention reviews. He can disturb the rhythm of your life. Break the chain of your timeline. Alter your course. This is shown in a really well done sequence in the film as Jacob, whose eyes have black tape over them, listens to the beat going on around him and with one simple act involving a dollar bill, is able to change the course of one man’s life forever. It was cool – as is the character. But at times Make plays him in such a way that I never knew if it was on purpose or just flat out bad acting. Whatever the case, I cringed at some of his delivery.

But luckily, the majority of this film rests on Chris Kelly’s and Quinn Hunchar’s performances. The entire movie is hinged on them and in the case of Hunchar – she does fine. Most of her time is spent staring or being the viewer’s inside line into what the hell is going on as key plot points are described to her via another StorytellerStoryteller reviews. But Kelly goes above and beyond. Winans made a great choice casting this guy. During flashbacks, we see him change from a man falling in love to his current situation as a successful workaholic whose pride, grief and anger have left him dead on the inside. His role runs the gambit of emotions, from love, loss, anger and he nails all of them. While nothing deserving of an OscarOscar reviews, his performance was what kept me watching well past admiring the cinematography and ignoring the sometimes convoluted aspects of the main story. The only downside being that his really good acting made some of the more amateur acting look really amateur.

Jacob the Pathfinder and a hawt Ink Storyteller

So should you try and check it out? Absolutely. I can understand why a lot of people where so jazzed up after seeing it. Every scene attempts to be an emotional punch, some of them even succeeding, accented by Winans score that fit these scenes like a glove. The characters and effects work was mostly imaginative and memorable, even if a lot did echo other films. But I do suggest not thinking too long or hard about some of the smaller details the film contains or the ones that are missing. The overall message is plain to see and unlike some of the specific plot details, is not hard to understand. Winans wrote, directed and scored this film and hit the marks far, far more times than he missed them. That is a true testament to the talent this guy possesses and I will keep my fingers crossed that the possible success of this film will open new doors for him. Maybe in the process get the attention of those who shut the doors in his face as he tried to get this film distributed. I will be waiting to see what he does next. I’m giving Ink 3-and-a-half good dreams about BingoBingo out of 5.

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Ink - 2009 - More Information

Director: Jamin Winans
Writer: Jamin Winans
Actors: Chris Kelly, Jessica Duffy, Quinn Hunchar, Jeremy Make, Jennifer Batter, Eme Ikwuakor, Shelby Malone
Genre: Action - Fantasy
Company: Double Edge Films

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