Ink (film)
Encyclopedia
Ink is a 2009 American
science fiction
fantasy film
, written and directed by Jamin Winans
, starring Chris Kelly, Quinn Hunchar and Jessica Duffy. It was produced by Winans's own independent production company, Double Edge Films, with Kiowa K. Winans, and shot by cinematographer Jeff Pointer in locations around Denver. The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
on January 23, 2009, and has screened in Denver, the Cancun Film Festival (where it won the Best International Feature award), Rams Head Onstage in Baltimore and in a number of independent movie houses in cities around the US. The film was widely circulated in Peer-to-Peer
networks which led to its commercial success.
It is revealed that there are people who exist on a plane different from our own. There are warriors called Storytellers, who provide people with their most wonderful dreams with a touch to their foreheads, and there are the Incubi, spirits fashioned from vanity and pride, who veil their faces with screens to reflect an artificial eternal happiness and whose shadows induce severe nightmares in people. But this night a new being appears, a drifter called Ink. Despite the best efforts of several Storytellers, he successfully kidnaps Emma's soul from her home, leaving her physical body in a comatose state. However, the drifter's drum gets damaged in the fight, and without a code, he is not able to open a portal to the realm in which he was intending to lead the girl.
Meanwhile, John (Chris Kelly), a businessman whose life has attained a sense of repetition and perfection, faces turmoil when an account he had been working to acquire is about to be swept out from under his feet, but he is determined to turn the problem around. Ron (Steve Sealy), his estranged father in law, comes to tell John that Emma is in a coma at Lutheran Hospital. Despite the visible strain to his conscience he maintains a stern attitude and it is revealed that after his wife's death, her parents took custody of Emma because of John's grief-induced drug and alcohol abuse. He throws Ron out of his office, but something dark appears to loom over him as he does.
Meanwhile, the three Storytellers who are responsible for Emma; Allel (Jennifer Batter) and two of her companions, Gabe (Eme Ikwuakor) and Sarah (Shelby Malone), along with a blind Pathfinder named Jacob (Jeremy Make), decide to find a way to bring Emma out of her coma. A fourth ally, a Storyteller named Liev (Jessica Duffy), attempts to dissuade Ink from delivering the girl to the Incubi in order to become one himself. The code he is required to obtain in order to access their headquarters is held by two other Drifters whom he must find and barter with to acquire their parts of the code. After a fight between the two of them, Liev surrenders to Ink to save Emma's life. While en-route, Liev tries to bolster Emma's bravery by telling her that she is turning into a ferocious lioness. After Ink successfully barters with the two Drifters, Liev slowly works into his emotions. She discovers that he does, in fact, have a conscience and a soul, but due to his violent death by suicide, he arrived in this world hideous and scarred, and desperate to let go of his pain, which, he believes, becoming an Incubus would help him do. However, he resists each attempt to break through. They make their way to the Incubi stronghold, and Ink offers Emma and Liev as his payment to become one of them. Liev tells Emma she has completely transformed into a lioness, and that she has to be ferocious and brave. As Liev stands up to the leader of the Incubi, she is stabbed and mortally wounded.
Jacob unveils his abilities to the others, tapping into what he calls the "beat of the world" in order to effect physical changes. Through a chain of events, he causes several small accidents to culminate in a truck running a red light and, as in the beginning of the film, crashing into John's car. John is wounded badly and just when the Incubi who was whispering dark thoughts into John's subconscious is about to take over his conscious, the three Storytellers manage to scare him and he vanishes. John is taken to the same hospital, Lutheran, where Emma is lying comatose. He wakes up and soon after exchanging a few words with a nurse in his room realizes that his daughter is close by, he overcomes his urge to go to the important sales meeting, recalling his happiness-filled life before his wife was killed in a car accident – memories that the dark forces on his shoulder kept him from recalling – and with Allel protecting him, he heads to Emma's room. Incubi appear and the warriors fight them off to keep them from reaching him again. Meanwhile, Jacob volunteers to go out and activate a device, calling the other Storytellers for reinforcement. John finally makes his way to Emma's room to sit beside her.
As the course of the past, present, and future are affected by John's return to Emma, Ink suddenly has a realization; memories come flooding back to him of his successful meeting for the account he had been trying to get for his company, if he had been able to make it. Emma dies in the hospital, John drifts out of touch, into a world of loneliness. His depression increases until he commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. He falls into the astral world a broken shell of his former self. Ink hears Liev whisper his name "John" and she dies. As his memories return, Ink rushes at the Incubi attacking them and rescues his daughter, much like the dream at the beginning of the movie. He stands and faces them, killing each one as they approach her, while at the hospital the Storytellers overcome the Incubi. After the fight is done, Emma recognizes Ink as her dad and they embrace.
In the hospital, Emma wakes up to find her father holding her hand. The pair share a hug while the Storytellers who had defeated the Incubi stand in the doorway, unseen but victorious.
stores.
According to TorrentFreak, a file sharing
news site, Ink was downloaded via BitTorrent 400,000 times in a single week and exposed the film to a large audience, leading to higher DVD and Blu-ray sales in return. Jamin and Kiowa Winans wrote in their newsletter that they had "embraced the piracy" and are "happy Ink is getting unprecedented exposure." Around Christmas 2009 the film was also released on Hulu
for free viewing.
) and Lisa Kennedy (Denver Post) both rank it positively. The film scores a 77% average with audience members in the Rotten Tomatoes
community, and has a 100% Tomatometer rating.
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
science fiction
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
fantasy film
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
, written and directed by Jamin Winans
Jamin Winans
Jamin Winans is an American filmmaker, writer, editor and music composer. He is known for his feature films 11:59 and Ink .- Background :...
, starring Chris Kelly, Quinn Hunchar and Jessica Duffy. It was produced by Winans's own independent production company, Double Edge Films, with Kiowa K. Winans, and shot by cinematographer Jeff Pointer in locations around Denver. The film premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a film festival and non-profit organization, established in 1985, that showcases independent American and international films. The SBIFF line-up includes 20 world premieres and 11 U.S. premieres, with newly expanded 11-day festival...
on January 23, 2009, and has screened in Denver, the Cancun Film Festival (where it won the Best International Feature award), Rams Head Onstage in Baltimore and in a number of independent movie houses in cities around the US. The film was widely circulated in Peer-to-Peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
networks which led to its commercial success.
Plot
The film begins with a business man in a hurry to get into his car. He appears to be stressed and somewhat distraught. He gets in and starts down the city streets, suddenly screaming "Fuck!" at the top of his lungs before a truck running a red light crashes into him. As he falls unconscious, he dreams of playing with his little girl Emma (Quinn Hunchar). At first he is stern and hesitant to play with her, but he gives in when she pretends to be taken away by monsters, and he runs to save her from them. The dream then fades to black.It is revealed that there are people who exist on a plane different from our own. There are warriors called Storytellers, who provide people with their most wonderful dreams with a touch to their foreheads, and there are the Incubi, spirits fashioned from vanity and pride, who veil their faces with screens to reflect an artificial eternal happiness and whose shadows induce severe nightmares in people. But this night a new being appears, a drifter called Ink. Despite the best efforts of several Storytellers, he successfully kidnaps Emma's soul from her home, leaving her physical body in a comatose state. However, the drifter's drum gets damaged in the fight, and without a code, he is not able to open a portal to the realm in which he was intending to lead the girl.
Meanwhile, John (Chris Kelly), a businessman whose life has attained a sense of repetition and perfection, faces turmoil when an account he had been working to acquire is about to be swept out from under his feet, but he is determined to turn the problem around. Ron (Steve Sealy), his estranged father in law, comes to tell John that Emma is in a coma at Lutheran Hospital. Despite the visible strain to his conscience he maintains a stern attitude and it is revealed that after his wife's death, her parents took custody of Emma because of John's grief-induced drug and alcohol abuse. He throws Ron out of his office, but something dark appears to loom over him as he does.
Meanwhile, the three Storytellers who are responsible for Emma; Allel (Jennifer Batter) and two of her companions, Gabe (Eme Ikwuakor) and Sarah (Shelby Malone), along with a blind Pathfinder named Jacob (Jeremy Make), decide to find a way to bring Emma out of her coma. A fourth ally, a Storyteller named Liev (Jessica Duffy), attempts to dissuade Ink from delivering the girl to the Incubi in order to become one himself. The code he is required to obtain in order to access their headquarters is held by two other Drifters whom he must find and barter with to acquire their parts of the code. After a fight between the two of them, Liev surrenders to Ink to save Emma's life. While en-route, Liev tries to bolster Emma's bravery by telling her that she is turning into a ferocious lioness. After Ink successfully barters with the two Drifters, Liev slowly works into his emotions. She discovers that he does, in fact, have a conscience and a soul, but due to his violent death by suicide, he arrived in this world hideous and scarred, and desperate to let go of his pain, which, he believes, becoming an Incubus would help him do. However, he resists each attempt to break through. They make their way to the Incubi stronghold, and Ink offers Emma and Liev as his payment to become one of them. Liev tells Emma she has completely transformed into a lioness, and that she has to be ferocious and brave. As Liev stands up to the leader of the Incubi, she is stabbed and mortally wounded.
Jacob unveils his abilities to the others, tapping into what he calls the "beat of the world" in order to effect physical changes. Through a chain of events, he causes several small accidents to culminate in a truck running a red light and, as in the beginning of the film, crashing into John's car. John is wounded badly and just when the Incubi who was whispering dark thoughts into John's subconscious is about to take over his conscious, the three Storytellers manage to scare him and he vanishes. John is taken to the same hospital, Lutheran, where Emma is lying comatose. He wakes up and soon after exchanging a few words with a nurse in his room realizes that his daughter is close by, he overcomes his urge to go to the important sales meeting, recalling his happiness-filled life before his wife was killed in a car accident – memories that the dark forces on his shoulder kept him from recalling – and with Allel protecting him, he heads to Emma's room. Incubi appear and the warriors fight them off to keep them from reaching him again. Meanwhile, Jacob volunteers to go out and activate a device, calling the other Storytellers for reinforcement. John finally makes his way to Emma's room to sit beside her.
As the course of the past, present, and future are affected by John's return to Emma, Ink suddenly has a realization; memories come flooding back to him of his successful meeting for the account he had been trying to get for his company, if he had been able to make it. Emma dies in the hospital, John drifts out of touch, into a world of loneliness. His depression increases until he commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. He falls into the astral world a broken shell of his former self. Ink hears Liev whisper his name "John" and she dies. As his memories return, Ink rushes at the Incubi attacking them and rescues his daughter, much like the dream at the beginning of the movie. He stands and faces them, killing each one as they approach her, while at the hospital the Storytellers overcome the Incubi. After the fight is done, Emma recognizes Ink as her dad and they embrace.
In the hospital, Emma wakes up to find her father holding her hand. The pair share a hug while the Storytellers who had defeated the Incubi stand in the doorway, unseen but victorious.
Winans' collaboration
Both Jamin Winans and Kiowa Winans contributed multiple roles in making Ink, in addition to both being credited as executive producers. Jamin wrote, directed and edited, as well as composed the original soundtrack for the film, while Kiowa is credited for the Art Direction, Costume Design and Sound Design.Distribution
As no big studio picked up the film for theatrical and home distribution, Double Edge Films pitched the movie directly to independent cinemas and also saw to the DVD, Blu-ray and online distribution themselves. DVD and Blu-ray copies of the movie are sold directly via the company's website starting from October 30, 2009 and are sold at retail stores starting November 10, 2009, as well as downloads at Video on demandVideo on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
stores.
According to TorrentFreak, a file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
news site, Ink was downloaded via BitTorrent 400,000 times in a single week and exposed the film to a large audience, leading to higher DVD and Blu-ray sales in return. Jamin and Kiowa Winans wrote in their newsletter that they had "embraced the piracy" and are "happy Ink is getting unprecedented exposure." Around Christmas 2009 the film was also released on Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
for free viewing.
Reception
Critics Robert Abele (Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
) and Lisa Kennedy (Denver Post) both rank it positively. The film scores a 77% average with audience members in the Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
community, and has a 100% Tomatometer rating.