Ink

Director

Jamin Winans

Cast

Christopher Soren Kelly as John / Ink
Quinn Hunchar as Emma
Jessica Duffy as Liev
Jennifer Batter as Allel
Jeremy Make as Jacob
Eme Ikwuakor as Gab
Shelby Malone as Sarah
Shannon Steele as Shelly
Marty Lindsey as The Key Master

“As the light fades and the city goes to sleep, two forces emerge.”

Writer, editor, director, composer, and executive producer Jamin Winans, created his timeless film, Ink, in 2009. Due to no ‘big studio’ theatrical release or home distribution, Ink was downloaded via BitTorrent, a record 400,000 downloads in a single week. Given that level of fanfare, Ink has gone on to earn a level of cult status. What Ink lacked in big production it made up in storytelling and the story here involved the powers that emerge, within our mind, after we go to sleep.

The film literally opens to a bang with an angry, middle aged man being hit by another car. We are then transitioned to our first, of many, flashback scenes that gives us a glimpse into the film’s stunning soundtrack that is composed by the director, Jamin Winans (full soundtrack below). The scene introduced, early on, gives us a vivid picture that this film will involve the bond between a father, the man John who was hit by the car, and a daughter, named Emma, who is fighting for her life in a coma.

Ink tells the story of what happens when we dream and, even more deeply, who is at war over our dreams. The combatants in this war involve storytellers who provide good dreams and the incubus who provide us our nightmares.

Once the early flashback ends, we are introduced to Emma, the daughter, with her storyteller, Allel, who watches over Emma before and during sleep. Enter a large, disfigured, character in tattered clothes and Emma is soon tapped out of her body into the dream world where she is kidnapped and fighting ensues; however, the hulkish figure takes off with Emma into another world. Ink’s costume designer did an excellent job in differentiating the messages that the storytellers, incubus, and Ink gave off with their outfits.

The viewer is quickly transitioned to John’s daily routine which many viewers can relate to. The ability of this film to both be imaginary and realistic is, again, a testament to Winan’s ability to write and direct a compelling story.

After being introduced to the world where the storytellers live, we learn that the Allel and other storytellers are linking up with a pathfinder named Jacob to save Emma from the hulkish figure. Viewers will be entertained by Jacob’s humor and choice of words. Enter the Key Master Incubus. The sight of this evil being is a true representation of how disturbing nightmares can be. The Key Master is an early introduction to how to incubus deliver a menacing message with an image to match.

This is one film you cannot miss a moment of. The transitions are quick and the pace is even quicker. We move forward to John meeting up with Emma’s grandparents who inform John that Emma is in a coma. The anger John holds is clear and we are provided a flashback into John’s rise to the top of his corporation and the downfall of his personal life.

As the storytellers are in the hospital protecting Emma, we are introduced to Liev, a storyteller leader who fights Ink and asks him to take her instead of Emma; however, Ink takes both as a sacrifice. It’s clear, as the film builds, that Liev entered the picture to help Ink as much as he was helping Emma. As Ink travels through the dreamworld portals, more characters emerge who symbolize different characteristics like greed and vanity. With that said, there is a lot of symbolism throughout this film.

The key moment in this film is when John is leaving his corporation after attending a a big, million dollar meeting and is combating the thought of his daughter in the hospital. As John is entering his car, Jacob, the pathfinder introduced earlier, begins his counting and literally changes the course of history, by stopping the flow. This is where the crash from the beginning comes into play. Now, we learn that Jacob, Allel, and all the storytellers’ jobs are to ensure that the father, John, is going to be delivered to his daughter, Emma.

In this scene, Jacob the Pathfinder shows Allel how to ‘stop the flow,’ re-uniting John with his daughter in the hospital…

The flashbacks continue and we get a beautiful view of John’s early beginnings, full of love and humor, with his wife and daughter. We also witness the death of John’s wife and see that Emma was taken from him soon after. In one of the final dream sequences, we see John talking to his wife admitting he didn’t know how to cope without her and showed humility, something he was lacking early in the film.

Once woken at the hospital, John enters a walk scene that is beyond epic and is a sight to behold. The story goes on to unfold into a deeper twist and turn and, ultimately, ends with a powerful message that everyone’s life can spiral out of control, if we allow it. In the end, John was a character given two options in life and the storytellers allowed him a second chance to be the father that Emma needed.

Ink is a film like no other and a spectacle of independent film making.