Film Comment: Ink

A hardworking competent businessman devotes so much of his time to his business that he badly neglects his family, in effect sacrificing them to his career. When his wife dies and her parents take Emma, his little daughter, he becomes even more bitter, becoming all business, and never seeing the girl. But like everyone else, he doesn't know what's really going on when Emma suddenly goes into a coma.

Beings from "somewhere else" swirl and battle all around them constantly, and one of them, Ink, a would be Incubus (the "Boogeyman"), has stolen Kate from her body, which has begun to wither away. Ink plans to offer Emma as a human sacrifice to impress the other incubi so he can be promoted to full status. Chasing and battling Ink in city streets, in people's houses, and in other dimensions are the Storytellers and a Pathfinder. Of course, their destructive battles leave no trace which we can see. The Storytellers come during the night to give people pleasant dreams and memories while the Incubi come to torment us with nightmares.

This film, which has become a runaway internet favorite, was rejected by every major studio. They probably didn't know what to do with it because of the strong religious undertones running through the film. The Incubi can be seen as demons (their true nature is hidden behind glass squares floating in front of their faces which present them as smiling benevolent beings), and the Storytellers can be seen as angels. The blind Pathfinder is the one who tells even the Storytellers how everything really does make sense.

What the Pathfinder tells the Storytellers is that every choice leads to the next choice and that once the chain reaction of choices is set in motion the final result is inevitable, unless somehow the chain is broken. The mission of the Storytellers is to break the chain and save the girl.

I could find almost no information on Jamin Winans, the director/writer/co-producer of this film, so I can't say exactly what his intentions were but he is clearly familiar with Christian traditions and philosophy. A few lines are taken directly from the Bible. The heavy use of profanity is not.

The Bible tells us that spiritual beings are busy around us all the time, sometimes in plain sight, and that, in fact, we all have our own personal angels (and presumably our own personal demons). These beings strive constantly for our good, or for our damnation, and when just one of us is saved, there is wild rejoicing in Heaven. The choices made by mankind (individually and collectively) have set the world on a chain reaction which could only be broken by an intervention from outside the chain. We needed a Saviour to break the chain and He was provided in Jesus. He can save you no matter how far you have fallen.