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Ink Movie Review

Ink is a 2009 indie fantasy film directed by Jamin Winans and starring Chris Kelly. It’s an authentic movie in its premise, but the execution is far from great.

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“It takes humility to remember who we are“

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A mysterious creature, known as Ink, steals a child’s soul in hopes of using it as a bargaining chip to join the Incubi – the group of supernatural beings responsible for creating nightmares. This movie started off great and with a lot of potential that was quickly squandered on inferior execution. The beginning was excellent and very intriguing, especially in its fantastical characters and the dreamlike sequences.

Seeing each family member’s dream was cool and very interesting while the fraught father-daughter relationship at the center of the story was moving and very well explored. However, the characterization left a lot to be desired for the human characters. The creatures fare a bit better, but even they needed a more meaningful portrayal and arcs.

The acting is quite bad unfortunately. I don’t want to criticize the movie too much for its technical aspects as its 250k dollar budget showed its ugly head throughout the movie’s runtime. The performers are clearly not all that talented and a couple of them were particularly mediocre.

The cinematography consists of too many quick cuts and slow motion that tried to mask its low budget. However, some imagery was definitely effectively eerie and interesting with solid production design for its tiny budget and interesting art direction. The score and sound are also fine as is the directing.

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Jamin Winans definitely had some great ideas for Ink, but overall the second half was disappointing as it was overly complicated and not as fun as the beginning clearly promised it would be. There were so many characters here, leading to a muted impact for each and every one of them on the story that was itself overly convoluted. The third act was especially disappointing for me.

Ink is an indie fantasy flick that benefits from a terrific premise and an excellent, very intriguing beginning. The movie has some cool ideas and memorable imagery, but for the most part the execution showed its tiny budget – the cinematography was messy, the acting was poor and the entire second half was overly convoluted and chaotic.

My Rating – 3