Ink is a 2009 low-budget indie fantasy film directed by Jamin Winans. When people go to sleep at night, certain beings come to them and give dreams. Storytellers supply happy images, while Incubi are evil creatures who give people nightmares and encourage vanity or despair. These creatures usually go unseen by mortals and exist in a murky, dream-like mirror world of our own.

The main story is centered around a little girl, Emma, who is abducted into the dream world by the namesake villain, Ink. A group of Storytellers try to rescue her by bringing her separated father to her bed as her body lies in a coma. The film alternates between the father's story in the waking world and Emma's story in the dream world.

The movie hit it big on bittorrent sites. Much like The Man from Earth two years previously, the filmmakers "embraced the piracy" to help bring attention to the film.

Provides Examples Of:

• Action Girl: All girls here kick ass Buffy style.
• Anti-Villain: Ink is a sad person who gets sympathy even from his prisoners. Ultimately he turns out to be Emma's father.
• Ax-Crazy: Sadie does not like Storytellers or other women, particularly lovely ones. Consider her reason for being a drifter and personality.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't remind Allel of her failure. Or taunt her.
  • Ink's a little touchy about his inadequacy.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • The Pathfinder manages to activate a magical distress beacon just in time.
  • Also Ink. Granted, he was in the room the whole time, but The Reveal hits him in time to pull a Heel–Face Turn and rescue Emma.
• Blind Seer: Jacob, the Pathfinder, has X's over his eyes and cracks jokes about being blind but can "see the music" of reality.
• Black-and-White Morality: It's pretty obvious that the Storytellers are all good and Incubi are all bad. The drifters, however, are mostly neutrally in the middle, not caring to choose either side. There are a few who are shown to be swayed in their allegiances, though.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The Key Master Incubus has eyes that are pure black, occasionally flaring white with interest.
• Character Title
• Chekhov's Gun: The mass summon signal, which gets used in the end.
  Sarah: In case we need the big guns.
  Jacob: If all goes peachy, we will.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Most of the Incubi invariably walk around with permanent Stepford Smiler faces, although the Keymaster Incubus in particular has a creepy moment where you see the smile spread across his face from his initially neutral expression. It seems to stretch pretty wide.
• Cluster F-Bomb: John has one of these before his crash in the beginning of the movie.
• Crazy-Prepared: The one and only time that Ink is at a disadvantage in a one-on-one fight, he makes it clear that he would rather kill Emma and lose his chance to join the Incubi than be defeated.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Natural Light = Real World. White, Green, and Amber/Gold are the Spirit World, Nightmares (and Incubi-induced thoughts), and Dreams respectively.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: John is an example, albeit because he has let his professional life consume him to the exclusion of his personal life. He even mentions that the lives of thousands who are affected by his dealings are his responsibility, and that by neglecting his job he may harm all of them. He may be exaggerating to slake his vanity, but for a film that emphasises on the nature of cause and effect we never get an idea of how many fathers may be torn from their daughters due to John's ultimate decision..
• Deadpan Snarker: The Pathfinder cracks jokes, mostly about being blind.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The basic dream world is faded except for that last bit at the end..., the Incubi world is green, and the Incubi have masks that make their faces monochrome and apparently less terrifying than when removed.
• The Determinator: Nothing is going to stop Ink from getting to the Assembly.
• Digital Piracy Is Evil: Inverted, it didn't ruin the movie's success, but instead improved it.
• Disability Superpower: The Pathfinder is blind, but can "feel the beat of the world" which allows him to set off chains of events leading to a desired outcome. As long as there aren't any branches in his path.
  • Doubles as Awesome by Analysis
• Disaster Dominoes: Jacob orchestrates a chain of accidents that lands John in Emma's hospital.
• Dissonant Serenity: When John is walking through the hospital to find Emma's room, while the Storytellers are having a huge brawl with the Incubi all around him. Justified in that the fighting takes place in another plane of existence that he can't perceive.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Part of the Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts scene involves a teenage skateboarder crashing into another person because he's distracted by the cleavage of a woman bending down to pick up some flowers.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Creepy guys standing bedside as little girls sleep.
• Dreams vs. Nightmares: Storytellers give people good dreams and are seen as benevolent, while Incubi give people nightmares and are seen as evil.
• Driven to Suicide: In one reality, John does this after the loss of both his wife and his daughter. This leads to him becoming Ink after his death.
• Epic Hail: Jacob's call for backup, which fires a giant pillar of light into the sky, quickly followed by the click-popping of dozens of Storytellers appearing.
• Epiphany Therapy: The Storytellers give John dreams of his dead wife to convince him that seeing his daughter is more important than his job.
• Foil: Ink is a foil for John as they the same person. It also seems that Liev is meant to remind Ink and Emma of the wife/mother.
• Friend to All Children: Liev is only ever helpful and supportive to Emma.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Ink's pallid, goblin-like appearance is referred to as scarring caused by his suicide. It's also his motivation in that he believes joining the Incubi will rid him of his ugliness.
  • If you look closely, he has scars, or at least very thick veins and imperfections all over his head.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: The ending gets two of these: when Ink realizes who he is and delivers an enormous can of whoopass and when enough Storytellers show up to drive off the attacking Incubi from the hospital.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain - Ink. He isn't even very ineffectual, aside from letting the key-drum which would have allowed him instant access to the Assembly (and made the movie MUCH shorter) get broken, but the Incubi like to play off of his low self-esteem. That, his sheer determination, and a series of sympathetic moments put him in Anti-Villain territory by the end of the movie. Then he has his Heel–Face Turn and kicks EPIC amounts of Incubi ass.
• Kick the Dog: Ink pummels Liev after her surrender.
• Large Ham: The Pathfinder and Sadie both effect big, bombastic personalities.
• Left Hanging: What would the exact repercussions of Emma's death at the hands of the Prince have been?
• Leitmotif: A particular static noise follows the Incubi, the pops of the appearing Storytellers, and Jacob's "One, two, three, four" and its sometimes accompanying music. Even the drum 'keys' could be considered this.
• Meaningful Echo: The 'fighting monsters' John does. Especially, "You mess with my daughter, you mess with me!", albeit non-verbally.
  • This is who you were; Something's got to stop the flow.
  • The forehead touch, especially at the end.
  • This is who you will become; This is who you will choose to be. You don't have to choose this.
  • And so, SO much more.
• Meaningful Name: Many of the Storytellers have names from the Bible (i.e. Gabe, Sarah). The Storyteller who goes to help Emma and is captured by Ink is named Liev, which means "godly one" and it's also an anagram of 'live', which seems to be what she's urging John/Ink to do. Ink sounds like the first part of Incubus, as in, he's an incomplete incubus.
• Mood Whiplash: Jacob's Punctuated! For! Emphasis! moment is immediately broken by his continued antics.
• No Name Given: The Collector. All the other storytellers and drifters with speaking lines have names, even if only listed in the credits, like Gabe. But the Collector is only listed in the credits as "The Collector.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Jacob. Allele clearly has him pegged as a deranged lunatic that takes an odd pleasure in annoying other people, but during the Disaster Dominoes sequence, it becomes quite clear to her and the viewer that he has an incredibly sharp mind, and sees more than all of the other Storytellers.
• Oh, Crap!: The reaction to the sheer number of Incubi in the climax.
• Once More, with Clarity: The first scene of the movie gets replayed at the end, with more context now.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The spirits of the dead can end up either as Storytellers, Incubi, or Drifters. Storytellers are good people who give people happy dreams (and can kick ass when needed, but not affect the physical world). Incubi give people nightmares and try to influence them to increase the amount of pride and selfishness in the world. Drifters are the most like traditional ghosts, owing allegiance to neither side, and most seem to be caught up in the obsessions they had in life. All spirits can be killed by another in the same way that humans can be killed, but it never says what, if anything, happens to them after that.
• Pet the Dog: Ink gets one when he prevents Sadie chopping off all of Liev's hair and further humiliating her.
• Power Fist: Gabe breaks out some brass knuckles for the climactic fight.
• Pronoun of the Dreaded: The leader of the Incubi, the Prince, is only referred to as such in the script. Everyone else, including his own subordinates, refer to him simply as "He".
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Jacob's line, "Shake. The. Shit. Out of her."
• Redemption Equals Death / Redemption Earns Life: This is a tricky one. After realizing his Tomato in the Mirror status and saving Emma, Ink asks her for forgiveness and helps her wake up to find her father at her bedside. The John that we've spent the movie watching gets his daughter back while the one who became Ink no longer exists.
• Reset Button: Two - the one that fixes things broken when Storytellers fight, and The Stable Time Loop-breaking one at the end.
• Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: The Disaster Dominoes are used to get John to Emma's hospital.
• The Reveal: Ink is John from a Bad Future. Specifically, he completed his business deal, let Emma die alone in the hospital, spiraled into depression and blew his brains out, scarring his already twisted soul enough to turn him into amonster.
• Sacrificial Lion: Liev the Storyteller dies in the climax to achieve the otherwise happy ending.
• Satan: LOOK at the Prince. He even has it in his title! And think about his followers; down to the names.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: These replace the Stepford Smiler screens all of the Incubi wear when they get ready to fight.
• Screw Destiny: this is the Pathfinder's power, which he uses to put John in the hospital and gives the Storytellers a window to give John a nice dose of Epiphany Therapy
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: John & Ink do this with the Storyteller's help, although John remains oblivious to the 'time travel' part, and Ink doesn't realize it until The Reveal.
• Sinister Schnoz: Ink. Often, it's all you can see under his hood. His angst over his ugliness helps drive the plot. Subverted by the end, when he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and decimates the "pretty" Incubi.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: John, the high-strung businessman, makes sure this film gets an R rating for language if nothing else.
• Stable Time Loop: The Incubi's plan for Ink's initiation ritual is to create one.
• Start of Darkness: John's great successes, while individually good things, led to his corruption and the neglect of his family.
• Stepford Smiler: Aside from the Prince, every single one of the Incubi has a screen in front of their faces which projects this image. And they have sharp teeth.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "She's going to be okay." The scene is even worse if you close your eyes and turn the sound up.
  • Emma, about to be sacrificed: "When I die will I be a storyteller like you?" Liev: "No. You will be much greater than that."
• Tomato in the Mirror: See The Reveal above.
• Traumatic Haircut: Liev gets one from Sadie.
• Uncanny Valley:invoked Purposefully and rather effectively done with the Incubi. The screens in front of their faces greatly distort and exaggerate their Stepford Smiles to a disturbing level.
• Urban Fantasy: This fantasy story takes place in a big city.
• Vanity-Induced Monstrosity: Invoked; the title character is deeply ashamed of his scarred, repulsive appearance and wants to be cured of it, hence why he's accepted the job of kidnapping Emma for the Incubi. When Ink finally brings her to them, he is to be rewarded by being transformed into another Incubus, allowing him an eerily human appearance and freedom from his self-loathing... at the cost of becoming a Humanoid Abomination Nightmare Weaver. Ink then realizes that he's the future incarnation of Emma's father and the entire goal of this exercise was to finish corrupting him to their service - so he turns on the Incubi and thankfully rescues Emma at the last minute.
  The Prince: You have proved your loyalty. Those scars... they will be gone now. No more shame. Because pride is what we are made of. You will be our greatest asset.
• Villain Tracking Failure: The Storytellers can teleport and yet can't keep ahead of Ink.
• Waistcoat of Style: Gabe sports one.
• Was Once a Man: Ink and the junk collector were once men. Who knows what Sadie once was.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: John was a workaholic before his life went to hell, and he clings to it even more now.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Each of the main Storytellers pulls one of these to buy John more time.