Incubi (Ink)

"Failure is not an option with us Ink, only perfection"

- Key Master Incubus The Incubi are the main antagonists of the 2009 American indie science fiction fantasy film Ink.

Ink
The movie begins with the stressed businessman John Sullivan having a car accident and as he becomes unconscious, he dreams of playing with his young daughter, Emma, she pretends to be kidnapped and tells John to "save" her from the "monsters", although John seems exasperated eventually, however, John gives in and runs to "save" his daughter, while Emma laughs and embraces him.

Dreams are controlled by beings from an alternate plane of reality. The beings are spirits of deceased people from earth and are divided into distinct groups: Storytellers (bearers of good dreams), Incubi (cause of nightmares), and Drifters (those in a state of limbo who cause neither good or bad dreams), Ink is one of this drifters a tall bald man with pale skin, scars on his head and a big nose who dresses in rags and always covers his face, he enters Emma's house at night and tries to kidnap her soul causing her physic body to enter a comma, Emma's Storyteller, Allel tries to save her but Ink is stronger so she calls other Storytellers but Ink manages to escape with Emma's soul into the Dreamworld, where Ink realizes that the little drum or "key" he has to use to get into the Incubi's headquarters got broken in the fight, he visits the Key Master Incubus looking for help, the Key Master tells him that he must find and barter with two other Drifters to acquire parts of a code that will enable him to achieve entry into the headquarters.

Meanwhile, John, whose life has attained a sense of repetition and perfection, faces turmoil when an account he has been working to acquire is about to be swept out from under him. Soon after, Ron Evans, John's estranged father in law, comes to inform John that Emma is in a coma and has been placed in a hospital. Although Ron begs John to go and see the girl, John refuses and berates Ron, saying that the father-in-law turned the world against him. Shortly after, Ron is ordered out of John's office. It is revealed that Ron and his wife were given custody of Emma after the death of John's wife Shelly in a car accident, due to John's grief-induced addiction to alcohol and drugs.

In the dreamworld, the Storytellers Allel, Gabe, and Sarah work to find a way to awake Emma. In order to do this, they receive the help of Jacob, an eccentric blind spirit known as a "Pathfinder". Meanwhile, a Storyteller named Liev confronts Ink and attempts to discourage him from delivering Emma to the Incubi. After Ink threatens to murder Emma if Liev continues to pursue him, Liev surrenders to Ink as a prisoner. It is revealed that Ink is taking Emma's soul to the Incubi in order to become one of them and cease to be a Drifter. Soon after, Ink successfully barters with two Drifters for parts of the code. As Ink's prisoner, Liev tries to bolster Emma's bravery in order to thwart Ink. During this time Jacob and the Storytellers follow John and find out that an Incubus is following him influencing John's decisions with hate, they place a device that will summon Storytellers in case of emergency outside John's building and Jacob uses his abilites of hearing the "beat of the world" to cause a chain of events that make John have the car accident at the beginning of the movie, the Incubus tries to wake him up before the Storytellers get him but John doesn't wake up and the Incubus escapes, Allel makes John dream about Shelly and Emma as he is being taken to the hospital. In the dreamworld, Liev discovers that Ink arrived after his human counterpart committed suicide. Ink, being ashamed of his hideous and scarred appearance, believes the Incubi will help him; the Incubi having been revealed to all wear apparati that project facades of bliss and happiness to hide their misery. After making their way to the stronghold of the Incubi, they are welcomed by "The Brave Incubus", Ink offers Emma and Liev as his payment to the leader known as The Prince. When the Assembly arrives, The Prince enters the room and stabs Liev in the stomach and takes Emma to begin the ritual. In the real world John is taken to the same hospital Emma is in, having a change of heart he decides to see his daughter, but Incubus are starting to appear in the hospital to avoid John from doing it, the Storytellers fight them but they are outnumbered and Jacob goes to where the help device is, while dying, Liev pleads with Ink to "remember" in that moment John arrives to Emma's room and touches her forehead making Ink have a revelation and it is revealed that Ink is really John from an alternate timeline where he didn't crash and his daughter died without his father presence driving John further into depression until he committed suicide just like Liev said, then his soul became Ink because time flows differently in the dreamworld. Jacob arrives to the device and activates it calling all the Storytellers into the hospital where they fight the Incubus, meanwhile Ink rushes to save Emma killing The Prince and many other Incubi, mirroring the scene here John pretends to save Emma from a monster, the Incubi in the hospital retreat as well as the incubi in the Assembly then Emma recognizes Ink as her father and embraces him releasing both souls as Emma wakes up in the hospital to find her father at her bedside