Ink

A grinning, soul-sucking Incubus from the low-budget film Ink, currently on Hulu.

Worth a watch--combining some of the better features of Run, Lola, Run (fast-forwarding and reversing through people's lives), The Matrix (kung fu protectors from another reality), Wings of Desire (the voyeurism of the disembodied) and a hint of the pre-director's cut Donnie Darko (eldritch forces swirl around suburbia).

A caveat, that tedg nails thusly:

The price they decided to pay was to put it all into the service of a profoundly syrupy confection of moral simplicity. family/child = good, money/career = bad. But one level higher it becomes coolly reversed. This is film, but the bad guys are the ones with the film presence. The saviors are a storyteller and a blind seer who never meet. The conflict is designed not to reflect real conflict, but something staged so that you can see.

It is an acceptable price. The storytelling is wonderful, just wonderful.

As for the bad guys, some creative use of low budget digital effects to create indelible images. The incubi, all male, sport '70s aviator glasses and square transparent shields suspended in front of their faces; these portable lens/monitors crackle and sizzle with CGI static and project jumpcuts of their moving features, suggesting some kind of time distortion. Terry Gilliam-ish but with a digital mashup vibe.

Afterthought: This would have been an arthouse hit a la Pi if anyone in the film biz had had the smarts to distribute it. The film found its audience through Torrent downloads and web buzz.