Dir. Kelsey Bollig

Inked is the latest short film from director Kelsey Bollig. This short is a bit of a departure from her 2021 Black Swan-esque (2010) short film, The Fourth Wall, which was one of my favorite watches at Final Girls Berlin Film Festival that year. Inked centers on Dylan, a woman who’s dealing with the recent passing of her father who died alone in prison. To honor his memory she asked her friend to tattoo her father’s ashes into her skin. Yet the loving gesture begins to have a troubling effect on Dylan and reveals a terrifying secret. 

The film looks great and has a fun neon-drenched color palette that horror fans love so much. There are also some disturbing horror elements that Bollig uses to great effect. The main performances are very compelling and the two have a palpable chemistry. They are genuinely fun to spend time with. The main issues lie in the fact that they do not give the main character Dylan much to actually do. She has some great final girl, kick-ass energy that we don’t get to see come to fruition. That coupled with its easy to predict plot twist make some of the horror a little lackluster. 

However, the film does center around an interesting, and rarely spoken about social issue. While it mainly uses the prison backstory for the plot elements, it is a reminder of how many families are actually affected by mass incarceration. As of 2022, roughly 1,230,100 people are incarcerated in prisons throughout the United States. The latest statistics show that about 1 in every 2 adults has had a family member incarcerated. While there are a variety of issues in regards to the state of mass incarceration in the United States, we do not often think about the amount of people who deal with the horrifying realities of our broken prison system every day. It means potential breadwinners are unable to support their families, children grow up without essential guardians, and this time away from family only adds to the mental strain on both sides of the bars. 

About half of people in prison are parents, just like Dylan’s father. They miss out on major milestones in their children’s lives. The story of Inked centers around an important issue that many of us don’t think about. Many of us are privileged enough to not think about prison, or the people inside of them. Dylan missed out on time with her father and had to travel to a scary, often stressful place to get even a fraction of time with him. The horrors she faces in the film are also the result of a clerical error, in an institution that is often unfeeling to the people and families attached to the justice system. Many of the horror stories we love so dearly are tied up with horrors rooted in real life, making them all the more effective on the right viewer. Inked is certainly worth the watch, as well as Bollig’s other shorts. And while you take the time to support independent filmmakers, perhaps you can also take some time to think of the real life backdrop. 

Visit The Prison Policy to read an article on the effects of incarcerations on families in our country. 

Pairs well with Media Like: 

• Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey (novel) 
• Tomie by Junji Ito (manga) 
• Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca (novella) 
• Brand New Cherry Flavor (Television Show) 
• Kill Your Lover directed by Alix Austin & Keir Siewert (film) 
• Girls Night In directed by Alison Roberto (short film)
• The Visit directed by M. Night Shyamalan (film)
• The Exorcist III directed by William Peter Blatty (film)