‘It Ends’ Movie Review: A Well-Made Miserable Ride
It Ends is another entry in the liminal horror craze, focusing on souls getting lost in never-ending familiar voids. Directed by Alex Ullom, the film takes those ideas but removes them from enclosed spaces. Instead, It Ends is on an endless road with no meaning or purpose. Others trapped in the same space either feel overly panicked and volatile or have become so numb to the road’s hopelessness that they’ve given up.
It’s a metaphor for how youth feel surviving today’s world. It also cares little about holding the viewer’s hand. Not to mention, the story feels deeply unpleasant, and that is quite intentional. But for an indie film, it accomplishes a lot with very little.
What is It Ends about?
The film centers on three college friends who go on a late-night run to grab food and have fun. The friends include Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth), Tyler (Mitchell Cole), and James (Phinehas Yoon). Everyone has stayed in touch, but no one has seen Tyler in a while.
In our first moments with this friend group, it’s clear everyone has gotten comfortable enough to give brutally honest opinions about each other’s lives. Such as a hilarious roast of Tyler for breaking up with a girl after she asked him to pick pumpkins with her. Ullom’s screenplay clearly shows the interpersonal relationships and how they feel like friends who have known each other for a while.
Following a GPS, they take a turn down a road full of endless trees. And after a while, they all begin to notice that they have been following the trail far too long. As a precaution, Tyler attempts to u-turn and head back the way they came. But suddenly, a group of trees appears in the exact entry that they came in through. Yet the GPS shows an endless road in both directions, despite the dead end.
Even so, the other passengers don’t realize something is wrong until they decide to pull over. Within moments, a stampede of strangers comes flying out of the woods, attacking the vehicle and violently pleading for help. The buildup is extremely intriguing, creating an unnerving atmosphere of dread and mystery about whatever this new existence means for the characters.
Alex Ullom’s road through hell
While not a direct comparison, some of Ullom’s screenplay feels reminiscent of Steven L. Peck’s novella, A Short Stay in Hell. In that story, one character finds himself stuck in an endless existence where he can’t die, and he and others must find a book that recounts their life.
Like Peck’s novella, It Ends incorporates clever world-building along the road to nowhere. Characters lack any urges felt in the real world, including hunger, thirst, or sexuality. The further they travel, the more different things feel, including how the people in the woods interact. And rather than days, the passing of time is conveyed through mileage.
The film also uses its single-setting format in an inspiring way. Most shots are filmed inside a car, so the dialogue and performances do most of the heavy lifting. For this reason, it’s not surprising the film has such a steep divide in reaction between audiences and critics. IMDb rates it 5.5/10, while critics rate it around 96%. The division likely stems from how difficult it is to make compelling a story that mostly happens inside a vehicle.
Dramatically, it is a challenge to create new, engaging scenarios in a film where almost nothing happens besides people driving, and Ullom somehow pulls it off. More importantly, Day, Tyler, Fisher, and James don’t feel like stupid characters. When a situation changes, they adapt, and when danger looms, they test and learn how to survive it. For instance, when they stop to rest, they time how long it takes for the desperate, violent souls to appear from the woods and adjust their break schedule accordingly. Unfortunately, the film’s final moments are divisive.
It Ends builds to its conclusion admirably
Despite its strengths, Ullom’s script builds to a conclusion that is both surprising and anticlimactic. Yet I’m unsure if the movie could end any other way. There is a message here, and it’s mostly about how Gen Z feels that every effort they have made in life may lead to empty results.
It’s also an apt metaphor for characters who have hopes and dreams coming out of college. Most of the generation is about to enter a world where they may never own a house or afford a mortgage. If they do, it’s unclear whether the world’s climate will remain stable as they grow older or consider having families.
It Ends strongly discusses these fears, but I’m not convinced it makes for a satisfying ending. And when the world feels hopeless daily, it’s a huge ask to tell others to experience it again for 90 minutes. The filmmaking and performances are tremendous for an indie project and deserve all the praise for creatively accomplishing a mile with minimal resources. But be aware that if life has felt like an endless and hopeless road, It Ends may not be of any comfort.
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