In It Ends, it truly is the journey that’s important, not the destination. The story of four friends trapped on a road to nowhere, writer-director Alexander Ullom’s debut film taps into an existential dread that should resonate strongly with Gen-Z viewers facing adulthood, but also with anyone questioning the point of their everyday routines. Strong performances from a cast of newcomers supply the provocative speed bumps that the characters encounter along the way, while Ullom’s work follows in the footsteps of recent hits like Obsession and Backrooms by reminding audiences that horror movies don’t need a lot of money if their ideas are big enough.
After loading up a Uhaul with their belongings, freshly-graduated friends James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth) hop in Tyler’s (Mitchell Cole) Jeep Cherokee for a ride to their new apartment. Their initial conversation focuses on extremely-online debates like whether or not a man with a rifle can kill 50 hawks; James attempts to further break down the scenario by questioning precisely who this hypothetical “man” actually is, while Fisher takes his focus on minutiae as a personal attack. Not long after following their GPS off the main thoroughfare to a darkened and seemingly desolate road, Day becomes convinced that Tyler missed a crucial turn, but when they attempt to make a U-turn, the road disappears behind them and the car is besieged by people pouring out of the nearby woods, frantically trying to acquire their vehicle.
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Forced to drive forward, the quartet attempts to comprehend their predicament but quickly discover additional elements that make little sense: Tyler’s Jeep never seems to run out of gas, and none of them feel hunger or fatigue, no matter how much time they’re in the vehicle. Fisher and Day question what they may have done, or why they were chosen for this purgatory-like punishment, while James attempts to determine the seeming endgame — the purpose — of the endless road that they’re on. Yet the inevitability, and inescapability, of the situation weighs differently on each of them, while navigating a path where others want to seize their conveyance — and will do so with violent force.
To write more synopsis would do a disservice to the conversations that occur between the foursome while they’re on their journey, but in the best way, there isn’t a lot else to say plot-wise about the film. The chemistry between the individuals in the car, even more than the initial premise, is what sustains It Ends, and Ullom creates characters who are authentic to a friend group whose members are taking their first steps after college — carrying the lived experience of spending days and nights in shared, even protected spaces but some more eager than others to break out, stretch their wings, and explore new challenges. James, who’s lined up a tech job, is especially eager to move past his dorm room nights, while Fisher still seems locked into a dynamic he doesn’t yet realize they have begun to outgrow. Tyler, meanwhile, has embarked on an entirely different path, and his offer of a ride to the rest feels more obligatory than a welcome trip down memory lane.
It’s precisely these friction points that get rubbed raw during what they believe will be the last road trip of their lives. James’ persistently analytical mindset clashes with Day and Fisher’s more intuitive and humanistic interactions, not just with the situation they’re in but with each other. Those perspectives don’t quite create a proper philosophical dialectic about what they’re going through, but they do form a spectrum of responses to the question of what one would do if faced with an eternity repeating what are effectively the same patterns without the possibility of achieving a goal, or even, a conclusion? Among their reactions are “act as if,” “make the best of things” and “what is the point, and if there isn’t one, why not?” It’s a hypothetical that viewers will easily find themselves contemplating, which gives the film a resonance that lingers beyond the relative simplicity of its premise, even when it’s stopped being scary and focuses on introspection.
As a result, however, Ullom’s debut proves more impressive as an exercise or idea than as a true nail-biter. As indicated in its title, the film indeed has a conclusion and it’s one that you’ll be interested in seeing, but even at 89 minutes the film’s momentum falters occasionally. Moreover, as anyone who’s taken a long road trip with friends will tell you, a point comes where some of these characters’ behavior (or even just their personalities) will test your patience, no matter how curious or sympathetic you may be about their plight. He and the cast have likened the film to one of Richard Linklater’s hangout movies (Dazed and Confused, etc.), which is a fair characterization, but few of those movies had as big of a what-if hanging over them as It Ends.
And yet, especially now, delivering a first film filled with promise feels almost as good as delivering one that’s an instant home run. It Ends feels personal, but in a way that suggests Ullom has more stories to tell. Also, he navigates the space of the car so effectively you almost forget that it’s most of where the film takes place. Oh, and he directs these actors exceptionally well: he coaches Yoon to make James not a joyless breaker of puzzles but a young man desperately searching for meaning behind them; Toth’s Fisher seems the least ready to enter adulthood alone, which makes Jackson’s Day a wonderful accomplice and, when necessary, a mediator; and Cole’s Tyler exudes a resignation to his fate, even prior to making their wrong turn, that’s at once stabilizing to the group and deeply melancholy.
Usually with a concept like this, the audience can detect the calculating ambition of the filmmaker, tackling a story that they can tell without over-leveraging the limited resources they were able to marshal. Not so with Ullom’s film; you forget early that it’s pretty much just four people, a car and a very long road, and get wrapped up in where they’re headed. Precisely where that is by the end of the film may or may not fully satisfy everyone, but It Ends is heading somewhere more important — namely, the future of the genre. Filmmakers this year have offered fans of the genre one exciting new voice after another, and Ullom deserves to be part of that conversation. Because anyone can thrill people, scare people, or provoke people. It Ends actually makes you think, and now more than ever, that’s a quality that horror desperately needs.
