Summary
A quietly unsettling debut that trades traditional horror for existential dread, director Alexander Ullom captures the terror of drifting through life with no clear exit.
Filmmaker Alexander Ullom, who has transitioned from online shorts to this debut feature, has said in interviews that he’s trying to coin the phrase ‘hangout horror.’ If he wanted a visual companion to that phrase, it would be IT ENDS, a film that begins as an unnerving mystery in the woods and gradually drifts toward existential dread.
A late-night drive down a wooded road turns otherworldly when old friends James (Phinehas Yoon), Tyler (Mitchell Cole), Day (Akira Jackson), and Fisher (Noah Toth) find they’re unable to leave. After driving for days, the road never turns, never ends. Stranger still, they don’t feel tired or hungry. When they finally stop, desperate people emerge from the trees, pleading for access to the car. It’s in these moments that Ullom’s film is at its most traditionally unsettling, delivering scares through bursts of action after long stretches of stillness.
As curiosity gives way to despair and resentment, the group begins to question what they’ve done to deserve this—and whether it will go on forever. Eventually, even the fear dulls. Hypotheticals, road games, and minor puzzles become the only way to pass the time. On the surface, you could read Ullom’s tight screenplay any number of ways: a metaphor for Gen Z’s uncertain transition into adulthood in a relentlessly bleak world, perhaps.
What’s remarkable about IT ENDS is how little actually happens—and that’s kind of the point. Just like in real life, there are no mile markers to tell you that you’ve reached the next stage. The group can take short breaks from the car and occasionally stumble upon other abandoned vehicles, but there’s a limit to how long they can stray. They come to realise the way forward is the only way, and that way is uncertain.
Ullom plays with some great ideas here, and elicits strong performances, particularly from Yoon and the taciturn Cole. Still, for all the time we spend in the car, we learn surprisingly little about these characters. If this is a hangout movie, it’s one in which ennui is baked in from the beginning, and there’s no obvious way to shake it. For more than one generation, that might be the most terrifying thing of all.
IT ENDS is a clever debut, one that deliberately skirts around tropes like time loops and postmodern horror to avoid being pinned down. That said, you could argue Ullom doesn’t quite know what to do with his setup once he’s set things in motion—and the final act may frustrate some as a result. Just like real life.
2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: Alexander Ullom | WRITERS: Alexander Ullom | CAST: Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, Snoot Entertainment | RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025)
