Existential horror may not be new, but realizing it well is a challenge few filmmakers take on. However It endsDirector and screenwriter Alex Ullom is not the first to do this, the level of success he has achieved in using the film’s ambiguity to appeal to a wide audience is impressive.
The character archetypes that Ullom chooses to play with only broaden this universal appeal. It ends follows four key players: Tyler (Mitchell Cole), the serious guy who rebuilt his life before all his friends; Day (Akira Jackson), the kind and competent person who initially takes care of everyone around her to her own detriment; Fisher (Noah Toth), the comedian who hides behind his jokes and big personality but feels it all the most; and James (Phineas Yoon), the pragmatist who needs answers.
Tyler picks up the other three from college while the group helps James pack up his things to move into his new apartment for his first job at Big Boy right out of college. Despite GPS tracking, the four find themselves on a seemingly endless road. To make matters worse, they continue to be swarmed by frantic strangers who come out of the woods when they get out of the car. Their only option is to drive, and drive, and drive…
Despite the tight 90 minutes, It ends is truly a slow burn story. We follow a journey in which each player’s grip on reality is tested as they all grapple with a series of existential questions that all boil down to something very simple: Do you keep going or stop?
Because It ends is a stripped-down sort of story, relying more on a minimalist approach rather than coming at your senses from all directions, the film lives and dies by Ullom’s visuals and the performances of the small cast. Each actor fully commits to their respective archetype, while the cinematography of Evan Draper and Jazleana Jones dances under Ullom’s direction to create a film that is very pleasant to look at. All criticism is subjective, but “this is a well-made and beautiful film” is the only sentiment that can be expressed here with any objectivity. The story itself seems almost impossible to criticize by its very nature, because each individual is going to take from it whatever they need at that moment.
It ends A certain form of existentialism, however, benefits from the film’s timing. Ullom graduated from college during quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it shows in her storytelling. Every child feels lost right out of school, but a certain level of dissociation is required when you’re doing it during what feels like the end of the world. Here we are six years later in our new type of socio-political conflict, with hundreds of thousands of people unemployed because systems built to protect the many only support the few. We don’t spend a lot of time coming to terms with the impact of these things on our children. In fact, historically speaking, we are more likely to blame them than support them (waves in Millennial).
There are many occasions for such accusations to be attributed to It ends. It’s easy to judge when characters begin to break down, give up, or betray themselves rather than exploring the circumstances that led to their actions. We can’t quantify the events happening around them, any more than the characters themselves, so our brains immediately turn to rationalizing and introspecting what we ourselves would do in the same scenario. This is where It ends The larger truth becomes obvious: this is not a film intended to satisfy the modern audiences they are accustomed to. Instead, we are challenged to use introspection, empathy, and, yes, a healthy dose of existentialism to try to understand not only what we watched, but also how it relates to the world around us. We take what we need It ends in the moment, but what each viewer learns or panics about can change from watch to watch based on internal and external factors. This is existential horror for you, baby!
Some people are going to react to this exactly as well as Tyler, Day, Fisher, and James, but that’s also, somehow, the point here. Nobody has the right answer. We are all trying to survive on the road.
Music from the film: 4/5
