No traffic jams for this road trip psychological thriller.
We had “Backrooms” last May, which took place inside the walls of a furniture store. Nobody knows why or how all of this is happening, but there are times that look like they’re sinking into the carpets and some deformed versions of people. And all of this is based on memory. We also had “Exit 8” last April, which had a man lost in subway and reads a sign that tells him to pay attention to anything different. And if he sees anything different from his route, then he must turn around or he’ll be stuck in some kind of vortex. And this month, we have “It Ends,” which regards a road trip movie that never ends. Meaning the driver and passengers are driving in a straight line with no turns and no answers of what is going on. It’s enough to drive anyone over the edge, and that’s what makes it another worthy addition in what must be a genre.
We meet four friends who take a little road trip in their Jeep Cherokee, and they all talk about their life goals. They consist of three graduates: Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth), and James (Phinehas Yoon), and their driver Tyler (Mitchell Cole), whom they haven’t seen in years. Day’s GPS tells Tyler to keep going straight, and at one point, he wonders if he missed the turn. And the GPS still tells him to go straight. But then they come to what appears to be a dead end, and what appears to be a bunch of people begging for help. Even though they keep driving, they still have a quarter tank of gas left. And even after 24 hours, they’re not hungry or tired.
So how is this happening? Are they in some kind of vortex or time loop? What do those people need help with or from? Did these main characters end up in an accident that killed them? And if this is some kind of purgatory, then what did these people do to deserve this kind of driving fate? At this point, their only recourse is to keep driving, and only stop when they need to take turns driving without turning the car off. And when they do stop, they have their timers on their phones.
It would be inevitable that driving this long can drive people the wall. Are they going to keep doing this forever? Is there a way out? And what are they supposed to do? Sitting and sitting in the same vehicle without sleeping can push your limits. In fact, there are long car drives that makes us feel like we’re stuck in vortex sometimes. So, I guess that’s how “It Ends” wants to set up.
“It Ends” is the directorial debut of Alexander Ullom, whose financing came from posting a sketch on YouTube that went viral, a comment “I would pay for more of this,” and an investor from a VR poker game, and then casted the young actors off of Instagram. At 28-years-old (and certainly older than Kane Parsons of “Backrooms” or Curry Barker of “Obsession”), he was named as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” And while the story doesn’t reinvent the horror wheel, it still tests our emotions and allows the young actors to deliver the kind of curiosity we would expect in a movie like this. And they even try to have some fun with their otherworldly situation on the side. We probably haven’t heard of them before, but we sure hope to see them again.
“Backrooms” it’s not, but interesting and well-edited by Ullom it is. And that’s what makes “It Ends” keeps on driving without any traffic jams. I mean how can there be? They’re driving on the same road in the same woods day after day after day after day after day.
In Select Theaters
