Aug. 18 (UPI) — Like Backrooms and Obsession earlier this summer, It Ends, in theaters Friday, showcases a new filmmaker executing a concept with depth using minimal means. With four characters and one location, It Ends terrifies, shocks and inspires despair
Tyler (Mitchell Cole), James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth) are riding in a car together looking for the turn their GPS says is coming up. The road continues forever with no turns, and there are people in the forest threatening them if they stop and get out
So, four people in a car on a single road make up the entire movie, and yet writer/director Alex Ullom has plenty of narrative and thematic material to explore in 89 minutes. First, he establishes the rules of the It Ends world piece by piece
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The road is straight. There’s never a turn. They do reach a dead end early on. When they get out, people from the forest run after them and bite violently, so they turn around and remain in the car
There are no big special effects. A bunch of people running out of the woods are overwhelming enough that the concept is bigger than any expensive effect. They don’t even need to be zombies in makeup
The drivers and passengers never have to eat. Their ¼ tank of gas never runs out. The infinite road will sustain them, but that in itself is oppressive
The characters conduct some tests to figure out specific rules. They time how long it takes before people run out of the woods, then try to get answers within that short window
Early dialogue establishes what type of characters each of the four represents. They are necessarily broad strokes because the premise requires dramatic opposition
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James is on a career path with his whole life planned out, a bit cynically at that. Tyler served in the military but is so impatient he broke up with his ex over a three-hour drive
Fisher seems to be the most high-strung, and Day the realist who calls the boys out on their B.S
So once they’ve been driving an entire day and night cycle, they start to speculate on where they are. James considers they’ve died, because he’s rational about the irrational phenomenon
They create routines to get through days of driving, whether timed rest stops or activities in the car. A road trip already creates tensions between different personalities compressed in a small space, so this is an exponential pressure cooking
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The situation is simple, but it forces the characters to confront big-picture ideas. Whether the road is Hell, purgatory or another dimension, whether they choose to keep driving, to believe they’ll eventually reach an end, to enjoy or resent the ride, all reflect how they see the world
It Ends does reach a conclusion satisfying in its simplicity. Fortunately, it never completely explains itself so fans will be able to draw their own personal conclusions and interpretations
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work inEntertainment
