Studio: Neon
Director: Alexander Ullom
Writer: Alexander Ullom
Producer: Carrie Carusone, Evan Barber
Stars: Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth, Mitchell Cole
Review Score:
Summary:
Four friends are inexplicably caught in an endless, seemingly supernatural loop while driving on a deserted forest road.
Review:
“Experimental” and “unconventional” can probably be used to describe the film itself. They definitely describe the way in which “It Ends” rolled out.
It’s no surprise that the movie’s surreal yet Spartan setup made it attractive to film festival programmers who love their late-night lineups to be weirdly offbeat, philosophically challenging, maybe even divisive. After premiering at SXSW in March of 2025, “It Ends” made its way around the world, following a similar festival route that independent features often travel when searching for someone who might be able to bring their boutique project to arthouse audiences.
Then in December, Letterboxd announced “It Ends” would be one of the first four titles in its inaugural “Unreleased Gems” line of the Letterboxd Video Store. The idea here was to help find homes for orphaned indies by giving the public an opportunity to see movies currently in post-festival limbo. “It Ends” still didn’t have a distributor. At least now people could digitally rent the movie on demand and find out for themselves if the critical acclaim was warranted.
A little over a week later, Neon announced they purchased international distribution rights with plans to put the movie in theaters in 2026. Viewers didn’t have to wait that long though. “It Ends” remained available on the Letterboxd Video Store service, making it an inverse instance of being able to watch a movie at home months before it went to the multiplex.
Having Neon’s name attached helped increase visibility, as did the unusual nature of not following a traditional distribution strategy. It also didn’t hurt that by holding the theatrical release until August of 2026, there was time to piggyback on a different film’s success by promoting “It Ends” as being “from the producer of ‘Backrooms’ (review here).”
“It Ends” wasn’t done getting gimmicky. Perhaps because the movie had already been commercially available for a while, Neon did a bit of stunt marketing to build back some hype. Several media outlets subsequently ran stories about a promotional “Endless Screening Contest.” Meant to mirror the movie’s premise, groups of four friends could apply to participate in a “Last Person Standing” competition where they would screen the movie on a loop for 36 consecutive hours, earning money for each minute of the marathon until they tapped out. It’s an amusing concept for an ironic reason, which is that anyone irritated by the slow burn will think 90 minutes is already too tedious an amount of time to be stuck in a continuous “It Ends” circle, never mind 36 hours.
The four friends in “It Ends” are photogenic in addition to being diverse, making them an ideal quartet for grouping together in a movie. Having just finished college, James, Day, Fisher, and Tyler set out for a road trip along a desolate forest road. From initial appearances, anyone not endeared to their distinctly Gen Z personalities might fear they’re become a captive passenger in a vehicle they shouldn’t have entered. One of the group’s earliest conversations involves flippantly debating a meme that pits rats, hawks, gorillas, and a human hunter against each other in a predatory faceoff. Out of necessity, their discussions ultimately turn to existentialist topics, a switch that might frustrate some viewers into wishing they’d return to amusedly arguing about social media nonsense.
Ten minutes into the movie, Tyler notices they’ve spent so much time on what looks like the same stretch of road, he assumes they must have gone the wrong way. Tyler turns the vehicle around only to inexplicably arrive at a dead end. Now he needs a minute to regroup. A minute is roughly all he gets because everyone soon discovers that no matter when or where they stop, a mob of raving maniacs runs out from the trees to swarm them.
James, Day, Fisher, and Tyler quickly realize they’re trapped in an endless drive through nowhere. Intently pondering what the most logical thoughts and reactions might realistically be in such a seemingly supernatural situation won’t be of any productive use here. More interested in ending exposition swiftly, the characters simply acknowledge that even though time continues passing normally, they no longer get tired or hungry and they have an infinite supply of fuel. And since they accept the circumstances, willing companions in the audience should too, as the destination is no less confounding than the journey that put them on this ambiguous path.
It’s difficult to imagine what would be gained by watching “It Ends” more than once, much less repeatedly for a day and a half. The movie traffics in interpretive content intended to provoke ideas about life, death, purpose, and questions with no definitive answers. Accordingly, “It Ends” doesn’t offer any conclusive resolutions either. The characters experience a broad range of emotional, intellectual, and physical responses to being defenseless in a frightening encounter with the unknown, unsure if escape is even a possibility. A second spin through “It Ends” won’t reveal any new clues, and it’s unlikely to plate any additional food for personal thought.
“It Ends” earns appreciation for being well constructed as a leanly designed film. Proper lighting, the edit’s sense of timing, and competent camera placement in a cramped car belie a presumably low budget. The actors make meandering through redundancy more engaging than expected, even in sleepier scenes when they’re succumbing to unspoken despondency. The college-age characters aren’t unpleasantly obnoxious, and the presentation is nowhere near as ugly as it could have been if the movie were made in a rush.
The thin narrative is where “It Ends” loses its ability to be consistently compelling. Tens of thousands of miles into their nightmarish trip, James asks aloud if the others think they’ll eventually exhaust everything there is to talk about and never encounter new stimuli again. A case can be made that “It Ends” hits this point somewhere in the middle of its story’s fruitless search for more substance. Those who stick around until the end of the ride are likely to exit with their hopes for a payoff unfulfilled. There’s always the option of taking another tour through “It Ends,” but maybe that’s best left to the iron wills and big bladders getting paid to be put through that.
Review Score: 60
It’s difficult to imagine what would be gained by watching “It Ends” more than once, much less repeatedly for a day and a half.