It Ends: Sisyphus on the road

Much ink has been spilled over this year’s Gen Z internet-horror filmmakers and their runaway success, and writer-director Alexander Ullom’s It Ends is a welcome addition to the discourse. Made with a budget of $80,000 and largely unknown cast, Ullom’s debut is a smart and existential thriller that’s exactly what you’d hope for from an indie debut.

The film opens on recent college graduates James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth) getting a ride from the somewhat reticent Tyler (Mitchell Cole), a veteran who’s grown distant from the rest of the friend group over the past year. It’s not clear where they’re going or where they’ve come from, but that quickly loses importance as they find themselves stuck on a never-ending road. There’s no turnoffs and no one else around, except when the car is stopped for over a minute—then, a mob of screaming, insensate people come out of the woods surrounding the road and attack the group.

Ullom swiftly sets up the rules and rhythm of the film—both the car and the characters have no need for fuel—and cleverly spins out a story covering years in the microcosm of a two-lane highway. It’s a conceit that relies on the strength of its characters, and his protagonists are well-suited to that challenge, their relationships with each other round out what might be an otherwise sparse film. In the confines of the car James’s sardonic and sanctimonious personality rubs up against Tyler’s pragmatism and Day’s constant jokes are stripped away to reveal inner turmoil. And while the characters’ backstories are mostly hinted at, those sparse details make the movie feel grounded in its here-and-now. 

As the highway stretches on, It Ends becomes a case study in ennui and existential dread. Each character responds differently to their new reality: Day and Fisher attempt to build routine and find normalcy in their day to day, while James searches for a deeper meaning and Tyler rejects their circumstances. And Ullom does well to underscore the monotony of their time on the road while still keeping the plot moving, showing technical prowess that belies the movie’s limited scope and resources.

There’s a balance to the dreadful and the absurd in the movie that both recalls Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus and speaks to a generation nearly a century later. In the face of an absurd and meaningless existence—i.e., real life—Ullom’s characters make memes and do TikTok dances, just like any 20-something raised on the internet in our late-stage capitalist hellscape. With that sharp sensibility, It Ends outstrips its peers and marks a compelling debut.