First time director Alex Ullom makes his generation proud with his Gen Z cosmic horror flick It Ends. Inspired by his own generalised ennui in the face of adulthood, Ullom crafts a tight Twilight Zone premise about four twenty-somethings stuck on a road that stretches on seemingly forever. Their reoccurring decisions to keep going (or not) act as a metaphor for the nihilistic post-post-modernity of those who struggle with depression, anxiety, and bed-rotting-filled lives. Through this horrifying premise and powerfully simple, sense-dulling filmmaking, Alex Ullom becomes a filmmaker to watch as he inquires about the very real lack of motivation in a generation without direction.
The four main characters find themselves so small in the universe that pays them no mind. There’s terror in knowing every day will have the same depressing outcome. Progress amid a mental health crisis appears impossible. The worst case scenario is suggested in the film’s title; maybe it is.
The joy in the film comes from the genre mashup Ullom has dubbed “hangout horror”. Though the existential core never wavers, the picture could be considered this generation’s Dazed and Confused or American Graffiti; it is still a movie about young people driving around aimlessly. Expo marker graffiti, meme-like discussions of animal on animal violence, and the savoring of a cliff bar create an atmosphere of love that’s worth saving. They remind us that connection earns life’s purpose.
It Ends will terrify anyone who claims to think too much and supercharge the spiraling thoughts that break their own consciousness into an unmotivated mush. A younger generation will find familiarity in the film’s endlessness, and fear in its bleak outlook. Not everyone will find a perfect connection to the themes on a generational level, but everyone can find something to grab onto in Ullom’s world of existential dread. Nothing scares everyone, but nothing scares everyone.
