Review:
"It Ends"
Release Date: Aug. 28, 2026 Rating: R Running Time: 89 minutes The summer began with a liminal chiller breaking box office records in Backrooms and now it draws to a close with another liminal chiller, one that is both similar to and distinct from that YouTube sensation turned horror blockbuster. And, in all fairness to writer/director Alexander Ullom, his road movie It Ends premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival, more than a year before Kane Parson’s took us down deep into the labyrinth that lies parallel to the basement of that sad and near-empty furniture store. (Let’s also not forgot the superior Exit 8, which arrived in April.) Unlike Backrooms and Exit 8, It Ends is not set in a single space with a seemingly infinite number of interlocking rooms or passage ways. But it does feature the same concept: a small group of people trapped in a loop that never ends. Well, technically a road without any turnoffs that just goes on and on and on and on. While Kane Parsons created a mythology around Backrooms that isn’t necessarily easy to get your head around, Ullom keeps things simple. A car turns down a quiet highway that cuts through a forest. A few minutes later, the four young occupants (Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth, and Mitchell Cole) argue whether they missed their exit. The driver makes a U-turn. They soon realize they did not miss their exit. And that the highway gives on for miles. How many miles? Let’s just say that the four friends will not make their destination on time. If at all. It’s not fair to say what happens when the four friends stop the car to stretch their legs. But Ullom makes clear from the first stop that you either choose between driving or the potential of eternal damnation. For Ullom, though, It End isn’t about cheap scares. He only once first terrorizes his hapless travelers, and that’s to make the aforementioned point that you don’t make long stops on a road to nowhere. Instead, It Ends is about the psychological horror of not knowing what is happened, not knowing why it is happening to you, not knowing where you are going, and not knowing when you will get to your destination unknown. Ullom subjects his protagonists to an unrelenting, never-ending experiment that forces them to confront their loss of control, operate both within and outside the boundaries of time, and grapple with their true nature in the face of adversity and uncertainty. Then there are the physical limitation of being stuck in a car for hours at a time and the tension that comes with being in close confines with other people, regardless of whether they are your friends. And, soon enough, the mind begins to play tricks on you if it is not focused or fully engaged. Ullom puts the quartet in such an untenable position that you wonder which of them will first crack under immense pressure. Given much of the drama in It Ends takes place in a moving vehicle, Ullom keeps the dialogue snappy and insightful and the exchanges flowing until everyone runs out of things to say. Or at least until the conversation can turn real about the plight at hand. It Ends does threaten to slow to a crawl soon after a pivotal moment in the second act, but Ullom picks up speed in the lead-up to two existential crisis in the final act. Ullom certainly is helped by a cast of four talented twentysomethings who are up to task of carrying a 90-minutes psychological horror film. Michell Cole, as the car’s driver Tyler, brings quiet intensity to a plain-spoken pragmatist struggling to wrap his head around the mysterious nature of his and his friends’ predicament. Phinehas Yoon fills his James with alpha-male bluster and a fear of failure that drives It End’s straight-forward narrative. Akita Jackson maintains a sunny disposition as Day, whose relentless optimism is increasingly challenged with each passing day on the road. And Noah Toth imbues his Fisher with a fragility that suggests he could crack at any moment. Ullom fills the car with four disparate personalities that are designed not just to push each other forward but to test the limits of their patience and to apply stress on their declining mental well-being. If life is a highway, as Ullom suggests with It Ends, there is no turning back, there is no stopping, and there is no other destination than the fate that awaits you. Aired: Aug. 26, 2026. Web site: https://www.neonrated.com/film/it-ends |
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