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Review : The Endless (2018)

Science fiction is the new tabula rosa for an unchecked range of free expression.  It’s almost as if a solid science fiction premise is the hook, and you can give an audience just enough of it to classify as weird or unsettling, but the true substance comes from the relationships within, and the motivations created from the circumstances presented.  The Endless, from co-directors and stars Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, is a shining example of all of these things.

Justin (Justin Benson) and Aaron Smith (Aaron Moorhead) are two brothers, former members of a UFO cult, now struggling to make it from month to month a decade after their escape.  Aaron receives a strange tape in the mail one day, containing a message from cult member Anna (Callie Hernandez) about how their time for departure has come.  Justin feels validated in making the choice for the brothers to leave, but Aaron is compelled to visit his former ‘family’, if only to say goodbye.  Justin concedes, and the two return to Camp Arcadia to see their former fellow cult members off.  After a bit of conversation with Anna, Hal (Tate Ellington), Lizzy (Kira Powell), and several passing encounters with a strange man (Glen Roberts), Justin wants to leave, but Aaron is finding comfort in a somewhat more stable lifestyle than their hand to mouth existence in the real world.  Justin is further spooked by many of the weird events that take place.  As the two find themselves deeper and deeper in the unfolding mystery, they begin to realize that they truly had no clue about what their former existence was like.

The promotional material is wonderfully vague for this film, giving you just enough information to be intrigued and set up minimal expectations.  What you are left with, however, is something much deeper and stranger than you could ever imagine.  The premise of a UFO cult certainly triggers a handful of images and situations that you figure will be played out, but for the most part, the cult aspect is a running joke.  While you do have a threat that is alien in nature, it is not the true focus of the film... what you are left with is a handful of extremely weird instances and a group of people caught up in varying degrees of a truly horrifying situation.  One of the groups in the film, apparently, is an organically flawless callback to Benson and Moorhead’s earlier work.

The science fiction output is portrayed well despite being limited to the low budget practice of ‘the threat just off screen’.  The tug of war sequence is extremely effective, especially with it’s soft approach turned vicious attack.  Subtle uses of nature-based oddness like the circling flocks of birds and the multiple moons also work effectively, taken the familiar and giving them a sinister and eerie tinge.  Once the film introduces the time element, however, that’s when things get really interesting.  When you’re introduced to the man caught in the 5 second loop, the implications are truly horrifying, especially when he begins to interact with Aaron.

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, on top of directing a great movie, do a great job of setting up a dynamic that is mirrored to different degrees throughout their interactions with others, and throughout the way other characters interact with one another.  Benson’s insistence of being in charge plays well against Moorhead’s reserved approach, creating a tension that sits between them like a third character.  Callie Hernandez and her constant smile, even when giving wary or worried looks, is a bit creepy in its own right, especially when played against the over the top smiles of David Lawson, Jr..  Tate Ellington plays a leader who on the outset looks bold and fearless, but is clearly holding back information that rocks him to his soul.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to determine whom the hanged man in the woods was, but he was GREAT (I believe it was Shane Brady).  Kira Powell is informative in a subtle, sweeter way, while her character’s art gives an interesting interpretation of the unfolding events.  James Jordan and Peter Ciella have me extremely interested in seeing the Benson and Moorhead film that they are the center of, which is apparently integrated into The Endless seamlessly.

Films like these are some of my favorite film experiences out there.  Being recommended something cool by a friend that flew completely by your radar feels like finding money on the street.  In that sense, The Endless was like finding a $20.