The Endless (2017)
Two brothers return to the cult they fled from years ago to discover that the group's beliefs may be more sane than they once thought.
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12 films that influenced The Endless
What critics say influenced The Endless
One recalls the time 'loopiness' of Nacho Vigalondo's "Timecrimes" and the circular lost in the woods disorientation of "The Blair Witch Project."
One recalls the time 'loopiness' of Nacho Vigalondo's "Timecrimes" and the circular lost in the woods disorientation of "The Blair Witch Project."
A mystery wrapped in a conundrum, “The Endless” is a sort of indie/sci-fi/horror movie hybrid, recalling “The Blair Witch Project,” “The Witch” and “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” — small budgeted, striking efforts shot on locations that are an integral part of the film’s story and power.
Like Ti West’s Jonestown-inspired The Sacrament , Benson and Moorhead’s film first shows the appeal of commune living—everyone eats healthy, follows their blisses, and drinks copious craft beer (an on-site brewery bankrolls the camp’s operation)—so that it’s all the more unnerving when the amiable façade falls away.
Since their debut feature, 2012’s Resolution, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have emerged as two of American indie cinema’s most inventive genre filmmakers, doing things on very modest budgets that Hollywood typically spends millions on.
Moorhead and Benson fold in characters and situations from their feature debut, Resolution, giving them new valences of meaning this time around to ensure you don’t have to have seen the earlier film to follow what’s going on.
Back in 2012, the Tribeca Film Festival hosted the world premiere of a tiny indie horror film called Resolution, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and written by Benson.
Six years after the release of Resolution , the filmmaking duo has returned—both thematically and physically—to the site of their first feature film, expanding upon its fascination with Lovecraftian beasts that lurk in the dark and inexplicable hiccups in the fabric of space-time.
The less you know about the reveals going in will make The Endless more rewarding, and if you’re a fan of Benson and Moorhead’s previous work – particularly their first feature Resolution – there will likely be an additional layer of enjoyment.
Resolution explores just what is real and what may be the result of a drug addict’s nightmares.
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Benson and Moorhead moved away from the world of Resolution with their second film together, Spring , about a young man who unwittingly gets sexually and emotionally involved with a monster.
Just as Benson and Moorhead played with convention in 2014’s excellent Spring, which is like a Lovecraftian version of Before Sunrise, they usurp narrative standards in The Endless, using broad strokes as table setting to paint way outside the lines.
Enter Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the duo who brought us 2012’s Resolution and 2014’s Spring , both fantastic independent features that knew exactly how to take a “less is more” approach that still satisfied viewers.
Three years after their much-lauded but underwhelming sophomore feature Spring , indie directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead continue in the same Lovecraftian vein for their far more nuanced follow-up.
Benson (writer, co-director, co-star, co-producer, co-editor) and Moorhead (cinematographer, co-director, co-star, co-producer) have shown their knack for this sort of bargain-priced material before, although this is a bigger and more ambitious effort than their previous picture Spring.
Spring attempts to bring together two genres that ordinarily wouldn’t be seen on either side of the street together — horror and romance — but it turns out, under Benson and Moorhead, together they can make something beautiful and scary.
Meanwhile Moorhead's onscreen Aaron evokes a young Cary Elwes, somewhere between the innocent charm of The Princess Bride's Westley and the awkward idiocy of Jerry the stepdad in Liar Liar.
The Endless is inventive and imaginative in a low-budget, DIY way – it has some of the do-a-lot-with-a-little spirit of those early Brit Marling independents (multiple moons appear over the compound, recalling the twin planets of Another Earth ).
Meanwhile Moorhead's onscreen Aaron evokes a young Cary Elwes, somewhere between the innocent charm of The Princess Bride's Westley and the awkward idiocy of Jerry the stepdad in Liar Liar.
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But does this horror-thriller that’s been compared to The Babadook and It Follows live up to the hype?
But does this horror-thriller that’s been compared to The Babadook and It Follows live up to the hype?