The Endless

05/09/2018 07:17

Film: The Endless

Year: 2017

Director: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

Writer: Justin Benson

Starring: Callie Hernandez, James Jordan and Emily Montague

 

Review:

This is a movie that I saw in the theater when it first was released. I was excited as I’m a fan of time travel/loops, which I knew this was featuring coming in. I was also getting into more Lovecraftian stuff, which was something else that I heard was a part of this. I hadn’t seen it since then though so I was excited to check this out when needing a movie from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the directors, for an October movie challenge.

Synopsis: about two brothers that return to the cult they fled from years ago to discover that the group’s beliefs may be saner than they once thought.

The story itself was something that really intrigued me when I saw trailers for it. We have two brothers, Justin (Benson) and Aaron Smith (Moorhead). Benson also wrote this. They flee from the cult and are living mundane lives in the real world. We get to see news footage of them after they made it out. The problem though is that Aaron doesn’t remember the bad things that Justin tells him happened. He harbors feelings of wanting to go back.

What sets it off is that a package comes with a video of Anna (Callie Hernandez). Aaron remembers her to an extent and wants to visit to see what it was like. It does take convincing, but Justin relents. It is on their trip back when they stop at a memorial that we learn the two brothers are orphans. Their mother died in a car accident and they were brought to the commune by Hal (Tate Ellington).

Our brothers return to the commune and we get to see their way of life. They live and eat healthy. We learn that the people living there are much older than we realize. Hal tries to state that it is due to the lifestyles they live, but it could be something more to it. There also is something much darker that is surrounding all of this and much scarier than they realize. Justin gets to see this as he is forced to leave. There are others living around this area who also seem to be stuck.

That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. I do have to say, I loved the concept that is revealed about what is up with this cult. The film starts with a quote from H.P. Lovecraft so keep that in mind when watching this film. Time is also something that is brought up and I’m a sucker for films with that concept. It is something that I both cannot wrap my head around and am drawn to films that involve it. I did have issues with the third act of this film and the ending. I just feel this film bit off more than it could chew.

Delving a bit deeper here, I do find how this is presented to be interesting. It shows how difficult life is for Aaron and Justin having fled. When they return to the commune, it isn’t anything like how Justin is presenting. There is a sense of dread that grows though from events like the rope pull with something that isn’t seen. Weird pictures and other forms of media show up. There is also something living in the lake that is creepy as well. This all worked for me.

Another thing that I want to bring up is the fact that this is a sequel. I’ve now seen Resolution, which precedes this twice before revisiting this. What we are doing here is taking what is introduced in that movie and then building on it. This includes time loops. We also got Mike Danube (Peter Cilella) and his friend Chris Daniels (Vinny Curran) who were the stars of that movie being brought back. They even interacted with Aaron and Justin which gets brought up again. I loved this easter egg here.

I don’t think there’s more to go into for the story so over to the acting which is great. We get to see the effects on people living in a group like this. Justin and Aaron share stories about how they don’t fit into society. They are having trouble connecting with people because of their isolation and upbringing. When they return though, Aaron thrives. The people are much nicer and it is tighter knit. Now Justin knows there isn’t something right and he is suspicious which is good. Something else interesting though is a character named Lizzy (Kira Powell). I brought her up because she is a recovering addict and a person like her does well in the structure of a community like this. I’ll just say that Moorhead, Benson, Hernandez, Ellington and the rest of the cast fit their characters. They bring them to life.

All that is left then to go into would be filmmaking. This isn’t working with the biggest budget, but the effects look good. There aren’t a lot of them and the ones that are used are done practically from what I could tell. A lot of them I believe are just done with camera angles and using cuts to make it look like someone is not there. There is CGI, but I didn’t have issues there. I know the ending and a scene with birds using computers. No issues with either of those though. I’ll credit the cinematography as well as the framing. The sound design of the film I was also a fan of. That along with the soundtrack used fit what was needed to build that growing scene of dread. It also factors in giving more of the story as well.

In conclusion, I thought this did interesting things that pique my attention. I love the concept. Two guys escaping from a cult only to go back when their lives aren’t working as they hoped. I love the background idea of a Lovecraftian type entity manipulating things as well as time loops. I do feel that they ran out of steam during the third act and it loses itself a bit. No where near enough to ruin this. The acting though was good as well as the effects. Not one that I think will be for everyone. If what I said works for you, then I’d say watch this. It takes what Resolution does well and just builds on that.

 

My Rating: 8 out of 10