The Endless is a 2017 horror movie following two brothers a decade after they escaped what they described as a UFO death cult. The two brothers struggle to adjust to a normal life. Justin, the elder wants to continue to try and fit in while his younger brother Aaron longs to return to the cult where he had a sense of belonging. Once they return they come to realize that things aren’t all lies and brainwashing as they’d previously believed.
Spoilers
The Endless is a strange movie. Its portrayed in a realistic way yet manages to portray this otherworldly weirdness at the same time. The plot is unique, well written, and well paced. The movie starts with more subtle strangeness, giving you the feeling that things aren’t right here then it escalates the weirdness as the movie progresses. From the beginning you notice how Justin and Aaron look around the same age as everyone at the camp, despite them having been kids and everyone else adults when they left ten years ago. We find out that the “leader” of the group rescued the two from a car crash that the boys lost their parents in years ago. Once the movie hits the midpoint, that’s when whats really going on becomes more clear. The camp is under watch by an ancient entity that can manipulate space and time. This entity has trapped everyone in the vicinity in time bubbles that repeat ad nauseum. Camp Arcadia is trapped in a bubble that repeats every ten years, ending with the entity consuming them only to bring them back to repeat the cycle over again. As such the camp members don’t actually worship the entity as a cult would, they realize that they’re trapped there and they accept it as they try to live as best as they can, forever.
The acting is done surprisingly well for a low-budget indie film. None of the actors are even b-listers but they play their roles well. My favorite was Carl, he provides more of a comedy relief aspect because he’s so over being this entities plaything. He’s constantly agitated and yelling off in the distance at the entity how much he hates it, only for the entity to make things worse for him. He was crazy before being trapped by the entity, and hes even worse after, but hes funny.
I really like the portrayal of cosmic horror in this movie. The characters try their hardest to overcome something they have no idea how to understand. They’ve been at it for decades yet nothings changed for them. Everyone struggles to live their lives while realizing that they’re mere playthings for this unknown entity that has them in an eternal prison. We’re led to believe that the two brothers manage to escape before the time loop resets, trapping them in Camp Arcadia, but there’s subtle things in the film that would lead to other conclusions.
Overall, The Endless albeit a low-budget indie film is actually a pretty good horror movie. I find myself enjoying the indie horror movies a lot more than the big studio productions. The Endless does its own thing and builds off of its own ideas to make it a unique film. It’s a weird movie, but in a good way. I can’t wait to see what the director puts out for the third installation of this series.
8/10
-Andre
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