The Horror Show
The Endless
by Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
When I first began watching The Endless, I have to say I didn’t know much about it. I knew it was a film with some supernatural elements and there was going to be a cult involved, so it definitely caught my interest off the bat. A part of me is glad I didn’t know much more, but then the other, bigger part of me wishes I had looked some stuff up about it before watching. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it that much more if I had known certain things, specifically that this film was a follow up to 2012’s Resolution.
The Endless focuses on two brothers, Justin and Aaron, played by the directors themselves, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Justin and Aaron escaped a cult years before and are having more than a few issues reintegrating into society and building healthy relationships with others. When an old videotape surfaces and a message from one of their old “friends” in the doomsday cult reaches them, the brothers decide to go back to where it all began and see what’s going on.
Let me start by saying that I understand if the brothers had just decided to ignore the tape and not go back to the cult they desperately escaped years earlier that the movie would have ended like twenty minutes in. I know this, but I still think the most absurd part of a film that contains supernatural and sci-fi/fantasy elements is the fact that two grown men who escaped a doomsday cult as children would even fathom returning!
I really can’t delve in to plot details because I would be giving key points away and might ruin the best part of the film which is the final act. The short and vague version I’ll touch on is that after returning to the cult, the brothers learn that no one there sent them any video tapes and mysteriously, no one there has aged a day since the brothers left. The mystery then takes its time unraveling and the audience, bit by bit, uncovers that the worst mistake the brothers could have ever made was returning to this place. By the end of the film, though, a wholesome point is made, and everything may — or may not be — resolved.
Some awesome cameos are made by cast members from Resolution that provide some much-needed excitement and comic relief. The Endless, as artistic and thought provoking as it was, is incredibly dull at parts with lackluster characters and seemingly endless dialogue. When it finally begins to approach the finale, however, things pick up and you find your eyes glued to the screen.
Did I enjoy this film? I think, all in all, that I did, but I did not enjoy it nearly as much as Resolution. In fact, I feel like this movie helped me to understand and enjoy its predecessor that much more. I haven’t given The Endless a second watch, but I believe it to be one of those films that a person enjoys more the second time around.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
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