The Endless
Directed by: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
Written by: Justin Benson
Starring: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Tate Ellington, Callie Hernandez, James Jordan, Lew Temple, Shane Brady, Kira Powell, Emily Montague, Vinny Curran, Peter Cilella, Ric Sarabia, David Lawson Jr.
Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 111 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 Apr 2018
Written by: Justin Benson
Starring: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Tate Ellington, Callie Hernandez, James Jordan, Lew Temple, Shane Brady, Kira Powell, Emily Montague, Vinny Curran, Peter Cilella, Ric Sarabia, David Lawson Jr.
Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 111 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 Apr 2018
The marketing behind The Endless wants you to think it is a cross between a cult film and a horror film, think Martha Marcy May Marlene goes bump in the night. It is nothing of the sort. There are certainly disconcerting supernatural elements, but The Endless is a mystery forcing you to piece together subtle clues. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead wrote, shot, directed, and starred in their third feature film and create an absorbing atmosphere full of unease and fear of the unknown. Its unsettling vibe worms its way under your skin and there enough threads left over at the end, it will stay with you as your turn over pieces wondering if and how they connect to one another.
Two brothers, not so coincidentally named Justin and Aaron (Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead), fled a death cult 10 years ago and continue to adapt to the real world scraping by with menial jobs with no friends or family. An out of the blue video tape reminds the boys of their past in the commune/cult (depending on your viewpoint), and reveals the followers did not kill themselves; they continue to thrive in their isolated campground. Aaron convinces Justin to take them back to Camp Arcadia for a day to get some closure and say a real goodbye to all the people they once cared about and who cared for them in return. When they get there, Justin and Aaron quickly realize there may be more to this than just cult activity.
Two brothers, not so coincidentally named Justin and Aaron (Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead), fled a death cult 10 years ago and continue to adapt to the real world scraping by with menial jobs with no friends or family. An out of the blue video tape reminds the boys of their past in the commune/cult (depending on your viewpoint), and reveals the followers did not kill themselves; they continue to thrive in their isolated campground. Aaron convinces Justin to take them back to Camp Arcadia for a day to get some closure and say a real goodbye to all the people they once cared about and who cared for them in return. When they get there, Justin and Aaron quickly realize there may be more to this than just cult activity.
The Endless begins with two quotes, one by H.P. Lovecraft, about humanity’s innate fear of the unknown. Lovecraft is an obvious influence on the script as well as Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. The story unfolds in a deliberate, yet unsteady dreamlike state operating with a nightmare logic. The film’s foundation are the brothers Justin and Aaron. They should be each other’s rock; they only have each other in the entire world. However, these two operate more on a boss/employee relationship. Justin tells Aaron what to do in a no-nonsense parental tone perhaps because he feels responsible for him. Their mother died when the boys were very young. Aaron is much more fond of the cult than Justin because he doesn’t remember as much of it and one idealizes their youth, but Aaron is also looking for fellowship and companionship, qualities he does not receive from Justin.
The cult’s beliefs slowly reveal themselves and we start to suspect whether all of them are completely false. However, I do not want to dive into plot and the alleged paranormal because it is much better going into this adventure knowing little to nothing about the story in front of you. The Endless actually shares a universe with the duo’s first film from 2012, Resolution. They intersect, but you need not see the first one; The Endless stands on its own. The tight and quite original script tease at the truth, never telling us directly what is happening and why. The Endless is like the TV show Lost in that way. It works because it is so frustrating trying to figure out what is going on and if the things we see mean something or nothing.
This forced mystery routine works because like the brothers, we would not take stock in the story if the filmmakers came right out and told us the truth. In that way, The Endless mirrors what it must be like to deprogram from a cult, working toward anti-conformity and breaking out of your boundaries and the cycle you are stuck in. Playing off the real world Heaven’s Gate cult which gained notoriety in the mid-1990s, there are sneaky hints and clues hiding in wardrobe and various items lying around rooms. What must it be like to break away from a cult? Terrifying? Relief? From the looks of Camp Arcadia, the daily habits of the community members do not look as dangerous as the word cult implies. This is not an established scheme meant to defraud folks of their money like Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. It’s otherworldly, hence our fear of the unknown.
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