THE ENDLESS (2017)

Studio:       Well Go USA
Director:    Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Writer:       Justin Benson
Producer:  David Lawson Jr., Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Thomas R. Burke, Leal Naim
Stars:     Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Callie Hernandez, Lew Temple, James Jordan, Tate Ellington

Review Score:

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Summary:

Two brothers revisit the doomsday cult they escaped ten years earlier to discover their beliefs may not be what they seem.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Ten years after his brother Justin escaped with him from a commune that Justin publicly exposed as a supposed UFO death cult, Aaron Smith receives a strange videotape in the mail. Aaron is surprised to see cult member Anna alive on the tape, as Justin assured him the group was preparing for mass suicide.

Unhappy with their current lives of near poverty and no social structure, Aaron asks Justin to allow him to revisit Camp Arcadia, where he remembers having a happy life with food and emotional support. After consulting their deprogramming therapist, Justin reluctantly agrees to return for one day.

The brothers are met by Hal, the camp’s de facto leader, Lizzy, an artist from a nearby mental institution, Tim, who brews the camp’s craft beer exported for income, aspiring magician Shane, Anna, and Smiling Dave. Justin goes jogging and sees Carl striding angrily, although the other man ignores him. Justin also makes mention of the strange pylons that surround parts of the camp in circles.

Justin and Aaron spend the night drinking Tim’s beer and interacting with the cult members. Justin asks Hal about a blackboard equation Hal is perpetually trying to solve. Aaron takes a romantic interest in Anna. Shane shows Justin a magic trick where he throws a baseball into the air and it falls back into Justin’s hand after an impossible period of time.

Hal has the group play a tug of war challenge called ‘The Struggle.’ One end of a rope is somehow raised high in the air in the distant darkness, although Justin tells Aaron he believes it is just Smiling Dave on a ladder. Aaron knots the rope around his chest and wins his contest. During his turn, Justin is pulled hard to the ground and lacerates his hand on the rope.

Aaron asks Justin to let them stay for one more night. Seeing that his brother is reacting positively, and also hoping Aaron will see the strangeness in the camp, Justin agrees. The brothers also observe Tim guarding a locked shed.

The next afternoon, Justin and Aaron go shooting. Justin’s shots miss the target, but seem to strike something invisible. Following another Carl sighting, Justin seemingly encounters an invisible entity, after which a Polaroid picture of a nearby lake is found on the ground.

While the rest of the camp enjoys karaoke in the evening, Justin pulls Hal aside to ask about his encounter and the photograph. Hal says he doesn’t have the answers. Two moons are seen in the sky, which Hal explains as a naturally occurring illusion signifying revelation of the truth. Hal says that a third moon will signify ‘The Ascension.’ Hal also suggests that Justin stay one more day to go fishing with Aaron, during which he should dive underneath the buoy shown in the photograph and retrieve whatever he finds there.

After singing “House of the Rising Sun,” Aaron smokes red flower with Anna around a campfire. The two of them hold hands and go walking. They witness the two moons, which Anna explains as a heat blur illusion. Aaron mentions the videotape that brought him back to the camp, but Anna says she didn’t send it.

Justin finds a woman crying outside a cabin. The woman introduces herself as Jennifer Danube and explains that she is not involved in the cult. Jennifer came to the camp in search of her missing husband Mike and Hal promised to help after finding her passed out from dehydration.

While fishing the next day, Aaron tells Justin he doesn’t see any signs of mass suicide and wants to stay at Camp Arcadia permanently. Justin notices the buoy by their boat and swims to the bottom of the lake. Justin returns with a toolbox and astonished claim that something tried to hold him underwater.

Another videotape is found inside the box. Justin insists on immediately leaving the camp. Aaron insists on saying goodbye to everyone first.

At a communal dinner, Hal plays the tape for the group, explaining that photos and videos are how the invisible force communicates visually with the cult. The tape shows a younger Aaron and Justin attempting to recruit Mike Danube in a scene from the film “Resolution.”

Embarrassed by the footage, the brothers leave the cabin and Hal follows after them. Hal apologizes, but it comes out that Justin lied about the camp’s men being castrated as part of the damaging exposé he did after leaving the commune. Aaron is incensed at the revelation. Justin explains he only did it because he knew something was wrong with the cult, but could not deduce or prove exactly what it was. Hal banishes Justin. Aaron refuses to leave with him.

Because the car won’t start, Justin is forced to leave on foot. Justin crosses a line of pylons and notices that what he sees changes depending upon which side he is on.

Justin gets lost, but finds Carl’s cabin and is shocked to see Carl’s dead body hanging from an electrical cord while a live Carl confronts him. Carl cryptically warns about becoming trapped in looping stories for the unknown entity’s amusement, and suggests you have to kill yourself to avoid whatever it is that the entity wants to put you through.

Justin watches Carl disappear when he passes a pylon line and then reappear from the opposite direction. Carl tells Justin he will draw him a map that will allow him to leave if Justin first retrieves a gun from a tweaker living nearby.

Back near the camp, photographs fall from the sky and land at Aaron’s feet. Aaron shows them to Hal. Hal tells Aaron his theory that the entity is made from colors they cannot see, which might be why it is invisible. Hal further explains that the entity reveals what it sees through the photos. Hal indicates that the third moon is coming and suggests Aaron search for the trailer shown in the photo to find his brother.

Aaron passes over a pylon line and ends up in a different reality than Anna on the other side. Aaron finds a tent where a man from the 1900s is caught in a recurring five-second loop. Driven mad, the man issues Aaron a cryptic warning.

Justin finds the tweaker, who turns out to be Chris from “Resolution” still chained in a remote cabin from his friend Mike’s forced detox. Mike enters and the three men cryptically discuss the entity and the time loops. Justin discovers Mike is Jennifer’s husband, but does not mention her to him. Justin leaves after Mike gives him a gun. Justin then watches as Mike sets fire to his cabin, but the loop resets and the structure suddenly returns to normal.

Strange visions and loops continue around various pylons. Justin and Aaron eventually reunite and find their way back to Carl’s cabin while the cult assembles back at the camp. Justin leaves the gun, takes the map left for him, and the brothers head back to the camp. Carl finds the gun and kills himself with it, but the loop resets and he pops back into existence.

With three moons in the sky, Justin and Aaron return to the camp to find everyone gone except Tim, who unlocks the shed for them. Justin and Aaron enter and discover a large collection of tapes and film canisters left by the entity over many decades. Footage shows the entity looking at the brothers in first-person during events from the previous days and culminates in a clip of the cultists being devoured while gathered around the unlit fire circle outside.

Looking at the remains of clothing around the campfire, Justin assures Aaron that everyone is coming back. Aaron previously told Justin that he wanted to stay at Camp Arcadia, even if that means being stuck in a loop, because anything was better than the life Justin created for them in the city. Justin tells Aaron that he is willing to stay at the camp with his brother. Aaron instead suggests that they leave, and begins explaining that he only wanted to change his brother’s outlook as the invisible entity suddenly starts destroying the surrounding forest and pursuing the two of them.

Justin and Aaron make it to their car, eventually get it started, and race toward the pylon barrier at the edge of the camp. Uncertain what will happen when they reach the line, the brothers pass through the intangible wall and return to reality in daylight. Hal, Anna, Tim, Lizzy, and Shane observe approvingly from back on the other side.

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Review:

As a fan, I’ve been fascinated with the films of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead since their 2012 debut feature “Resolution” (review here).  The pair’s M.O. of creating characters who feel like longtime friends from next door and then thrusting them into cerebrally confounding supernatural situations speaks specifically to my interests in Lovecraftian fiction, challenging belief systems, and high concept horror impossibly anchored to some semblance of reality.

As a critic, I appreciate that Benson and Moorhead’s style and subject matter has remained so tonally consistent, they make capsule reviews an easy matter of if/then.  As in, “if you liked/disliked their previous film(s), then it’s a sure bet you will also like/dislike their latest effort.”  In that regard, Benson and Moorhead have distinguished their unique fingerprint on genre cinema in the same way that you can say names such as Ti West, Ben Wheatley, or Mike Flanagan and immediately have a good grasp on the kind of experience that is in store.

INCIDENTAL CONTEXT CLUE SPOILER

True to the above, it’s simple enough to say, “if you connected with Benson and Moorhead’s ‘Resolution’ and/or ‘Spring,’ then ‘The Endless’ will stoke all the right fires.”  What’s more, the directing duo ingeniously plays a card that creatively connects their filmic universe in a manner similar to what M. Night Shyamalan did with “Split” (review here).

Newcomers may be knocked off balance by what might seem like random reveals, although the uninitiated should recover enough to get the gist of the movie’s direction without fully understanding its origins.  For dedicated Benson/Moorhead fans going in blind, the hook provides an additional reward in the form of an ear-to-ear grin while slapping hands to their heads in pleasant surprise.

Since I’m already under a spoiler tag, let’s stop dancing around the Deep One in the room.  “The Endless” can still satisfy as a standalone film.  Yet for maximum appreciation of how deep its design goes, it is in an audience’s best entertainment interests to see “Resolution” first.

END SPOILER

Ten years have passed since brothers Justin and Aaron fled a remote commune and exposed it as a UFO death cult.  You’d think their lives would be better off without brainwashing, but the exact opposite is true.  Aaron is mired in the daily misery of cleaning houses for a meager wage, eating ramen regularly, and having zero friends, family, or social structure.

Aaron was happier at Camp Arcadia.  Justin reminds him about rituals of genital mutilation, devotion to an unseen entity, and anticipation of mass suicide.  Aaron only remembers songs around the campfire, hot meals, and an encouraging sense of community.

Thinking that his brother needs a firsthand refresher on how off the environment was, Justin reluctantly approves Aaron’s request to revisit their former friends at the compound for one in-and-out day.  But one day becomes two and two days becomes three as the siblings end up confronting images, ideas, and explanations causing them to question everything they thought to be true.

From the home-brewed beer passed around like tap water and puffs of pipe smoke from a mysterious red flower, Justin cannot be certain if everything he sees is reality.  Aaron is no longer sure if anything his brother says can be believed.  As inexplicable visions of impenetrable barriers, repeating events, and two moons in the sky make the situation more haunting, Justin and Aaron start suspecting the commune might have uncovered a secret more mind-bending than anyone can comprehend.

Because of its setup, “The Endless” will be compartmentalized as a cult thriller, even though the film isn’t really about the cult or how it affects who Justin and Aaron are.  The movie’s main theme concerns how these two men relate to each other through a mystery they don’t necessarily realize they are even trying to solve.

Much of the material involves metaphors about things commonly considered mundane.  Benson and Moorhead’s strengths are in exploring the unknown underbelly of the everyday and extracting something seemingly sinister, something that defies basic conceptions of what we assume as fact for the sake of constructing lives we think we are supposed to live.  That’s an abstract description.  Trust that “The Endless” is far better at conveying this feeling of existing simultaneously in reality and surreality through sight and sound than I am with written words.

As usual, Benson and Moorhead take us there through affable people whose experiences we want to share, no matter where their journeys may lead.  It’s not vanity or necessity casting for the directors to double up as the stars.  Aaron has a softness eliciting sympathy without being pouty.  You can believe he is smart, yet still understand his reasons for wanting to revisit a cult because of how he conveys his conflict.  Justin completes the other side of their coin.  Cracks in his cynical skepticism come from an honest portrayal of someone who has struggled with occupying different personas.  These two have a great deal of unspoken backstory and making so much of it come across in under two hours is no easy feat.

There isn’t enough space to recognize every supporting player deserving of similar praise.  I’ll briefly single out James Jordan for his deft blend of cryptic intensity and comic relief as a cracked man whose condition has to be seen to be believed.

It’s both a boon and a hindrance that Benson and Moorhead are so reliable in their storytelling approach.  I watched “Spring” (review here) right before “The Endless” and immediately noticed how seamlessly they flowed into each other aesthetically, even though their plots and settings are different.

That initially sounds like good news considering how well “Spring” was received.  To a degree, it is.  “The Endless” has a similarly hypnotic beauty to its subtly building terror and a texture of maverick spirit other horror films just don’t have.

But Benson’s writing still loiters in moments with good banter that isn’t always useful.  Moorhead’s camera still gets distracted with non-sequitur inserts of randomly writhing insects.  And their editing rhythm is still occasionally out of synch, jumping between parallel scenes (why do we see Justin approaching the crying woman only to cut away to another setup before later picking up where we left off) and letting the runtime pack on a small beer gut.

With “The Endless,” Benson and Moorhead continue the dynamic evolution of their narrative creativity.  Now it is time to expand their cinematic vocabulary with the same amount of daring.  Otherwise, they may become caught in their own loop where the audience they continue impressing is the same one they’ve already won over.  Their visionary voices are too important for only a small crowd to hear.

Review Score:  80

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