--- title: "It Ends" year: 2026 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/it-ends" fi1m_id: "it-ends" imdb_id: "tt35519455" tmdb_id: 1422011 wikidata_id: "Q133546293" fi1m_score: 68 critics_score: 74 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-21" updated: "2026-09-21T01:53:22.682664+00:00" region: "PL" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # It Ends (2026) Directed by Alexander Ullom · 1h 29m · Horror, Mystery ## Identity It Ends - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/it-ends - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** it-ends - **IMDb ID:** tt35519455 - **TMDB ID:** 1422011 - **Wikidata ID:** Q133546293 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35519455/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1422011, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q133546293 **Fi1m score: 68** · Critics 74 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* Four friends, one road, no exits; by the hour mark we knew exactly how they felt > Alexander Ullom’s first film puts four friends on a road that does not end and gets an hour of real dread out of a car and some headlights. Then it keeps going, and dread thins into repetition. Worth an evening if you can forgive that. ## Synopsis Four friends are driving at the end of college, with the rest of their lives somewhere ahead of them and no plan for it. James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth) and Tyler (Mitchell Cole) talk about nothing in particular, the way people do in a car, until a wrong turn puts them on a road that does not end. There are no exits, no towns and no way back the way they came. Fisher’s mother (Jenny Doyle) is heard and never seen. Other people turn up along the way, a lost man (Ian Weir) among them, and none of them is much help. The friends have to decide whether to keep driving or stop, and what either choice would mean. ## Review Four friends are in a car. James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth) and Tyler (Mitchell Cole) are at the age where college runs out and nothing obvious replaces it, and they talk the way people that age talk, which is to say about everything except that. Then they take a wrong turn. The road does not end. There is no exit, no turning, no town, and the longer they drive the clearer it becomes that driving is all there is. That is the whole of *It Ends*, and Alexander Ullom, who wrote, directed and edited it as his first feature on almost no money, is right to think it is enough for a film. It is a good idea, handled with more patience than most debuts manage, and it is about twenty minutes too long. We would rather have that problem than the other one. The car is the set. Carrie Carusone, who produced the film with Evan Barber and designed it as well, makes it look like a place people have sat in for too long, which is the only thing it needed to look like. Jazleana Jones and Evan Draper share the cinematography, and their job is mostly faces lit from the dashboard and a strip of tarmac lit from the headlights. They do it well. The world beyond the beam is simply not there, and after a while we stopped expecting it to be. Matthew Robert Cooper’s score is used sparingly, and the engine does much of the work a score would. Ullom’s script gets the four across quickly, through ordinary car talk, and the talk is good: funny in the first twenty minutes, then funny in a way nobody in the car is enjoying. Yoon gives James a stubbornness that reads as leadership until it does not. Jackson’s Day is the one who notices things first and says them last. Toth’s Fisher has the film’s most human thread, a mother (Jenny Doyle) who is heard and never seen, and Toth plays every exchange with her as though it might be the last. Cole’s Tyler is the joker, and Cole is wise enough to let the jokes get worse. They are unknowns, and they hold the frame. We were frightened, properly, around the half-hour mark, and by nothing more than a road carrying on when it should have stopped. It is the dream where the corridor lengthens as you run, and Ullom has the nerve to let it lengthen slowly, without a jump or a face at the window to let us off. Then, somewhere past the hour, we were bored, and then cross about being bored, because the film had earned better. The road is endless; the film does not have to be. There are encounters along the way, with a lost man (Ian Weir) among others, that we will not describe, and they sharpen things for a few minutes each before the car pulls away and the same conversation starts again. The repetition is deliberate. We felt it anyway. The people are the casualty. Ullom establishes his four with real economy and then does not take them much further; by the end we knew how each of them would react to bad news and little else. As editor he is disciplined shot to shot and less so scene to scene, and a version of this film at sixty minutes would lose nothing we would miss. At 89 minutes it is not long, but it feels longer. The road horror has an honourable history, from [*The Twilight Zone*](https://film.one/tv/the-twilight-zone) to [*Dead End*](https://film.one/film/dead-end), and Ullom knows it. What he adds is a generation’s particular dread about the years after education, when the map runs out. Most critics have been warmer than us, and a few have been a great deal warmer. We understand the enthusiasm for a first film made with this little that looks and sounds this assured. We wanted it to go somewhere, and it is a fair reply that not going anywhere is the subject. Watch it late, with the lights off, and not the night before a long drive. *Fi1m score 68, published 21 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like It Ends, and the praise clusters in two places: the premise and the cast. Reviewers keep returning to the economy of Alexander Ullom’s set-up, a group of young people on a road that never ends, and to how much dread it wrings from so little money. The unknown actors are singled out again and again, for their chemistry and for the way the script establishes them through ordinary banter before things turn. Several critics read the film as a portrait of post-college futility and take that seriously. The reservations are about what happens once the idea is in place. The AV Club and The Hollywood Reporter both find it repetitive, the premise stretched past what it can carry, and Time Out wonders whether it would have suited a short. IndieWire, warmer, still thinks the journey lacks a destination. The spread is wide, from the year’s-best enthusiasm of The Guardian to a middling C, with no outright pans. ## Straight answers **Is It Ends worth watching?** *It Ends* is worth an evening for anyone who likes slow, patient horror and can forgive a last half hour that repeats itself, and we scored it 68. Alexander Ullom gets an hour of real dread from four friends, a car and a road with no exits before the film runs out of places to take them. **How long is It Ends, and what is it rated?** *It Ends* runs 1h 29m. It is a horror and mystery film. **Where can I watch It Ends in Poland?** *It Ends* is not on any streaming or rental service in Poland at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is It Ends, and is it suitable for children?** *It Ends* has no UK certificate yet and an R rating in the US, so treat it as a film for adults and older teenagers rather than children. Its fear comes from a road that will not stop rather than from gore or jump scares, and the review notes there is no face at the window to let you off; the squeamish will cope, the anxious may not. ### Reviews we read (14) - **Los Angeles Times**, Amy Nicholson (90/100, inferred): This inventive and inspiring microbudget debut marks a standout for young directors with its otherworldly endless-road premise. It singles out the cast of unknowns and the philosophical exploration of living a meaningful life for praise. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-08-19/it-ends-review-alexander-ullom-phinehas-yoon-akira-jackson-noah-toth-mitchell-cole-horror) - **The Guardian** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the micro-budget horror gripping and ranks it among the year’s best films. They single out the stellar performances by the gen-Z cast and the expertly crafted sense of dread in its time-loop premise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/20/it-ends-horror-movie-review) - **RogerEbert.com**, Peyton Robinson (80/100, inferred): The debut is a troubling yet honest surrealist psychological drama that confidently stakes its value in living as a radical act amid Gen-Z existential anxiety. It singles out the screenplay's blend of funny banter and dreadful exchanges for praise. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/it-ends-alex-ullom-horror-movie-review-2026) - **IndieWire**, Esther Zuckerman (B-): The critic calls the film a promising but underdeveloped indie horror movie that cleverly sets up an existential Gen Z riff on Sartre with unnerving moments, yet ultimately disappoints as the journey lacks a satisfying destination. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/it-ends-indie-horror-movie-review-1235101708/) - **Slant Magazine**, Chris Barsanti (70/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a neatly crafted if somewhat under-imagined inquiry into a Twilight Zone scenario with tight worldbuilding and philosophical undertones, but notes it falls short of being mind-blowing due to underdeveloped characters and human elements. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/it-ends-review-alex-ullom/) - **Variety**, Siddhant Adlakha (70/100, inferred): The brilliant existential road thriller for and by Gen Z is a streamlined low-budget genre piece whose pulpy flourishes reveal something more tonally surprising. It singles out the quick, economical character establishment through banal conversation for praise. [Read](https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/it-ends-review-1236331979/) - **Time Out**, Elizabeth Weitzman (3/5): The film is an existential metaphor about young people trapped in a looping road with no exit, using zombies as a minor element in a non-traditional horror. It can be a tough, repetitive watch that might suit a short better, but the unknown actors bring depth to their characters and the visuals are strong. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/it-ends-review-2026) - **The AV Club**, Monica Castillo (C): The critic praises the strong, terror-inducing premise of the liminal road trip horror but finds the film runs out of gas as the monotony wears thin, turning into a bloated Twilight Zone episode that stretches its limited scope too far. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/it-ends-review) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Jordan Mintzer (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the debut feature a well-crafted conceptual horror film with strong direction and pacing that sustains tension in a limited setting, but notes it becomes repetitive and fails to fully develop its characters or payoff once the premise is established. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/it-ends-review-1236157544/) - **The Playlist**, Chase Hutchinson (A-): The critic finds it a fascinating, effectively haunting debut that marks the director as one to watch, giving life to the dread of young adulthood through its existential nightmare on an unending road, praising its well-shot, written, and acted qualities especially for a first feature. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/it-ends-review-the-kids-are-not-alright-in-alex-ulloms-evocative-existential-horror-debut-sxsw-20250314/) - **Den of Geek**, David Crow (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's clever, economical premise of a never-ending road trip into cosmic horror, highlighting its inventive use of limited resources and strong character dynamics. They note it effectively blends horror with existential themes and leaves a lingering impact. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/it-ends-review-neon-cosmic-horror/) - **Collider**, Matthew Donato (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a winning experiment in existential road-trip horror that thrives on ambiguity and the characters' shared anxieties about post-college life. The small ensemble's chemistry and the film's focus on impermanence over conventional scares are singled out for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/it-ends-review/) - **/Film**, BJ Colangelo (8/10): The critic praises the film's meditation on existential angst and the bleak endless journey of adulthood, singling out its compelling execution of a simple thought experiment grounded in recognizable reality. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/2239907/it-ends-2026-movie-review/) - **The Wrap** (80/100, inferred): The critic views Alexander Ullom’s debut as a vital, unnerving horror film that captures a generation’s sense of futility through its central metaphor of an endless road from which the characters cannot escape. It singles out the film’s profound simplicity in exploring themes of meaninglessness, whether one should keep going or give up, as its most powerful element. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/it-ends-review-alexander-ullom-neon/) ## Details - **Director:** Alexander Ullom - **Director:** Alexander Ullom - **Writer:** Alexander Ullom - **Cinematography:** Evan Draper, Jazleana Jones - **Editor:** Alexander Ullom - **Music:** Matthew Robert Cooper - **Production design:** Carrie Carusone - **Producer:** Carrie Carusone, Evan Barber - **Cast:** Phinehas Yoon as James; Akira Jackson as Day; Noah Toth as Fisher; Mitchell Cole as Tyler; Jenny Doyle as Fisher's Mom (voice); Jon Linstad as Interrogated Man; Ian Weir as Lost Man; Alexander Ullom as Passenger - **Runtime:** 1h 29m - **First release (the US):** 7 March 2025 - **Genres:** Horror, Mystery - **Budget:** $80,000 - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k7jckaHeuA ## Where to watch in Poland Not streaming, renting or buying in Poland at the last check. Also available in: AU, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Dead End* (2003): A family, a shortcut through the woods, and a road that stops obeying the map - *Vivarium* (2019): A young couple trapped in a housing estate that repeats; the same nightmare, indoors - *Coherence* (2013): Eight friends at a dinner party while the sky, and reality, come apart cheaply and well - *Triangle* (2009): A loop horror on an empty liner, tighter and nastier than most of its kind - *Detour* (1945): The original wrong turn: a hitchhiker, a car, and a fate that will not let go --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/it-ends