It Ends (2026) Review: A Haunting Cosmic Road Trip

Five recent grads - James, Day, Fisher, Tyler, and one unnamed passenger - pile into a Jeep Cherokee for a final late-night fast-food run. It’s a bittersweet ritual, laced with the anxiety of impending adult separation. But a wrong turn onto a deserted two-lane road quickly reveals itself as a one-way ticket to nowhere. The road stretches infinitely, looping back on itself in impossible geometry. The radio crackles with messages that aren’t for them. Figures appear at the tree line, watching, whispering, breaking down. Outside, the world dissolves into a hellscape of encroaching foliage and shifting darkness. Inside, the five must contend with their sanity, their history, and the malevolent intelligence that seems to feed on their desperation. The choice becomes stark: resign themselves to a purgatorial loop or attempt a breakout that might cost them more than just their lives.

Ullom’s direction is the star here, and It Ends proves you don’t need a million-dollar VFX budget to build a nightmare. The cramped confines of the SUV become a character in themselves; the camera lingers on sweaty faces, the squeak of leather seats, the fragile intimacy of people who know each other too well and not well enough. The sound design is exceptional - low, rumbling drones that feel like a headache coming on, punctuated by the sickening snap of a branch outside the window. It’s psychological horror played in a minor key, relying on the fear of the unseen.

The cast, led by a magnetic Phinehas Yoon as the increasingly manic James and a grounded Akira Jackson as the pragmatic Day, handles the escalation well. They lean into the banter, making the early, casual conversations feel genuine. That authenticity is crucial, because when the cosmic horror sets in, it’s the dissolution of their relationships - the whispered accusations, the petty resentments - that hits hardest. Mitchell Cole as Tyler provides the volatile id, while Noah Toth’s Fisher offers a quieter, more despairing counterpoint. The dialogue, though occasionally expository, snaps with the frantic energy of people who have run out of small talk and are staring into the abyss.

Where the film stumbles is in its middle section, which is repetitive. The same conversational beats - "what was that?", "I think we’re going in circles" - get hit a few too many times. There’s a limit to how many times you can witness a character inexplicably get out of the car before you start to yell at the screen. The logic of the horror is intentionally opaque, but at times, the characters’ decisions feel less like existential surrender and more like incompetence to serve the plot. Also, the mysterious "Lost Man" and "Interrogated Man" segments, while intriguing, feel undernourished - flash-cuts that tease a larger mythology without paying it off.

Yet, just as frustration mounts, Ullom pulls the rug. A late-sequence involving a radio transmission from a possible future self is genuinely chilling. The film’s final act shifts from external terror to a more intimate, body-horror-inflected madness that is both daring and gruesome. The ending, which I will not spoil, is a bold choice that recontextualizes everything before it, trading jump scares for a gut-punch of nihilistic acceptance. It might alienate some, but it feels earned by the film’s grim internal logic.

It Ends is a calling card for a filmmaker with a distinct, patient voice. It’s not an easy hang, sitting somewhere between Coherence and a more claustrophobic The Endless. It lacks the polish of a bigger studio picture, but it more than compensates with raw nerve and a deeply unsettling atmosphere that burrows under your skin, making you think twice about every lonely stretch of asphalt on your next drive.

Pros

• Exceptional, nerve-wracking sound design and atmosphere
• Phinehas Yoon and Akira Jackson deliver committed, believable performances
• Ullom’s direction wrings maximum tension from a single, claustrophobic location
• A bold, thematically rich ending that rewards patient viewers
• Impressive practical effects for the finale's body horror

Cons

• The middle act is repetitive and sags momentum
• Character decisions occasionally strain credulity for plot convenience
• The larger cosmic mythology is teased but left frustratingly vague
• Visual palette can feel monotonous during the long driving sequences

It Ends is a flawed but fiercely effective piece of indie horror that understands the deepest terror isn’t a monster in the dark, but the realization that the dark might be all there is. Its patient build and uncompromising conclusion won’t be for everyone, and the middle passage tests patience. But for those who value atmosphere over jump scares and are willing to sit in the discomfort of an unanswerable question, it’s a rewarding, haunting trip. Skip the fast food, buckle up, and prepare for a drive that goes nowhere, and stays with you long after you’ve parked. A solid, unsettling effort that signals a strong new voice in genre cinema.