Review of The Endless (2017) by John M — 10 Jan 2019

Infinity loops. So this is about a two brothers (Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson). As children, the escaped a cult. They receive a goodbye video in the mail from them, so they decide to drop by and check back in with the group (like you do with cults).

Now I watched this one pretty cold. It had been sitting on my watchlist for months now, so long that I actually forgot the reason that it was there (after an investigating text message, I confirmed it was a friend that recommended it to me months ago).

I saw it sitting on Netflix streaming, the runtime was the right length for my evening, so I gave it a whirl. I think The Endless is decent. No more, no less. Now I actually read that this makes a lot more sense if you firstly watch the directors' debut film Resolution.

I obviously can't turn back time, so I have no choice but to judge The Endless on its own merits. The biggest element that I enjoyed about this is the tone. Even before things start getting wild, you can tell that something is off.

There is possibly something sinister happening behind those big cult smiles, and while these actors may be on the greener side, they do serve for what this plot is going for. I think that the comedic relief does effectively work, and whenever they need to break tension, the zingers do end up hitting.

However, I don't think that this movie is as smart as it thinks it is. Neither the science nor mythology is tight to this, so you are really left with no choice but to roll with it when the outlandish science fiction elements start to come into play.

I can actually see this movie being extremely effective if you watch it high; if you were under the influence, it hits those moments where it gets just cerebral enough to make you feel like you have the universe figured out, sort of like when you watched The Matrix as a kid for the first time.

As somebody who watched this sober, I can't say that it was my favorite. I was down to go with some Lovecraftian horror once they opened with a quote for him, but I never had any big connection point that swayed me into falling in love with this.

I think the talent of these directors is present, and maybe it would have been better if I watched Resolution first.