For anybody who has driven through America, there’s a monotony to the endless roads of nothing. Miles of asphalt and trees across flat, dull lands that never seem to stop. And what if it didn’t? That’s the compelling premise for It Ends, and thankfully it stays the course for its philosophical grind rather than quickly looking for a convenient off-ramp of horror. This is a movie with the confidence to let the unknown drive this movie’s unnerving scenario.

Four graduates have packed into the car. The more distant friend, Tyler (Mitchell Cole), has become increasingly weary of the world, rejecting his peers’ freer spirits. Heading towards a similar state of losing that love of life is James (Phinehas Yoon), growing disillusioned and nihilistic as he steps out into the job market. His first photos of his work attire paint a picture of a man who finds nothing exciting in his future. Still fighting off those fears of adulthood being depressing is the more chipper banter of friends Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth), eager to debate whether 50 birds could beat one human with a gun.

Their discussions are so engaging that there’s some strange excitement when realizing they’re trapped on a road in the wilderness that never stops. There are no turns, intersections, or signs to be found. Beyond the continuation of these characters and their conflicts, the thrill also comes from the intelligence on display. The group, while divided in their views on life, is thoughtful enough to start trying to figure out why they can’t escape the road, which is prone to attacks of ravenous people if the car stops for too long. While the travelers try to get a lay of the land, they also entertain the idea that perhaps they are dead and this is either hell or purgatory. This leads to some confessions about hidden secrets, more tragic in their revelations than melodramatic.

The eerie road is also intelligent enough never to give these characters a solvable exit or end their suffering. Wouldn’t the car run out of gas after a few days? No, it never runs out. Would the characters get tired and be unable to drive? No, their bodies don’t feel the need for rest. Would they starve due to lack of food? As exciting as that might be for the potential of desperate hunting and cannibalism, hunger is not an issue either. The mystery deepens further as the more clues they unearth make it clear that they may never leave this long stretch of road. And that’s honestly far scarier than a monster waiting many miles down the highway.

The unrelenting endlessness of this trap is so genius for what it stirs in these characters. Somebody as nihilistic as James might seem like he would give up first, but he ends up enduring so much of the nothing that he almost relishes the possibility that there might be an end to the road. Perceptions are challenged when one of the graduates is bitten badly, but the bleeding eventually heals with no firm answers as to why this is happening. Darker thoughts of suicide lurk within the group bubble up from the mounting stress of their shifting lives. Every conversation, whether it’s about the road ahead or time-passing bickering, always feels meaningful amid the oppressive snare of the environment.

It Ends proves to be a horror picture built for the long haul rather than a good idea stretched too thin. There’s never a fallback to simple frights to carry the deeper psychological horror of being lost beyond a busted GPS. The resolve is also so satisfying in refusing to grant a simple explanation or to devolve into something thematically adrift. For a movie all about being trapped, it knows exactly where to go.

Not available on any streaming platforms.

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