‘It Ends’ Filmmaker Discusses Genre-Bending “Horror Hangout” Debut [SXSW Interview]

One of the standouts at this year’s SXSW film festival, at least so far, is writer/director/editor Alexander Ullom‘s feature debut It Ends, an audacious, genre-bending road trip nightmare with a lot on its mind.

It’s the type of innovative independent cinema that delivers on its thrilling premise while doubling as a deeply personal story. Perhaps it’s fitting that the road to getting It Ends made proved to be just as wild a ride for Ullom; the filmmaker’s website explains that his first feature fell into place thanks to a viral YouTube sketch, a VR poker game, and a comment on a meme.

Sounds like the makings of a wild story in itself, right?

“There’s definitely a crazy story there, the insane genesis of this movie,” Ullom tells Bloody Disgusting ahead of his film’s world premiere.

“At least the original version before our producers came on. I met one producer in virtual reality poker at some of the high roller tables. It’s fake money, but people would spend real money on the game. I would get in there and chat about the movie, and I would set my location on Los Angeles. It just so happened that I met the producers, and we bonded. When they saw the YouTube sketches, they trusted me with a little bit of money. There’s a very healthy relationship between independent film and safe gambling.”

While the filmmaker didn’t name names, it’s worth pointing out that two of this film’s credited producers – Jess & Keith Calder– have produced genre favorites like You’re Next and The Guest.

Still, Ullom is humble. “The YouTube video I wouldn’t call viral. It was only about like 200,000 views, but it was just big enough for someone to comment, ‘I would pay for more of this.’ So, of course, I responded. I said, ‘Really, do you actually mean that?’ They meant it. The last one is a long-time friend and YouTuber who had found his niche in the algorithm but had always wanted to transition into more narrative content. I’m incredibly lucky. A lot of things fell into place through sheer will and luck. And VR.”

Larger than life origins aside, It Ends, and Ulloms talent, speaks for itself. It’s designed to send viewers on an unpredictable journey, and, despite its central characters being confined to a vehicle for large stretches of the film, is never dull. 

Part of that is Ullom’s constant shifting of tone and tailoring the camerawork and editing accordingly. “We just kept trying to change it up; there’s definitely huge tone changes in the movie, spoiler alert. In the first half of the movie, there’s a lot more dynamic camera movement. We’re way close up. We’re thriller handheld, cutting fast. I think there are three times the amount of cuts in the first half, and, in the second half, which is what I’m trying to call horror hangout, the camera’s way more locked down. It’s wider. They’re more in the space. There’s even an aspect ratio change that happens where the second half of the movie is more peaceful. It’s quieter.

“It’s just trying to constantly keep that visual engagement by having the film shift and change tones. There’s a lot of tones in the movie.”

The shifting tones might make It Ends tough to categorize, but Ullom summed it up best with two simple words: hangout horror. More than that, Ullom was curious about what happens after a horror movie ends.

“This was always a movie that was more about how we live with horror than about the actual horror. I make this joke too much, but I always wanted to see the family in Hereditary give a postgame interview and just be like, ‘Yeah, that was terrifying. That was absolutely terrifying.’ Then, they all die, obviously, but like they go about their lives. The movie is constantly recontextualizing the things that happen in it, so when they find the first car, it’s very scary. Then, later in the movie, they find cars all the time. It’s nothing. It was always in the design for the characters to slowly try to live with everything they just went through, which I think is also very relevant to the time we live in, where there’s just crazy stuff happening every day, and you just kind of fucking exist with it.“

Ullom’s hangout horror movie, perpetually reinventing itself as it winds down a never-ending nightmare of a road, naturally draws from unexpected sources of inspiration. Ullom explains, “Definitely Richard Linklater. I know he’s not a horror guy, but he showed me very early on in Slacker, one of his early movies, that all you really need is people talking to each other on camera for a really engaging experience. That was a really special film in my film journey for the genre stuff. The Safdie brothers showed me how to do high concept thriller on a low budget. You just put the camera right here and work really, really hard with the actors and the dynamic camera movement. Don Hertzfeldt, thematically, is of great importance to me. Terrence Malik.”

The filmmaker adds, “James Wan, obviously; I grew up watching those movies. He definitely has ingrained himself in me a little bit. And then the current state of horror, which is just so awesome.“

It Ends makes its world premiere at SXSW on March 7.