Alexander Ullom's 'It Ends' Captures Gen Z Horror
Filmmaker Alexander Ullom's debut feature 'It Ends,' a horror film with an existential bent, follows friends trapped on an endless road.
Alexander Ullom's debut feature film It Ends opened in theaters on August 21, 2026. The horror-ish film with an existentialist bent follows three recent graduates who become trapped on a never-ending road during a late-night drive.
According to a report from Defector, the film's journey to release was as winding as its plot. It premiered at SXSW in 2025, traveled the festival circuit, debuted on Letterboxd's VOD platform in December 2025, and was then acquired by Neon. The studio has marketed it to ride a wave of popular horror films made by young, internet-native directors, highlighting a shared producer with the hit film Backrooms and even organizing a 36-hour marathon screening challenge.
A Simple Premise with Complex Fears
The film's premise is simple. Three friends reconnect with a fourth during a drive, take a wrong turn, and find themselves on an endless road surrounded by woods. When they stop, a rabid mob swarms their Jeep Cherokee. They learn they can only stop safely for 90 seconds at a time before the attackers return. Their vehicle never runs out of gas. As they drive endlessly, they grapple with why they are trapped, wondering if it is the afterlife or a punishment. They feel no hunger or fatigue. Eventually, they decide to never turn off the ignition and adapt to life on the road.
Before the horror escalates, the film luxuriates in the rhythm of friends talking. A meme-inspired debate breaks out about choosing allies between 10,000 rats, 50 hawks, five gorillas, and a man with a gun. The conversation then shifts to life plans and stalled relationships before the characters realize their predicament. The lengthy, overlapping dialogue establishes character and a false sense of calm.
Ullom's Scrappy Digital-Native Origins
Ullom's path to making It Ends mirrors the convoluted turns of his film's road. After graduating from Florida State University film school into the pandemic, he hustled online. He wrote screenplays for hire, got paid to make memes during the GameStop short squeeze, and made comedy sketches with friends. All while trying to secure funding for his first independent feature.
He assembled an initial $35,000 budget from an eclectic group of investors. These included a professional magician, a rich gambler he met in a VR poker lobby, and a fan who commented on his YouTube video. He cast the principal actors from Instagram. The car interiors were shot in 2022 using an LED Volume screen at a virtual production facility his alma mater had acquired. The team plasma-cut and reassembled a Jeep Cherokee inside the space.
Initial footage was deemed insufficient, a consequence of a feature-film ambition on a short-film budget. Ullom later secured funds for additional shooting and post-production from FSU alumni and the production company Snoot Entertainment, which help necessary reshoots.
From Traditional Scares to Existential Hangout
Director Alexander Ullom stated he was always more interested in what happens after the initial horror. "I've always been more interested in what happens way after the horror," Ullom said in an interview with Filmmaker. "It's less about fighting and overcoming the threat, and more about trying to sort it, because it exists forever in your life at all times."
Inspired by Richard Linklater's Slacker, Ullom intended It Ends to be a hangout film. The characters constantly try to sort through the terror of their eternal situation or simply pass the time. The traditional scares at the film's beginning eventually transform into an underlying hum of sorrow that infects each character at a different rate.
A major turn occurs with a title card reading "Tyler" followed by a mileage number. This signals that Tyler, the ex-military HVAC repairman and the group's most mature member, refuses to return to the car after a 90-second break. He privately tells friend James he cannot live life in 90-second intervals. Ullom frames this not as defeat, but as a hard-won acceptance of reality. The film suggests that from certain angles, the interior of a car in motion looks like it's standing still.
