The much-ballyhooed indie UFO cult film gets its limited release on April 6. The Scariest Things crew weighs in… The Stars are Right!
Justin Benson and Andrew Moorehead, are back with a trippy look into those UFO death cults that were so prominent at the turn of the millennia. Remember when people feared that the Gregorian calendar turned to 2000 the world would end? Or when all the planets aligned foretelling of doom by harmonic convergence? For those of you who weren’t paying attention, we just dodged the cosmic bullet again, as there was supposed to be a Mayan apocalypse on April 28 of 2017. We got lucky there, folks! Now, along comes a tale about two dudes who escaped the crazy only to get drawn back in… only maybe it’s not so crazy. The Endless took the film circuit by storm in 2007 and is getting its U.S. theatrical release in April, with many within the horror community anxious for it to be made available to a broad audience. The trailer foretells a multitude of strange phenomena. Bizarre weather, multiple moons, bird circles, mysterious powerful forces in the bottom of a lake, and the never-a-good-thing floating rope trick… there’s a lot of weird shit going down at the camp.
Here’s the Synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:
“Following their Lovecraftian modern cult classic SPRING, acclaimed filmmakers Moorhead and Benson return with this mind-bending thriller that follows two brothers who receive a cryptic video message inspiring them to revisit the UFO death cult they escaped a decade earlier. Hoping to find the closure that they couldn’t as young men, they’re forced to reconsider the cult’s beliefs when confronted with unexplainable phenomena surrounding the camp. As the members prepare for the coming of a mysterious event, the brothers race to unravel the seemingly impossible truth before their lives become permanently entangled with the cult.”
Do We Want to See It?
Eric:
It’s intriguing and trippy, heady stuff. I suspect it’s going to be like Annihilation, leaving me scratching my head, though. The trailer gives you so many curious plot elements, that I’m having a hard time making heads or tails of what the plot structure will be, but count me in. It’s a rare subject as horror films go, and I’m hoping that some of that Lovecraftian flavor transfers over to this movie from Spring… maybe something like Lovecraft’s The Colour From Space. It has the potential to be the best film about cults since The Sacrament. I’ll be lucky if it gets released here in Portland, but if it does, I’ll go to the theater to see it.
Amy:
I’m down! I love me a good creepy cult film. I particularly like that these guys got out and are going back in. The video from inside the cult reminds me a bit of The Sacrament whose main character got a letter from his sister. I will say now that I really hope it’s not about aliens. The heavy circle symbol has me worried. Aliens are never a good plot twist.
Robert:
I tend to distrust trailers. Did they cherrypick the best scenes for the trailer? Is it anything like the movie at all? Who knows? I’m more likely to watch a movie based on who’s in it, who made it, where it’s from, and does it have a stupid name or not (the stupid name possibly being the one thing that makes me watch it). That being said, though… I’m a sucker for something that smells like ol’ Howard P. Lovecraft. Give me a slow burning story about wildly incomprehensible forces or general weirdness (otherworldly or more locally based) and I’m as happy as a Mi-Go at a mushroom festival. Admittedly, I was hoping for more creature feature and less relationship drama with Spring (2014), but this trailer has its hooks in me. I’ve got my eye on this one.
Mike:
Cult + monster(s) + cult-y-people + UFOs = evil goodness. Or does it? While I’m always down for cults and weird cult-y stuff, my only concern with the Endless is that it just might be trying to pack too much stuff in to one flick. In some ways it feels like going to a restaurant where the “specialize” in Italian, Chinese, Thai, Mediterranean, and pizza. Also, I agree with Amy…aliens never really pencil out in the end. They’re always scary on paper, but once you weave them in the story, it gets a little silly. All that said…I hope Eric buys me a ticket!