The Endless was a very mindboggling yet very interesting movie which kept the audience second guessing whether what was happening in the film was a ploy set up by the community of Camp Arcadia or if there really was a sort of higher power lurking among the people. The Endless is definitely not the kind of movie one would watch if he wanted to just relax and enjoy. Rather, it is a film that makes you think critically as to which one of the two brothers’ character’s point of view you would trust as the truth, but you will be tested throughout the film, and I am sure that you will switch sides at least once while watching the movie, or at least consider believing the other brother’s stand. The plot of the film revolves around two brothers, Justin and Aaron, and their relation to a commune or cult (depending on which brother you believe). The brothers were once part of the community but defected from the group years ago. This difference in perception or memory of the community is what pushes the narrative of the film. When the brothers return to Camp Arcadia, they have two drastically different experiences. Justin is very weary and doubtful about the exact nature of the community which makes him extra careful and reserved around the other people. On the other hand, Aaron embraces being part of the community and enjoys his time in the camp which leads to the brothers spending more time in the community. As the brothers spend more time in the camp, they discover that there are numerous weird occurrences which leads to them finding out that there is an invisible entity among them that is toying with the people. This invisible entity is forming time loops in different locations in the vicinity of the camp, but all of them share a grim and unpleasant ending, death in one form or another. The film ends with the brothers barely being able to escape from the entity’s time loop after a discussion among the brothers. All in all, I think The Endless is a good film because it shows how our memories form our perceptions on certain things early on in life and this has a ripple effect on how we live our lives today. Just like how the difference in early childhood memories of the brothers over the same thing made their experience of coming back to Camp Arcadia drastically different. Another noteworthy aspect of the film in the end is when the brothers are discussing whether to stay in the camp or leave, even after they find out what will eventually happen to them if they stay. This caught my attention because it showed how miserable the brothers, or at least Aaron, were with their life in the real world. The mere fact that they would consider getting violently killed over and over again by an invisible entity over going back to their life outside the camp should alarm the audience about how bad the conditions must be outside the camp.

In my eyes, The Endless (2018) does not seem like a low budget film. Cinematography, acting, directing, and visual effects were on par with what high budget films should look like – all because of all around superstars Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.

After watching The Endless (2018) and hearing about its prequel Resolution (2012), I have gained so much respect for directors Benson and Moorhead. They were able to properly encapsulate science fiction and suspense with whatever budget they had. From sharing main roles, writing the script, directing each scene, and paying attention to camerawork and effects, I bet it must have been taxing for them as filmmakers, but all worth it in the end.

At first, to be honest, I found this film a bit dragging. Although each scene projected suspense, I wanted there to be more turning points and physical action – which was only shown almost at the last 30 minutes of the film. However, build up and visual cues, along with the ominous scoring, really led the audience to believe that Camp Arcadia was not your regular summer getaway.

What I admired about this film is what the entity could potentially represent. In a literal sense, it is the mysterious figure that controls all time domes. However, this entity can also be seen as audience members. Just like this figure, we also watch the stories of the characters in this film unfold. Their stories were made for our amusement only and we are taking advantage of it as viewers. Just like the figure and his real time photographs, we have an omniscient point of view of everything in Camp Arcadia.

However, in the end, I was left slightly disappointed. There was definitely a clear ending – main characters Justin and Aaron were able to escape the “time dome” before the mysterious entity could kill them. Despite this, I had more questions than answers. How did this mysterious entity actually look like? What was the purpose of the old man who brewed beer all day? How did members of Camp Arcadia vanish into thin air? I feel like all these and more could be answered in another film following Resolution (2012) and The Endless (2018).

The movie in itself was great for a low budget film, but I recommend that audience members watch Resolution (2012) first. In that film, viewers are introduced to a city professional and a junkie who are trapped in one of the many time domes of the entity. This is also when the mysterious figure makes its first appearance and toys around with both characters. In The Endless, there were multiple references to elements of Resolution – the storyline of Michael and Chris, an old video clip of Justin and Aaron before they left Camp Arcadia, the trailer of a researcher Michael met who smoked the same red flower those in camp smoked, and the wife of Michael. For those who truly want to understand the second film, they must sit through and follow the storyline of the first.

All in all, The Endless (2018) was a good science fiction film. Directors and all around crew members Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead portrayed excellence in all the film’s aspects which allowed it to be viewed as a high budget film rather than a low budget one.

It is quite strange how I now look for movies that are on the more “normal” side of things as compared to the past movies we’ve watched in class that were far from that. Watching The Endless (2017) allowed me to reflect on my taste and the answer as to why I actively looked for the normal in deciding whether I liked the movie or not. Although this movie wasn’t as out of the ordinary as I had expected, I still struggled to ride along with the story and got lost in its many elements. Nevertheless, I can say that The Endless had a compelling premise and a good selection of characters to show their experience of Camp Arcadia and its many mysteries.

The Endless is one of those movies where you can easily spot the basic premise of the story. You can see the starting point of the writing process for this movie, but I think branching and fleshing out the concept from there fell a little flat. This could also be because I’ve only watched the movie once. If given the time to rewatch it, I will probably be able to understand it more and appreciate its little details and hidden elements because the material is mind-boggling as is; it requires extra time for thinking and reflecting than any average easy-watch or lighthearted movie. However, I was able to pick up on the fact that this inescapable cycle required determination to want and to actually try getting out of it. It reminded me of the Netflix show Russian Doll (2019) where the main character was also stuck in a loop, although it did differ in how the loop worked or how it was manipulated. In the Endless universe, it was based on the placement of these columns that appear to be made of rock, which are scattered around the area at different distances. Some people in the area liked how they had a lot of time to work on themselves and grow in their individual crafts/skills, but others were driven into madness. The character Shitty Carl committed suicide because of the 3-hour loop he was trapped in, but not even that ended the loop. He mentioned how he can no longer sleep, which doesn’t allow him to dream. With this, he can’t physically nor mentally flee too far from the bubble he was trapped in. This imprisonment that made me and other viewers feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic was taken to another extreme with a man in a tent that was trapped in the shortest loop known to the area with just a few seconds for one cycle. These scenarios really captured how living an endless life can be damaging to one’s sanity despite how others in the area may appear to enjoy the loop and make the best of it. The ones that seem to be better off with it could possibly be faking it as well just so they can effectively lure more people into the area and trap them as they were trapped.

With the coloring and tone consistent throughout the whole movie, it felt like this film was an elaborate cutaway scene to some Telltale game. I did expect the story to be set in some sort of twisted reality since, first of all, a video was sent to the main characters by the “UFO death cult”, so of course there would be a little peculiarity there. There was also an aspect of the story where polaroids were littered around the camp. They were pictures of the people taken literally a few moments before they found the polaroid. In this way, we’re taken away from the characters and view them as subjects and/or prisoners trapped in someone or something’s experiment. When this was revealed, the first thing that came to mind was the Hunger Games (2012) and how the people set in this secluded area were simply left to fend for themselves and figure out how to get out if they wished. Viewers of this movie double as the audience watching the lives of these people either crumble or flourish. Another element that I connected with the Hunger Games franchise is when some polaroids fell from a swarm of flies in the sky and served as a tip, or sponsor gift, from whoever or whatever was controlling them. There was a polaroid of a trailer and it was apparently telling him to go there. When Aaron got there, there was another video filmed of them that was flashed on the projector. They were obviously being watched. ‘They’ would probably be of a higher or stronger entity controlling the loops. The projector was mysteriously blasted into the distance. Here, the audience was shown multiple transparent globe-like structures signifying certain areas where one loop cycles through. This universe does seem to beg the question: is the whole world stuck in its own loop? Since the loops have varying lengths, those outside the camp may be extended to months or even year-long loops. We can see that there is an entity present probably looking over those in this area, so why would it stop its range within this space?

There also seems to be pleasure expressed by the deity when the loop takes a toll on these people’s lives. It really is like watching a game and laughing at the miseries of others. This can be tied with what Chris mentioned about not being afraid of whatever everyone else may see to be horrifying. He said to never let “it” control you, because once that happens, it will control you again and again. Turning to suicide as a result of the thing’s attempt at controlling their lives is what trapped Chris, Mike, Shitty Carl, and probably that man in the tent in their respective loops. Other people in the area that were trapped in their own loops may have conformed to the deity in a certain way, so this really emphasized the kind of courage and will it takes to successfully leave this zone.

This whole movie seemed like a whole “Would You Rather” scenario that was played out in 1 hour and 40 minutes. If you were given the option to stay healthy and young forever to fulfill anything and everything that you desire, would you? It’s hard to imagine anyone would want to live forever, even if it did mean you could do anything you wanted for unlimited time, but alas, those people exist and they live in Camp Arcadia. It takes a lot to understand each and every mystery bound in this universe and I might never get to grasp it fully, but this material is definitely worth looking into, even after watching it in full. It’s interesting to look into interviews with the writers and videos covering other fan theories about the ending because they always differ or have something new to tell to the viewers. It always opens up more points for discussion, and I think a movie that can morph into these other storylines both inside and outside what was shown on screen is a movie worth watching.

The Endless (dir. Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, 2017) doesn’t immediately grip you and horrify you, but the slow burn has a great payoff and I found it so thrilling to watch. Its first few minutes were styled like a documentary, with Justin and Aaron answering questions about each other and about a death cult they escaped from ten years ago. This style wasn’t maintained until the end of the film, but the film itself gets progressively creepier and more terrifying to watch when they go back to the camp and discover its sinister secrets.

The premise of the film is that there is an entity watching over Camp Arcadia, and it really messed with my head trying to figure out what it was or the extent of what it can do. As the film went on, more surreal elements of the camp were revealed: the strange totem-like rock formations, the two moons, photographs falling from the sky, the reflective force field-like surface, and “House of the Rising Sun” on repeat. Each new element of the camp makes it more bizarre, and coupled with its residents, it really made me just want to get out of there ASAP as a viewer.

There was something really off about the members of the commune. On the surface, it seemed like they were just a group of people who have made a living for themselves and rely on each other, toying with an entity that may or may not be real. Of course, members of a supposed UFO death cult could presumably be perceived as weird, but the residents initially seemed normal in maintaining their livelihoods, albeit subjugated by the unseen entity. They even play with it, perhaps showing Justin and Aaron how it could be a friendly entity instead of a malevolent one. But no tug-of-war could convince me of the entity’s innocence nor the normality of the camp. What really threw me off were the people who acted differently, such as Smiling Dave, who was perpetually smiling (who wouldn’t find that creepy?) and “Shitty” Carl, who was always aggressively walking towards wherever and ignoring Justin when he tries to interact with him.

Turns out, “Shitty” Carl was perpetually aggressive for a reason. When the true nature of the camp was revealed, I was floored. The image itself was jarring: two Shitty Carls simultaneously talking to Justin and hanging dead in his cabin. When the concept of time loops was explained, it all made sense, how the residents never aged, the song playing over and over (which was also the most tragic time loop for me: just a mere loop of a few seconds), and I empathized with Carl’s perspective completely. This repetitive cycle of life and death was really just for the amusement of the entity, and it was a horrible trap to be in.

Aaron, on the other hand, didn’t think so. He thought this was a much better way to live than their already repetitive and mundane life back home, one that was dictated by Justin. It was more frustrating for me to see Justin try to convince Aaron to escape with him than it was to actually see them try to escape. While I could see where he was coming from, I could not imagine how his free life could be more horrible than being stuck in a time loop. In that regard, I found his mindset more annoying than pitiful. I was rooting for Justin, who was just trying to be a good brother and doing his best to take care of him.

It will take me another watch of The Endless to see if I interpreted its ending correctly, but all I can say is I was thoroughly engrossed in its world yet I never want to step foot in it. That’s how I can say this was an excellent horror film, one worth revisiting.

For the most part, cults don’t usually have good or positive reputations. I think the word ‘cult’ itself can carry so much connotation that the mere mention of it in a conversation can really change the tone of it. I don’t have much of an opinion on people who live in cults because I’ve never met one, nor do I desire to. In Endless (2017), the audience is given a sneak peek into the lives of Justin and Aaron, two brothers who struggle to cope with the aftermath of escaping their group, Camp Arcadia. From the very start, we all know that the men came from a cult – the news clips, the therapy sessions and the difficulty of adjusting to seemingly normal life make it very clear. I felt bad for them for a few good minutes until Aaron suggested that they go back to visit the cult for a day. This made me root for Justin more – he was the big brother and father figure, the one that made sense, the one that remembers the cult for all its crazy UFO death obsession. I felt bad for Aaron, but I really didn’t trust his memories or his intentions.

The film itself is dark and washed out, almost like a photo that endured a couple of rounds in the washing machine. Visually, it doesn’t really scream “happy”, and nothing in it really did. When the brothers arrive at Camp Arcadia, you can’t help feel a little creeped out by how calm and happy everyone is despite, you know, them being in a UFO death cult. Despite their efforts to be welcoming and friendly, I didn’t trust a single of the camp members. I wasn’t sure of who to trust and what to believe in, and I felt like I was clenching my whole body while I was watching. The scene that really got to me was the tug of war scene. Hal explains that there’s someone standing on the ladder and holding the rope up, but we see everyone present still while Aaron pulls at it. It send shivers down my spine, and it confirmed my suspicions that something really WEIRD was going on at the camp. There were other scenes that really freaked me out – the random photos of people being left out for them to find, the two moons in the sky, the mysterious tape that Justin found in a toolbox in the lake (where he also saw a monster, by the way), – all of it is strange and creepy and definitely confirms that the whole cult is on to something. I started to doubt Justin’s memories and start believing in Aaron more, especially because he was much more open to exploring the camp and listening to the other members.

Apart from it being a cult movie, The Endless really explores human experience and how their similarities or differences shape the way we move forward with our relationships. Even though they were all kinda weird, the members of Camp Arcadia really did try their best to provide Justin and Aaron a home and a family. It’s unfortunate that they had to die and all, but their shared experiences led to the growth of the brothers’ relationship with each other. Despite Justin and Aaron butting heads throughout the movie, we see that their bond and love for each other as siblings withstands any weird time loop or crazy UFO monster. o B��]9

The Endless (2012) is right smack in the middle of two things: one thing that I love a lot, which is science fiction, and another that I despise a lot, which is horror. Science fiction is exploratory and imaginative, as it always intrigues me on the capacity of today’s empirical information in keeping up with human’s remarkable breadth of irrational creative power. On the other hand,  horror is also exploratory and imaginative; however, for me, it amplifies fears — from the little and most common ones to the deepest and darkest ones. For instance, as someone who has built her life on and around faith in God, the sinister deity in The Endless unsettled and irked me. It really left a bad taste in my mouth. Cosmic horror is a genre that is new to me and it certainly terrifies me because of the possibility that an omnipotent force can be truly malevolent instead of benevolent.

Time loops were particularly important devices in the film, as these exhibited the science fiction quality (although after Avengers Endgame, is this even still fiction?) in its manipulation of time and the horror quality in the entity that does this manipulation. The time loops  in the film reminded me of the novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, wherein the characters live and relive a single day: the third of September in the year 1940. Similar to The Endless, this novel uses polaroids to visualize the era and to communicate.

Throughout the film, production design was key in telling the narrative as each time loop was accurately portrayed according to the time within which the people in the loops were trapped. For instance, Chris and Mike have a modern cabin, a film projector, a computer, and so on; thus the malevolent entity communicates with them through CDs. On the other hand, Camp Arcadia seemed to be from an older time, based on the setup of the camp, the activities of the campers, and so on; with them, the malevolent entity communicates through VHS tapes or polaroids. Lastly, the poor man trapped in the shortest loop only had a tent and a phonograph, while Shitty Carl had guns and traps; although these are implicative of what era they were originally trapped in, the film did not reveal how the entity communicated with them.

The washed-out color palette of the entire film made me think that it was made a long time ago; however, this aided in framing the timelessness of the film and the malevolent entity. In addition, most of the characters, especially those in Camp Arcadia, had plain and ordinary styles, so much so that I mistook them for not changing clothes. This costume design technique was innovative for me, as it amplified the feeling that they were stuck in a rut.

Finally, I applaud directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead for coming up with this gem and for starring in it so spectacularly. They depicted the dynamics of a real-life brother to brother relationship, despite the weirdness going around the movie. Character development was also plain to see for both of them: innocent younger brother Aaron flirted with a girl and even smoked a little, while controlling older brother Justin apologized to his brother and figuratively and literally gave the wheel to Aaron.

One final thing that bothered me was the final conversation of the brothers, which was not sufficiently tackled in class. As they sped away from the destruction of the camp brought about by the entity, Justin told Aaron to refill the gas tank. In response, Aaron said that the car’s gas tank gauge had always read empty. On screen, I saw that the flock of birds shifted direction — as they did when the brothers first arrived in the area. My first reaction to this was, “Oh no, they are in a time loop!” And until today, my views are still somewhere there: that despite the escape and all, the brothers were also stuck in a time loop — just one that is longer in time and larger in space.

The Endless is the movie that made me feel frustrated and thankful at the same time. I was frustrated at Aaron even from the beginning. After learning that they escaped that place when they were young, I was shocked that Aaron would want to come back. His brother told stories of how where they came from was a cult. I would rather believe Justin who thought that it was a UFO death cult to save my life, rather than from Aaron who was still a young kid who barely remembers anything from when he was there.

I never liked horror films and after seeing the birds that formed a circle, I thought this movie was gonna involve witches and the like. I was not entirely wrong, though. The Endless involves aliens or unknown beings that make use of humans for their own amusement.

Upon hearing from Justin that the people from the community never aged at all even if it has been years since he last saw them, that already creeped me out. I wondered why they were not leaving yet.

I read a summary once again of the movie and I saw that at the ending, Justin told Aaron to refill the gas tank, but Aaron said that the car’s gas tank gauge has always read empty. I don’t know if this were anything significant but I thought this could mean that they did not really truly escape. They are stuck in a loop that makes them think that they were able to escape.

The Endless (2017) is a science fiction horror film that tells the story of two brothers, Justin and Aaron, who visit a camp of what Justin called a cult. They formerly belonged to this cult and had made outrageous statements against them prior to the timeline of the film in an attempt to get out. The brothers went back to the camp to get the closure that they want (and probably need) and closure and full knowledge of the camp is what they get.

Honestly, when Justin said that the ones in Camp Arcadia are in a cult, the first thing in my mind was that they were probably one of those that conduct weird and nerve-wracking rituals. Those that offer blood of the virgin, bone of a loyal servant, and all that. But the people in the camp aren’t really like that… at all.

One of the scenes that baffle me up to this point is the scene where the “cult” plays a game of tug-of-war against a rope that ascends into the dark sky. Aaron was asked to participate in the game to which he happily obliges. I must admit though that when Aaron started to tie the rope into a knot, I kind of actually thought he was going to attach the knot onto his neck.

It is amazing to watch how Aaron kept himself oblivious and ignorant of all the things that was things that was happening in Camp Arcadia because all of those things were weird. Even if they were not having exactly a good life outside the camp, it’s not enough of a reason for him not to feel all those weird things happening around him. At this point, I’m tempted to think he had been enchanted of some sort by the unknown entity just so he would have more humans as entertainment.

The part where there is this guy who just keeps on running without stopping for them (or anything actually) got me with some thoughts in my head. More than being a horror film, it reminded me more of an NPC (non-player character) in a role-playing game. Except that he wasn’t. He was just really stuck in his own loop.

It was heartbreaking in the film to see the couple separated by the loops. They were so close yet so far. The loops made them feel as if they were living in entirely different universes. It was only Justin who knew that the one they were searching for, each other, was just actually a few walks away but they can’t walk that far. There they were, stuck in their loops, all for the entertainment of some unknown entity they cannot fight, nor reason, or even just bargain with.

On a more personal level, it’s honestly kind of frustrating to think of such conditions in which the people in Camp Arcadia had to live in. Their existence was reduced to merely for entertainment of a higher entity and they had no way out. There was no way out available for them. They couldn’t even have the option of killing themselves because doing so would only restart the loop.

There was no brainwashing involved on the so-called cult but they lost their will. They lost their freedom. And there they were, stuck in a loop, all for another entity’s entertainment.

The Endless (2017) felt like a very dark film from the get-go – it’s so devoid of color that it almost looks like there’s a permanent sepia filter on it. This suggests to us that we’re not going to see the happiest film, and we definitely did not. The main protagonists, Justin (Justin Benson) and Aaron (Aaron Moorhead), are brothers who are just barely living off minimum wage. Oh, and a few years ago, they escaped from a UFO death cult.

I think the way that the film framed the characters really affected my personal experience of the film. Justin acts as sort of a father figure to Aaron, who doesn’t understand the implications of a UFO death cult, and associates living in a cult with good things – the community of people, spending time with his family, and not having to eat instant ramen every day. This made me trust Justin more than I trusted Aaron. Everything Aaron said felt a little bit naive, while it was evident that Justin had a deeper understanding of what exactly being part of a UFO death cult entailed.

When we first see Camp Arcadia, there’s definitely something eerie about it, and the film succeeds in setting up this menacing image. It’s when the community, including Aaron, participates in the tug-of-war exercise, that we get the first inkling that something truly bizarre is afoot. Maybe these people actually are on to something. The Endless continuously challenges us – we don’t know what’s fake, and we definitely don’t know what’s real. There’s something so chilling about that – I felt like I was holding my breath for the majority of the film. There’s a lot of twists and turns in the film that you don’t see coming, but it’s not a traditional horror movie where you’d scream because of a jumpscare. It’s more of this perpetual feeling of unease and paranoia, because things aren’t what they seem. The scene in which the baseball that’s tossed up into the sky doesn’t immediately come back down immediately comes to my mind.

The moment the film establishes that this UFO death cult is not merely based on an illusion, I definitely became less skeptical of everything Aaron was saying. Justin, on the other hand, was obsessed with finding a logical explanation for everything. In the beginning, he definitely rejected all of the talk of UFOs, thinking that everybody was just being insane. But he soon realizes that the root cause of all these unfortunate and unexplainable events was something sinister brewing under (or above?) the surface.

The Endless grounds its narrative in a familiar story about sibling love. At the end of the day, you can tell that Justin and Aaron really care for each other, and there’s nothing like a near-death experience to test that love. I think that the film pulls this off well – it doesn’t feel forced, like they’re suddenly trying to make it more emotional than it should be. These two brothers are just searching for a home, because no place that they’ve ever lived in has really, truly, felt like one.