Six years ago, Alex Ullom was a film school graduate with a script about four college students who drive off from campus only to find themselves on a road that defies space and time. Now, Ullom is the director behind one of the year's buzziest horror films, 'It Ends,' which premiered in theaters on August 21 after an initial digital release in December. The film's journey from a quarantine-era concept to a Neon-backed theatrical release is a story in itself.
Ullom conceived the idea in 2020 during COVID quarantine, a period he spent in online virtual reality poker lobbies. His intention wasn't just to pass the time but to seek investors for his film. "I would just sit in virtual reality anonymous poker lobbies online for hours on end and hang out with people and shoot the shit," Ullom told Polygon. "A small part of me was like, I definitely could meet an investor."
Remarkably, this unconventional approach yielded results. "Eventually someone was like, 'Hey, what are you doing?' And I'm like, 'Oh, I'm shooting a movie in the fall.' I didn't have the financing. I absolutely was not doing that. But he was like, 'Oh, really? If you're ready to go, I did a bunch of VFX on Guillermo del Toro's movies. I've always wanted to produce. Here's $10,000.'"
Following this initial seed money, Ullom filmed the first version of 'It Ends' in 2022. He then presented a rough cut to early investors, securing further funding to reshoot much of the movie. The film premiered at SXSW in 2025 and was subsequently released digitally on the Letterboxd Video Store. Its success caught the attention of Neon, a distributor known for championing low-budget, high-profit horror films.
Ullom largely dismisses comparisons to other emerging Gen Z horror directors like Curry Barker ('Obsession') and Kane Parsons ('Backrooms'). He argues that their experiences, honed over years on YouTube, differ significantly from his own. "I don't see this film as something next to 'Obsession' or 'Backrooms' at all," he stated. "Kane and Curry both honed their craft for years on YouTube. All that stuff was their 'It Ends.' That was their trial and error process. 'It Ends' was literally this thing that took us six years to scrap together."
Another key distinction, according to Ullom, is that 'It Ends' is not primarily a scare-focused film. "I learned very quickly that this is a hangout movie battling a horror movie," he explained. The film's narrative centers on four characters—James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth), and Tyler (Mitchell Cole)—who spend most of the 89-minute runtime trapped in a car. While they grapple with their predicament, they also find ways to distract themselves, engaging in discussions about internet memes and even creating their own in the absence of connectivity.
Initially, the film contained more extensive segments dedicated to internet culture, including an eight-minute scene solely about a "Russian brick video." Ullom admitted that the initial cut was three hours long and "much, much, much, much worse." He had to make difficult decisions, cutting scenes he enjoyed but that didn't serve the core narrative.
Regarding the film's deeper meaning, Ullom views 'It Ends' as a reflection of the anxieties faced by Gen Z as they navigate a world that feels increasingly unstable. The endless road in the film symbolizes the search for viable paths in a society where traditional structures like the nuclear family, homeownership, and religion have eroded. "Something's off, and something else is coming. We've been in this kind of transitionary state for a long time. Not to use the buzzword of liminal, but liminality is a transition between one thing and another. There's almost a comfortability in liminal spaces," he said. He noted that films like 'Backrooms' and 'Exit 8' also utilize the concept of never-ending liminal spaces.
While Ullom remains tight-lipped about the literal events unfolding in 'It Ends,' he confirmed that a higher power is involved. "I definitely think there's a higher power on the road," he stated, implying that the characters are being watched and controlled. He also revealed that the characters' names hold symbolic meaning, with each representing a different philosophical perspective, particularly concerning meaninglessness within the Gen Z experience.
Ullom has ambitious plans for a sequel, envisioning it as a spiritual successor akin to Richard Linklater's 'Before Sunrise.' "You will find out when I make the sequel in 15 years," he promised. "This is going to be my 'Before Sunrise.' I'll revisit the characters and talk about late-stage adulthood instead of early adulthood."
When pressed on a hypothetical meme scenario presented in the film—choosing between 10,000 rats, 50 hawks, five gorillas, or one man with a gun for protection—Ullom’s answer was characteristically nuanced. "It depends on the environment," he concluded. "If they're all spawning directly in front of me, it's obviously the rats and the gorillas. If they're in my apartment, the guy's fucked. The hawks are fucked. The environment is really very important for this process."