Do UFO Death Cults have mailing lists? This is opening plot point for The Endless, a freaky sci-fi study of two brothers revisiting their childhood cult. “Hey, the matching track suits and ‘Ascension Machete’ are still around. *Sniff* ” OK, I’m kidding. Death Cults are people, too. And The Endless is the best Death Cult picture I’ve seen in at least three weeks. TBH, I like this film a lot; don’t let the cheap jokes fool you.
Brothers Justin (Justin Benson) and Aaron (Aaron Moorhead) –how long did you spend coming up with those names, fellas?– get an anonymous camcorder tape in the mail. Aaron, the younger of the two, spends money the two housecleaners don’t have on the technology required to play said tape. Good golly, it’s a personalized video brochure of that cult we used to belong to. So the UFO Death Cult has their own AV club. Isn’t that fun? Gosh, whatever happened to them? Didn’t they all ascend or something? When was that supposed to happen, anyway?
While Justin came of age when the pair fled the cult a decade ago, Aaron was still a teen; the latter remembers the compound fondly. The current details of Aaron’s womanless, Ramen-filled life only serve to exacerbate his desire to revisit the cult that once held so much sway. Justin is skeptical and a little scared, but it’s hard to deny the desires of the only person in your life. So, hey! Looks go get some of that Kool Aid.
Their UFO Death Cult itself is only missing two things: UFOs and Death. Far from going the Jim Jones, Branch Davidian, or Heaven’s Gate route, these guys are all … alive and well. Whaaaa?
“Hey! I thought you guys were dead.”
“Yeah, we get that a lot. Nice to have you back. Hungry?”
So far, the level of bizarre is at a low simmer. And then it builds. Justin starts having conflicting visions. “Weren’t those birds over there?” Each member of the cult has a certain talent; one does magic and explains it by the “million-hour rule.” i.e. it takes 1,000,000 to perfect a given talent. Wait a sec. I know this as the “10,000 hour rule.” One million hours is 115 years. Who has 115 sleepless years to spend on magic? Later, the man performs a trick which involves launching a baseball into outer space with a simple toss by hand.
Most ”what’s going on here?” films start confusing and get less so as the
mystery is unraveled. The Endless is exactly the opposite. Two poor brothers live in a dump in El Lay. Yeah. Simple. They find go find their old cult and things get stranger and stranger and stranger. By the end, it was all explained to me, but I’m not sure I got it.
The Endless has both sci-fi and philosophical underpinnings; the film reminded me great deal of another mind screw, Coherence. That movie was also made for about a buck-fifty with a few keychains thrown in. The Endless starts with the question: what’s so bad about a cult, anyway (Especially when you compare it to a life of no friends and Ramen dinners)? The film morphs gradually into a discussion of what is reality and what do we take from reality that has any worth in life? I’m rarely a fan of small budget production, but this one really struck a chord. I hope I see more of writer/director/stars Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead in the future. If it truly takes 1,000,000 hours to perfect movie-making, I shall.
♪Baby, pause and see
We live in poverty
You ain’t seen the depth of this fret
And in time
I’ll make you regret the past
I got bupkes, G
I’m seeking hand-outs free
Gonna plead and stick out my hand
You’ve got to understand
Remember the game, blame!
Our lives will suck forever
Think I’m about to cry, *sigh*
Bet you think you’re just so clever
Why don’t you eat shit and die?♫
Not Rated, 111 Minutes
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Writer: Justin Benson
Genre: Surviving the Cult
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Cult movie fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Literalists
♪ Parody Inspired by “Fame”
