Writer-director Alex Ullom has broken out onto the horror scene with his new road-trip movie, It Ends. The Neon horror movie follows four friends who go for a drive and get trapped on an endless road, where they must choose between driving or accepting their fate in this infinite hellscape.
In an interview with Digital Trends, Ullom broke down his six-year journey to bring his movie to theaters, as well as his inspiration and interpretation of the story. He also discussed how his next horror movie, 4 X 4: The Event, will be even more intense than It Ends.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Digital Trends: What was your inspiration [for] this story?
Ullom: Probably my absolutely brutal transition into adulthood, and trying to survive that with a group of friends, I guess. I mean, inspiration-wise, I’ve always pictured it as if Linklater made a horror movie.
Digital Trends: Yeah that really came across with the story. It showed, like, all these four friends growing apart, as one of them tries, to move away. Then they all just get caught up in this never-ending road. That was such a wild but really clever idea. How did you decide to go for the endless road trip?
Ullom: I just think liminal spaces right now are almost a sense of comfort for people my age, because there’s just… we’ve been in this transitionary, like…I think a lot of the tentpoles of structure that used to exist for us, whether it was a family or buying a home or whatever, don’t exist.
And being just in perpetual motion is kind of the closest thing I could say to what it feels like to be an adult. I’m still taking in being an adult. I feel like I just came of age, so it’s like, what…do I know? But, yeah.
Digital Trends: Yeah, you and me both, and I really felt that liminal horror has become really big lately. You’ve seen movies like Backrooms and Exit 8. I really felt that this movie was basically a road trip version of that. And so, I was wondering if you could tell us what, in your perspective, exactly is the road?
Ullom: Aw, come on, man, I can’t tell you that. That would ruin everything.
Digital Trends: Yeah, I know you leave it up to the imagination, the story, but…I mean, at least I tried, you know?
Ullom: Yeah, of course.
Digital Trends: Do you think you’d last on the road for as long as the final character, James? Some of the characters stay in the car; some of them don’t. But in the end…he’s the only one to really make it to the end. So do you think you would make it there?
Ullom: I think my younger self would do exactly what James did. But me now, I would just follow…whoever I was trapped on the road with. It would depend on the whole party. It would be, like, if we want to keep exploring or not.
But when I was younger, I definitely would have made it to the end of the road…I could have not existentially processed anything going on. I would have been flipping out. I would have been James, I guess.
Digital Trends: Yeah, I mean, he’s really got that sense of youthful ambition in the story. He has plans for his life, and he wants to get out.
But at the end, he’s just really given the punchline to a really sick joke. And it seems like, in the end, he’s just gonna go back and reunite with his friends. Do you really think that they’ll find some sort of happiness on that road?
Ullom: Yeah. I’d like to believe that. I’ll figure it out when I do the sequel. It Begins in 15 years or whatever, and it’s my Before Sunrise-type thing.
Digital Trends: All in all, what was the production like for this movie? Was it a particularly challenging one, or did everything go smoothly?
Ullom: It took six years, and it was like a messy scrap in the mud. That’s what I would say. But the movie is fully held up by its performances and the loving community around it, but the actual production process was hell. We had no money, and…every step of the way was a challenge.
Digital Trends: So filming itself, it took place over the course of six years?
Ullom: Pre-pro was probably two and a half [years], and then…production was pretty much over the course of three years. We reshot the movie twice.
Digital Trends: So is there a lot of footage that didn’t make the final cut?
Ullom: There used to be a full eight-minute sequence where the characters just talked about the Russian brick video. There used to be a lot more hangout stuff.
Digital Trends: Yeah, they build their own sort of chill hangout inside that car. It felt really Lord of the Flies-esque, in that sense, but just not as bloody or anything.
Ullom: Yeah, definitely. I would have liked it to get more bloody.
Digital Trends: Yeah, but the bloodiest part of the movie was the opening scene, where all those people just came rushing in, like, I mean, that was the biggest hook of the story, I mean, it just blew me away.
But another one of the most surprising parts of the film was when it just started raining on the road. I mean, it wasn’t as scary. It was just really surprising. It didn’t rain on any other day throughout the story. Why did it happen then? What was the meaning behind it?
Ullom: I don’t wanna fully give away how the stuff works. But basically, there’s a level of immaterialism on the road, and there’s a level of subjectivism, and…I just think that…let’s just say the road is moving you towards a place in your specific emotional, conscious processing that has an effect on it.
Digital Trends: So, all in all, why should people go out and see this film? What are you hoping that they’ll get out of it?
Ullom: I would love for anyone…who’s ever grown up before, and gone through something that they didn’t really have an answer for and needed to emotionally process and come to peace with. And that was something that I was going through.
And then, I think the second half of people that I want is any young filmmaker to see it…and [they’re] just like, “Oh, I could do this. I just need to get my friends and four faces and a camera.” I would hope that this movie lives as a bit of an inspirational piece for other people to be like, “Oh, man. They really just went out and made a movie, and now it’s going to movie theaters.”
That makes no sense to me. I was ready to upload the damn film on YouTube. I hope it lives [as] a beacon of both of those things, but also, I hope…people watch it, step out of the theater, and start arguing with their friends about what the movie means. That’s what I’m looking for.
Digital Trends: On that note, did you ever expect the movie to get a theatrical release?
Ullom: No…it was a hope.
Digital Trends: Well, yeah. That’s where a lot of filmmakers like to go with their projects. And now, after working with Neon, you already have another project lined up with them. Could you tell us more about it?
Ullom: Dude, we actually wrapped two days ago. I would say that it’s pure maximalism, and it’s the opposite of It Ends, and it is probably the bloodiest, goriest thing…If It Ends is a decline, this [film] is a massive incline to a point where you need to look away.
I’m gonna put like a legal disclaimer in the movie about the level of auditory and physical overload. I don’t know. It’s gonna go crazy, that’s all I’d say. And I’m also making it as a 28-year-old…I was very well supported, and knock on wood, hopefully don’t have to go reshoot stuff.
Digital Trends: All right…thank you for sharing that. Is there anything else you want to say to the fans?
Ullom: I appreciate anyone who has ever watched this movie, ever. And I could have never expected that we got here, so I’m just grateful. That’s all.
It Ends is now playing in theaters.
