‘It Ends’: Is Alexander Ullom the Next Great Horror Director?

‘It Ends’: Is Alexander Ullom the Next Great Horror Director? The 28-year-old’s infinite-road horror-thriller “It Ends,” shot on a budget of $80,000, is rightfully earning raves and announces an exciting new filmmaking voice. Alexander Ullom is dog-tired. The reason why the 28-year-old filmmaker looks “like a fuckin’ mess,” as he puts it, is because he wrapped principal photography on his sophomore movie, “4 x 4: The Event” — which he describes as “balls-to-the-wall gore and violence” — two days ago, jetted to Los Angeles and was parachuted into a press day for his debut feature, “It Ends.” And what a stunning debut it is. “It Ends,” out in theaters Aug. 21, follows three recent college graduates — James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth) — who reunite with their buddy Tyler (Mitchell Cole), a military man, and embark on a late-night drive in his Jeep in search of grub. When the road is suddenly blocked by a copse of trees, the group believes they may have taken a wrong turn, prompting Tyler to exit the vehicle and investigate, thereby attracting a ferocious mob of people who attack the car, mangling Fisher’s arm in the process. The quartet manages to escape by the skin of their teeth only to realize that they may be, in true Talking Heads fashion, on a road to nowhere. Have they entered another realm? Or are they dead and this is some cruel form of purgatory? Ullom, exhibiting directorial prowess far beyond his years, keeps audiences on the edge of their seat as these youngsters barrel down a seemingly endless road. Popular on Variety And Ullom’s film’s journey to theaters was a labyrinthine one as well. After receiving critical raves following its SXSW premiere in March of 2025, the film failed to attract any distributors and was, according to Ullom, “dead in the water.” He was ready to throw in the towel and upload it to YouTube when a chance encounter with filmmaker and movie influencer Nicolas Curcio led to him discussing it online, which was seen by the CEO of Letterboxd, who swooped in and agreed to showcase it as one of the first releases in their Letterboxd Video Store for undistributed movies, which then caught the eye of Neon, who picked it up and were so impressed by Ullom and his first feature, which was shot for only $80,000, that they also agreed to distribute his next film, “4 x 4: The Event,” billed as “‘Battle Royale’ meets ‘Saw’ meets ‘Climax.’” To promote “It Ends,” Neon has hatched an Endless Screening challenge where four-person teams compete in a 36-hour marathon screening of the film at NYC’s Metro Private Cinema — so about 25 consecutive showings of the movie — to be the “Last Person Standing.” The rules dictate that “each group member will receive 25 cents for every minute they remain in the competition, up to $540 a person,” and “if every member of the group makes it through the entire 36-hour marathon, each wins an additional $500.” Participants also get “a $250 theater credit toward concessions during the marathon (excluding alcohol)” and there are “designated breaks.” Ullom spoke with Variety about his promising first film, the new crop of young horror filmmakers he’s now a part of, including Curry Barker (“Obsession”) and Kane Parsons (“Backrooms”), and much more. How are you doing? First press day, so, you know, I’m getting used to it! I’m drinking water. Was “It Ends” inspired by the pandemic? I think it came from two different places. I was 21 years old when I started writing it [in late 2019], and I was articulating things from a much more physiological place and my own rough transition to adulthood mental health-wise. I was really going through it at the time and thinking, “Is this the rest of adulthood?” But as I got older, I realized there are more downtrodden effects from structural issues — the fact that the tentpoles of normal adult structure had disappeared and it’s not going to be buying a house, the nuclear family or religion, all these things that used to be the destination for a young person. I was feeling aimless and lost and felt, “This might just be what the rest of it is like.” Luckily, it was not. Also, I was in a lot of the “Backrooms” threads very early on. I wish I had a less pretentious reason for, “Why an endless road and why a car?” but it just popped in [my head] one day, and the theme came from what I was going through. The film reminded me a lot of that oner from “Children of Men” where the car is driving through the woods and then gets bombarded by people in every direction. Were you at least subconsciously inspired by that? Subconsciously like I didn’t fully rip it off? I love that scene and love that movie! Critics have pointed to Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “No Exit” as an inspiration, but was that actually an inspiration for you? Which is totally fine! I didn’t even know what that was at the time, but I’m more than grateful that anyone is comparing it to anything. I was essentially ready to upload the film on YouTube. Was that before it premiered at SXSW or after? After. We were fully dead in the water and this whole generational-shift thing that’s happening right now was not happening yet. We were still in the early days in this weird transitional period where nothing was selling out of festivals. We had no famous people and a tone shift — the “Linklater made a horror movie” that I’ve always pitched it as. I had a meeting on the Universal lot where they were like, “Nice movie but we’re obviously not fuckin’ buying it,” and on the way out they were having a press event for “Jurassic World Rebirth.” There was a fence between me and all these famous movie influencers and I thought, “If I could just get them the movie!” I called my manager and asked, “If I get kicked off the Universal lot is that for your whole career?” And he said, “Whatever the fuck you’re about to do just don’t tell me.” I hopped the fence and security swarmed me, but I said I was an influencer and they brought me into the party, gave me free “Jurassic” merch, and I was able to talk to Nick Curcio and be like, “Thank you for telling the kids about movies, I have this movie…” and he went, “Where is it? What happened? You got good reviews out of SXSW.” And I said, “We got nothing.” He posted about it and there was this outpouring of love from the online horror community. The Letterboxd CEO saw that and offered us a Letterboxd Video Store spot. It holds the distinction of being one of the first films to ever be released on Letterboxd Video Store. And maybe one of the first films to go to streaming, get pirated first and then go to theaters? We’ll see how that affects things! You went through your own “It Ends”-style journey getting this movie into theaters. How did it feel when Neon finally picked it up? The road has still not ended because here I am talking about it! It was awesome when they came on. Letterboxd lined up perfectly with it making sense in Neon’s slate, so I’m very grateful to anyone watching this movie at all because it makes no sense to me. Did Neon sign you to a multi-picture deal? Because your next film, “4 x 4: The Event” is also being distributed by Neon. No, they took a shot on “It Ends” and that meant a lot to me. I had a bunch of crazy contractual stuff where I wanted Mitchell Cole, who plays Tyler in “It Ends,” to be in it and I wanted to edit it, so it kind of just happened. As a part-Asian guy like yourself, I appreciated that the Asian guy wasn’t offed early on because that happens all too often. I’m reminded of Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” where you see the two Asian guys hanging out of the car acting like idiots as it swerves through the woods and then two seconds later, they’re being mowed down by Jesse Plemons. Oh, let’s go! I didn’t want to ask. I wasn’t doing it for any sort of agenda or anything, but I wanted to have an Asian kid. He’s me. He’s the more attractive version of me and my self-insert, and it’s nice that he’s not having to talk about his diaspora or anything and it’s just him being in the movie. And he fuckin’ lasts, and maybe that’s more of a model-minority thing but he was definitely built for capitalism. He was locked in to begin with. How many days was “It Ends” shot in and where did you shoot it? Principal photography was 28 days but we re-shot huge swaths of the movie two times and a lot of it was in Florida where I grew up. The parks that we shot in have asked us to stop referencing them in press because kids were apparently going there and drag racing on the endless road, which is cool, but yeah, in Florida, basically. Kids: Don’t drag race on the endless road. I read that “It Ends” was made for around $50,000. Is that accurate? I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it or not — maybe I should ask Neon… Here’s what I’ll say: Our full production budget was $80,000 after all three rounds of filming, and that’s before post-production. It was originally $30,000, and then we re-shot and it was $50,000 and then more. The four young actors in “It Ends” are excellent. Where did you find them? The only reason that this movie works is because of the cast. Every single one of them is so specifically talented it’s incredible. I posted on Instagram and said, “Who wants to be in a movie?” An open casting call. Noah [Toth] I had auditioned for one of my student films and Mitch [Cole] was literally an HVAC repair guy in the panhandle of Florida, and they all punched up my dialogue, made it way better than what was written and I got very lucky to find all four of them. Did you use only one Jeep for filming? We had one Jeep for production and then one shell of a Jeep that we cut in half to film on a stage. And that one Jeep got fuckin’ gnarly. Props to the actors for sitting in that thing for so long! Florida summertime shooting is crazy. That’s when the equipment was available, but dude… it was hot. Are you in LA now? I’m in LA and in my own place, which is awesome. Did you get that with the money from “It Ends” selling to Neon? No, it was the next movie. But for the last two-and-a-half years I lived in a walk-in closet — a one-bedroom apartment in LA — with two crew members and one cast member. We were all struggling while we were making this thing. I’ve gotta ask you about this 36-hour marathon screening challenge of “It Ends” in NYC, which will be around 25 consecutive showings of the movie. Was this your idea or what? And what do you think about it? It was a Neon idea. I think that I would hate any fuckin’ movie that I would watch 25 times. I think the prize money probably could have been higher for that level of psychological torment, but studios love doing that. “The Long Walk” had a [treadmill] screening. I hope there’s a bathroom in there that people can go to. Are they allowed to sleep? I would just sleep. Look, whatever’s going to get people in the theaters, I will advocate for. It’s still absurd to me that this is playing in a theater! Are they dead the whole time or have entered some other realm? Come on, man! I can’t tell you that. But I know exactly how it is and how it works. I had to ask! So you’re 28 now? I am actually old. I’m 28 now. Isn’t that crazy? Twenty-eight is not old! You’re only old compared to Kane Parsons. Kane’s a good friend of mine and every time I speak to him, I’m like, “Holy fuck, I’m old!” When did you start making films? I had always done it and never really saw it as a career path — I actually still don’t — but it was probably something horrible with my action figures. I found my appreciation for it in high school when I made these obnoxious morning-show videos where I was doing sketches that would screen after the morning announcements. I had an “Ender’s Game” version of film school where I would screen a morning-show video and either be met with love and admiration by my peers or walk out and get relentlessly bullied for the rest of the day. So, if I wanted to throw a video up, I had to lock in. How did you gain the confidence to tackle your first feature? I think I was just a delusional kid that never thought he couldn’t do that because he saw “Slacker” and said, “Well, I just need four faces.” That’s probably why I had to reshoot it two times because I probably should have been a little less confident! Your next film, “4 x 4: An Event” just got announced and it’s described as, “‘Battle Royale’ meets ‘Saw’ meets ‘Climax.’” The logline Neon gave reads it “follows eight contestants as they enter an illegal sensory-assault livestream where they must kill or be killed using only what they can order online.” Can you tell me anything more about that? If “It Ends” is dealing with minimalism and ennui then this film is the complete opposite where it’s balls-to-the-wall gore and violence and a visual stimuli overload to the point where there might need to be a disclaimer in the theater for the level of visual intensity I want to go for. I want to emulate what internet psychosis feels like, so it’s very different. And I’m making it using every filmmaking lesson I learned on “It Ends.” The reason I look like a fuckin’ mess is because we wrapped two days ago and I just flew in to LA. I’ll now be in a black box editing it for the next three months, but I love the editing process. And the production on “4 x 4” was a lot easier on me where I didn’t have to wrap the grip truck and got to focus a lot more and I got to go crazy with the camera. It’ll be fun. Do you have a project you want to tackle after “4 x 4?” I have studio ambitions and I believe the theatrical experience is the last religious experience of my generation and I love theaters and will always make movies for that, but right now I want to get a DV cam and two actors and do some shit on the street or something small. Larger-scale production is more about prepping and execution, and I would like one where there isn’t a time limit. Maybe YouTube is the place for that. But I have massivefilms that I want to make as well. Like what? What’s something that I’d like to actually do… I would love to do a “Deer Hunter” in space with a certain specific franchise — not “Star Wars.” Essentially, Space Vietnam. I have very specific things that I want to speak to my generation about and the thing I really love watching is young people talking onscreen. And now there’s a whole crop of young filmmakers coming up in horror with people like you, Curry Barker and Kane Parsons. It’s weird because “It Ends” wasn’t made for a marketplace whereas with “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” Curry and Kane honed their craft for years on YouTube. Curry’s first movie, “Milk & Serial,” is more comparable to what “It Ends” is for me in that it’s something I scrapped along with for six years. To speak to the larger movement that’s happening right now, yeah, I would love another New Hollywood movement. The model that has worked for a long time doesn’t work anymore and there are certain sensibilities and cultural tastes that you can’t manufacture without letting the kids play. It would be really fucking awesome if this trend continues.