Directed by Alex Ullom, the indie horror film It Ends follows four college friends whose road trip transforms into an endless loop defying space and time. Released in theaters by Neon in August 2026 following a SXSW premiere and digital launch, the 89-minute movie blends existential dread with comedic internet-era hangout culture.
Here is the kicker. Enter Alex Ullom and his micro-budget mind-bender, It Ends. If you haven’t caught the buzz on Letterboxd or tracked its wild path from anonymous virtual reality poker lobbies to a theatrical run via Neon, you are missing out on one of the most fascinating indie distribution stories of 2026. This isn’t just another spooky movie about kids trapped in a car. It is a cultural artifact shaped entirely by online life.
The Bottom Line
- The Origin Story: Director Alex Ullom initially secured indie funding by pitching investors while playing anonymous virtual reality poker in an Oculus app during COVID quarantine.
- The Release Path: After a March 2025 SXSW premiere and a December digital run on the Letterboxd Video Store, Neon acquired the film for a theatrical release on August 21, 2026.
- The Vibe Check: Ullom explicitly rejects comparisons to YouTube-native horror hits like Obsession or Backrooms, describing his feature instead as a “hangout movie battling a horror movie.”
From VR Poker Lobbies to Neon Theaters
Six years ago, Alex Ullom was just a recent film school graduate holding a trippy script about four kids driving away from college to start fresh, only to get stuck on an endless highway. That was 2020. Cabin fever was at an all-time high, and Ullom was spending his hours in virtual reality poker rooms. But he wasn’t just killing time. As he revealed to Polygon, he was hunting for backers. “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 explained. “A small part of me was like, I definitely could meet an investor.”
Miraculously, it worked. Someone in the lobby mentioned they had done visual effects work on Guillermo del Toro’s movies and handed over $10,000 on the spot. Ullom filmed an initial version in 2022, but realizing as a first-time director that he was in over his head, he brought a rough cut back to investors to fund a massive overhaul. Over the next three years, the production underwent extensive reshoots. By the time it premiered at SXSW in March 2025, critics at FandomWire noted its potential to be an indie horror breakout on the level of Talk to Me. Following a successful digital stint on the Letterboxd Video Store in December 2025, Neon scooped up the film for its August 2026 theatrical rollout.
Inside the Gen Z Hangout Horror Dynamic
At its core, It Ends relies heavily on the chemistry of its four central actors: James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth), and Tyler (Mitchell Cole). Because the production required multiple rounds of reshoots over a three-year span, the actors essentially spent that timeframe getting to know each other in real life. That organic bonding mirrors the exact duration their characters spend trapped together on the mysterious road.
The dialogue reflects how modern young adults cope with absolute terror: through absurdist humor and internet memes. Early in the film, the characters debate a classic internet hypothetical involving ten thousand rats, fifty hawks, five gorillas, and one man with a gun. Later, completely disconnected from Wi-Fi, they start generating their own localized memes to pass the time. Ullom noted that an early cut featured an eight-minute tangent about the viral Russian brick video that had zero bearing on the plot. It was eventually cut, but it highlights the filmmaker’s commitment to authentic Gen Z conversational rhythms.
Production Realities of the Virtual Stage
Visually, the film leans on unconventional production techniques. Thanks to their alma mater, Florida State, the crew utilized an early LED volume stage to capture driving sequences. However, Ullom is quick to demystify the tech for aspiring indie filmmakers. “We just got really lucky that our film school… had a program they had built for training the students, and they were still figuring out the technology,” Ullom told Polygon. Without camera tracking capabilities, the setup functioned essentially as a giant TV screen. Ullom questions whether current virtual production costs make sense for true independent filmmaking without dedicated grants.
| Milestone | Date / Year | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Conception | 2020 | Written during COVID quarantine; funded partly via VR poker networking. |
| First Production | 2022 | Initial shoot completed before creative overhaul and extensive reshoots. |
| Festival Premiere | March 2025 | Premiered to early critical buzz at the SXSW Film Festival. |
| Digital Release | December 2025 | Debuted digitally via the Letterboxd Video Store platform. |
| Theatrical Launch | August 21, 2026 | Acquired and distributed theatrically by Neon. |
By weaponizing virtual reality networking, grassroots casting via Instagram, and a deeply online sensibility, Ullom and his team have delivered a genre-bender that feels entirely fresh. What do you think—would you choose the hawks or the rats if you were trapped on an endless highway? Let us know in the comments below.
