CCFF 2025 – It Ends & Desert Road
Sometimes at film festivals, at least a couple of films have quite a bit in common. Two character-driven American road movies were part of this year’s Chicago Critics Film Festival (CCFF) lineup, and the characters don’t go very far in either story. One film, Alex Ullom’s “It Ends,” is an existential horror-hangout movie, while Shannon Triplett’s “Desert Road” is a trippy psychological sci-fi thriller. Both are the feature-length directorial debuts of their respective directors, who wrote their screenplays, and there’s a lot to respect about how they go about the stories they set out to tell. Both films premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW). “It Ends” premiered this year, and “Desert Road” in 2024, and despite all the similarities, they are pretty different.
Below are my thoughts on each film:
IT ENDS
One thing that’s universal about aging is that the teen years are tough. Usually when you hear such a statement it’s referring to the transition from adolescent to teen, but it’s also relevant to the transition from teen to adult. There’s a lot of pressure to have life all figured out way before graduating high school, but that’s ludicrous. The future can seem scary and maybe that’s why Alex Ullom’s feature-length debut, “It Ends”, about a quartet of post-grad friends who can’t seem to get anywhere in the Jeep Cherokee they’re in, is being considered a horror movie.
While there are definitely some unsettling elements occurring in the story (Ullom also wrote the screenplay), “It Ends” could be considered in the horror genre, specifically in the “horror hangout” subgenre, but it’s more of an existential thriller.
Of the four friends, Tyler (Mitchell Cole) comes across as the oldest, just because he seems more mature and supposedly content with his current HVAC job. James (Phinehas Yoon) is the one who may be close to growing out of this friend group, having secured a desk job with a more traditional goal of: marriage, kids, a dog, and a white picket fence. There’s also Day (Akira Jackson) and Fisher (Noah Toth), who seem a bit more insouciant and the most content, despite not having a clear vision of their future. The quartet are about to experience something that will test their sanity and friendship
Where they’re headed isn’t exactly clear, but the road they’re on, surrounded by dense forest, doesn’t seem to be provided the turn they’re looking for. They’re on the right road, but that turn just isn’t there. When they turn around, they come up on a dead end. It’s all very strange and then things take an absolutely horrifying turn when a horde of people come running out of the woods, slamming their bodies against their Jeep whenever the vehicle comes to a stop, screaming and grabbing at them. After this happens a couple of times, the friends realize the crazed crowd only want their vehicle, so they keep driving and more odd things begin to happen. No matter how much they drive, they don’t run out of gas, and they somehow don’t deal with hunger or fatigue. Time passes, the sun sets and rises, and they stay on the same road to nowhere with those people staying in the forest until their vehicles stops.
“It Ends” is all about ambiguity as Ullon offers a story that can be a metaphor for life and death. Simply put: each day we live, we’re moving forward with ultimately no idea where we’re going despite our plans. We wonder and worry what will happen to us and how everything will play out, and sometimes we even wonder why we’re here. Ullon doesn’t provide answers, instead allowing viewers to come up with their own questions and explanations, as they watch these relatable characters ponder their reality. The four friends develop schedules and rules, and create silly memes about their experience to pass (or ignore) time.
Ullon works with a talented team to convey intensity and claustrophobia with added room for levity and malaise. Despite the thriller’s dialogue-heavy approach, the cinematography by Evan Draper and Jazleana Jones, along with editing by Nicholas Hasson and Sky Helwig, make for an impressive viewing experience. Their technique never overwhelms, but rather accentuates the mood of the moment with an effective style. “It Ends” is both terrifying and contemplative, never running on fumes but rather continues on its existential road with hope and fate running parallel with each other.
RATING: ***
DESERT ROAD
The titular road is California State Route 190, where a twentysomething named Clare (Kristine Froseth, most memorable in the 2022 eco-thriller
“How to Blow Up a Pipeline”) finds herself inexplicably going in circles down the same strip of “Desert Road”. She’s on a solo road trip back home to Iowa where her mother lives after attempting to make it in California as a photographer. While making a quick stop to refuel at a remote gas station, she has an awkward encounter with Randy (Max Mattern), a young gas station attendant who makes her uncomfortable. She takes off in her car, but doesn’t get very far when her tires blows, sending her off the road and lodging her car on a boulder. All she can do is change the flat. Due to poor cell reception and no other options, she walks back to the gas station to use the phone.
Things get weirder when she becomes suspicious that Randy is somehow involved in keeping her stranded on this particular desert road. It could just be understandable paranoia and writer/director Shannon Triplett, making her feature-length debut, definitely plays on such thoughts typically found in storylines where women are traveling alone. However, “Desert Road” incorporates metaphysical and sci-fi, elevating what at first seems like a straightforward thriller, turning into something with more on it’s mind.
Clare also becomes suspicious of Steve (Ryan Hurst), a guy who is supposedly both the local tow truck driver and the sheriff. The more encounters she has with others, the less all of it makes sense. She could be getting scammed or worked over by these locals or suffering a concussion from the crash. She discovers a nearby factory which doesn’t seem to be getting much activity and soon finds that someone is taking items from her car. Maybe it’s the nomadic older woman (Frances Fisher), living at the edge of the desert ridge. But the weirdest thing is no matter which direction she goes, even perpendicular, Clare winds up right back at her car.
Clearly, there’s a time loop at play here and Clare has to figure out how to beat it or get out of it. Froseth “Desert Road” feels like a short story from Stephen King or a bizarre “Twilight Zone” episode, but the only problem with that is that King is renown for not sticking the landing in a satisfying manner and sometimes there were one-off episodes that just didn’t cut it in the classic series from Rod Serling. There’s still gripping moments and an overall convincing mystery, despite Triplett not sticking the landing especially when it comes to understanding what’s really going on. There’s a nice appearance by Beau Bridges in the film’s final act, providing a bit of a revelation, but ultimately something seems to be missing here.
