Film

The Endless

Name: The Endless
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, Thriller
Released: 2017
Cast: Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Callie Hernandez, Tate Ellington, Shane Brady

Supernatural mystery

A micro-budget cosmic-dread film from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who also star as brothers revisiting the isolationist camp they fled a decade earlier. It's slow, talky, and unnervingly patient, building its horror from suggestion, repetition, and half-glimpsed impossibilities rather than jump scares. Best suited to viewers who want their sci-fi philosophical, DIY, and genuinely strange rather than polished.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-burn puzzle films where unease builds from small wrong details and a mystery you assemble yourself, rather than from jump scares or big set pieces.

Skip it if you need clear explanations or brisk pacing; it meanders in places and holds back answers on purpose, which some viewers will find frustrating.

What it asks of you: Settle in for just under two hours of patient, mounting strangeness; it rewards close attention and does not stop to explain itself.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Resolution2013

Made by the same filmmaking duo, this quieter predecessor introduces the mysterious force that reappears in The Endless — intimate, shoestring-budget dread with the same patient, conversational style.

But Very talky and slow-burn, with an ending that offers mood over explanation.

Coherence2014

A dinner party unravels into multiverse chaos in one house over one night — the same trick of building sci-fi dread almost entirely from dialogue and dawning realization.

But The overlapping conversations and branching logic can get genuinely confusing on a first watch.

Annihilation2018

A glossier, studio-scale take on the same idea: humans entering a zone where nature's rules have been quietly rewritten, and coming back changed if they come back at all.

But Bigger budget means bigger spectacle, which trades some of the intimate, low-fi eeriness for visual set pieces.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Endless

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

La Jetée1962

Same structural core as The Endless's time loops: a person caught reliving a moment they can't escape or fully understand, decades before the idea became a genre staple.

This 28-minute French short, told almost entirely in still photographs, effectively invented the time-loop dread The Endless is built on — a man trapped reliving one devastating memory.

But No real dialogue scenes, no motion in most shots — a silent, glacial pace that feels alien next to modern sci-fi.

The Sacrament2014

Journalists visit an insular commune whose calm exterior curdles into something horrifying, echoing the slow, dread-soaked realization at the heart of The Endless.

But Found-footage presentation feels gimmicky to some, and it's ultimately more human tragedy than supernatural puzzle.

Sound of My Voice2011

An undercover couple infiltrate a charismatic cult leader's circle, and the film never quite lets you decide if she's a con artist or something stranger — same unresolved unease.

But The ending is deliberately ambiguous, which will frustrate anyone wanting a clear answer.

Triangle2009

A woman keeps reliving the same nightmarish day on an empty ship, and the mechanics of the loop click into place the way The Endless's mysteries eventually do.

But The timeline gymnastics require close attention, and some find the twists overstuffed.

The Man from Earth2007

Almost entirely conversation in one room, this cheap, brainy sci-fi film proves you don't need spectacle to make an impossible idea feel enormous.

But There's no visual horror or tension at all — just people talking, which some will find static.

Primer2004

The legendary micro-budget puzzle film about two guys who stumble into something far beyond their understanding, with the same DIY ingenuity and refusal to hold your hand.

But Notoriously bewildering; many viewers need a second watch and a diagram to follow it.

Midsommar2019

Outsiders are folded into a community whose rituals seem welcoming until they very much aren't — the same slow unveiling of belief tipping into horror.

But Much longer and more visually ornate, trading intimate dread for full folk-horror pageantry.

Wild Wild Country2018

Literalizes the film's central provocation — that the cult's beliefs might be less insane than outsiders assume — but strips away the sci-fi frame entirely, leaving just people.

This documentary series about the real Rajneeshpuram commune shows how reasonable, even seductive, a cult's internal logic can seem from the inside — the exact question The Endless keeps circling.

But Six hour-long episodes with zero supernatural elements — just power, manipulation, and human weakness.

Grave Encounters2011

Shares the exact structural trick of a location whose geometry traps people in repeating loops, but discards all the philosophical quiet for unapologetic genre trash.

A gleefully trashy found-footage flick where a ghost-hunting crew gets trapped in a building that refuses to let them leave — the same "place itself is the monster" engine, played for straight-up B-movie thrills.

But Cheap, jump-scare heavy, and tonally the total opposite of restraint — pure schlock where The Endless is patient.