The Endless

"Time is a prison."

2017 1h 52m EN

😐

6.3

MID

★6.3TMDB · 1,372

Science FictionHorrorThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Two brothers return to the cult they fled from years ago to discover that the group's beliefs may be more sane than they once thought.

“Time is a prison.”

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Cast

Aaron Moorhead
Aaron Smith
Justin Benson
Justin Smith
Callie Hernandez
Anna
Tate Ellington
Hal
Shane Brady
Shane Williams
Lew Temple
Tim
Kira Powell
Lizzy
David Lawson Jr.
Dave

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Aaron Moorhead
Writers: Justin Benson
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 96% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 9 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Aaron Moorhead, shot by Aaron Moorhead. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Jimmy LaValle. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Felker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson and Callie Hernandez carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Time is a prison.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Aaron Moorhead directs. Aaron Moorhead behind the camera. Jimmy LaValle scores. Michael Felker cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 96% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released 9 years ago.
4Directed by Aaron Moorhead, shot by Aaron Moorhead. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Jimmy LaValle. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Michael Felker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson and Callie Hernandez carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Time is a prison.".
9IMDB entry: tt3986820 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 10 themes, including "suicide", "sibling relationship", "brother", "supernatural".

The technical file

Cinematography: Aaron Moorhead
Original score: Jimmy LaValle
Editing: Michael Felker
Production design: Ariel Vida
Sound: Yahel Dooley
Runtime: 112 min · 1h 52m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,000,000
Box office: $956,425
Return: 96% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: The Endless (2017)

Also by

Aaron Moorhead

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Rodney Wollam2018-10-15
★ 8/10
One of those movies that you love that you're pretty sure you will never watch again. Don't want to get caught in a loop.
BornKnight2023-12-09
★ 7/10
Total spoiler ahead: good low budget sci-fi movie with a supernatural tone of cosmic terror, wrote by Justin Benson and directed by him and Aaron Moorhead, that also are the protagonists. It feels like a good old episode of the X-Files Basically it tells a story of two brothers (Benson and Moorhead) that never had a good life and once they tried to live in a sort of UFO cult life while child in Arcadia Camp, a place in Southern California where time doesn't like to be what it is usually and strange things can happens. Slowly as the days pass, the strange phenomena starts to happens more and more to them and they discover that the place is actually a mini pocket dimension in the middle of a arid zone where circular pockets of space time and an invisible multidimensional creature lives roams around and time reset (in the most horrible ways sometime) over and over, with their dwellers dying and living over and over. Yup, to me the definition of living hell. This is not clear since the beginning only starts around middle run of the movie to pick up till the end in the lines of low budget good idea productions like "Project Almanac" (2017), "Primer" (2004), "Synchronic" (2019). Low budget effects that works really pretty well on CGI and a semi-amateur cast that acts like real actors turn up the movie a little bit. The imagery and music from the middle on gets you with a music with a synthesized score that samples "House of the Rising Sun, images of 3 moons (where if the third one turns full you get trapped in) and several other hidden shapes of invisible circles. With a better writing probably it would be a better movie, but it became a low budget cult movie anyway (no pun indeed): I would give it a 7,0 out of 10,0 score / B. It isn't something new but it is told you in a new way.
Sierbahnn2026-05-27
★ 7/10
This is quite brilliant Right off the bat DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE unless you have seen Resolution (2012) first. It serves as the setup and part of the "build" for this movie. This movie is the larger of the two, with a bigger scope, a more ambitious take on its storytelling. It does this well, for an indie horror, and its constraints. The characters work, the storytelling is solid, the tension real and the acting is good. I highly recommend this, but only if you watch Resolution first. If you didn't then you are a missing out.