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This Incredible 2017 Sci-Fi Horror Film Tackled Time Loops and UFO Cults on a Micro-Budget
This month on Hidden Horrors of Peacock, we take a look at one of the best cosmic horror films of the century.
Welcome to Hidden Horrors of Peacock, a monthly column spotlighting off-the-beaten-path scary movies available to watch right now on NBCUniversal's streaming service. From cult classics to forgotten sequels to indie gems you've maybe never heard of, we've got you covered.
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have a gift. The multi-hyphenate duo, who have parlayed independent success into projects like Moon Knight and Loki while never giving up the DIY spirit of their craft certainly, have more than a few talents. They write, direct, produce, act in, shoot, and edit their own films, and every element they contribute to projects like Spring, Synchronic, and most recently Something in the Dirt, crackles with earnest life. But Benson and Moorhead have more to offer than the sheer scope of their craft, and it's something that's made them fan-favorites among both horror cinephiles and horror filmmakers alike.
Benson and Moorhead, like Roger Corman, John Carpenter, Kathryn Bigelow, and M. Night Shyamalan before them, have the uncanny ability to conjure up the epic out of the intimate. No matter how tight their budget, how contained their locations, or how small their cast, these are filmmakers who are able to make us feel that the whole world hangs on what just a handful of people do in an out-of-the-way locale, and nowhere is that more evident than in The Endless.
Released in 2017 after the triumph of Spring (a masterclass in blending horror and romance), The Endless marked a new level of storytelling ambition for Benson and Moorhead, while not straying from the DIY independent spirit that put them on the map. A blend of sci-fi, horror, and cult drama rich with themes that the duo have returned to again and again in their work, it's one of the best independent horror films of the last decade, and one of the best cosmic horror films of all time. Lucky for you, it's also streaming on Peacock right now.
Why The Endless is one of the best cosmic horror films ever
Benson and Moorhead play Justin and Aaron, respectively, two brothers who are scraping by in a lonely existence after having escaped what Justin refers to as a "UFO cult" where members were castrated and lulled into an existence of conformity and delusion. The brothers go to therapy to deprogram themselves from the cult experience, make a living (barely) cleaning houses, and generally just trying to get through the day, at least until Aaron gets a strange video cassette that's apparently from Camp Arcadia, their former cult home.
Justin wants to forget about the tape and move on, but Aaron is convinced there's something more to it, something they might have missed when they fled Camp Arcadia. So, the brothers go back to their old stomping grounds, where the people don't seem to have aged, strange rock formations dot the landscape, and time and space work in mysterious ways. But is it real, or is Justin just fighting to pull Aaron back from the same delusional brink they fled years earlier?
To say more about what awaits the brothers at Camp Arcadia would be to deprive of The Endless' particular slow-burn satisfaction, but suffice it to say things get weird, and they get weird in ways that prove you don't need a massive budget to make cosmic-scale horror effective. It all begins on a character level, as Justin and Aaron reconnect with their old cult-mates in ways that are both standoffish and remarkably familiar, creating an immediate tension that slowly winds up as the film progresses. For a while, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you're just watching a taut character drama with no supernatural elements at all, and you wouldn't mind one bit if that was the case.
Then the exploration of what's really going on at Camp Arcadia kicks in, and Benson and Moorhead bring the scares on both grand-scale and intimate levels. It could be something as simple as an audio cassette at the bottom of a lake, or as big as a monster lurking in the dark, but the duo approach it all with the same care, precision, and intuitive craft. There is an undeniable closeness in these characters, in this world, that makes the cosmic horror so much nastier, so much more likely to worm its way into your brain. And to up the ante, Benson and Moorhead make the dark heart of the story about a presence that speaks via images, making filmmaking itself, with all its tactile strangeness, a part of the narrative.
All of this means that The Endless transforms into something expansive and often awe-inspiring even as it retains the intimacy that makes its opening scenes work so well. It's a great introduction to the work of Benson and Moorhead, a must-watch for cosmic horror fans, and a truly transcendent work of indie horror.
The Endless is now streaming on Peacock.
