The reason why the 28-year-old filmmaker looks “like a fuckin’ mess,” as he puts it, is because he wrapped principal photography on his sophomore movie, “4 x 4: The Event” — which he describes as “balls-to-the-wall gore and violence” — two days ago, jetted to Los Angeles and was parachuted into a press day for his debut feature, “It Ends.” And what a stunning debut it is. When the road is suddenly blocked by a copse of trees, the group believes they may have taken a wrong turn, prompting Tyler to exit the vehicle and investigate, thereby attracting a ferocious mob of people who attack the car, mangling Fisher’s arm in the process. The quartet manages to escape by the skin of their teeth only to realize that they may be, in true Talking Heads fashion, on a road to nowhere.
Have they entered another realm? Or are they dead and this is some cruel form of purgatory? Ullom, exhibiting directorial prowess far beyond his years, keeps audiences on the edge of their seat as these youngsters barrel down a seemingly endless road.
And Ullom’s film’s journey to theaters was a labyrinthine one as well. After receiving critical raves following its SXSW premiere in March of 2025, the film failed to attract any distributors and was, according to Ullom, “dead in the water.” He was ready to throw in the towel and upload it to YouTube when a chance encounter with filmmaker and movie influencer Nicolas Curcio led to him discussing it online, which was seen by the CEO of Letterboxd, who swooped in and agreed to showcase it as one of the first releases in their Letterboxd Video Store for undistributed movies, which then caught the eye of Neon, who picked it up and were so impressed by Ullom and his first feature, which was shot for only $80,000, that they also agreed to distribute his next film, “4 x 4: The Event,” billed as “‘Battle Royale’ meets ‘Saw’ meets ‘Climax.’” To promote “It Ends,” Neon has hatched an Endless Screening challenge where four-person teams compete in a 36-hour marathon screening of the film at NYC’s Metro Private Cinema — so about 25 consecutive showings of the movie — to be the “Last Person Standing.” The rules dictate that “each group member will receive 25 cents for every minute they remain in the competition, up to $540 a person,” and “if every member of the group makes it through the entire 36-hour marathon, each wins an additional $500.” Participants also get “a $250 theater credit toward concessions during the marathon (excluding alcohol)” and there are “designated breaks.” Ullom spoke with Variety about his promising first film, the new crop of young horror filmmakers he’s now a part of, including Curry Barker (“Obsession”) and Kane Parsons (“Backrooms”), and much more. First press day, so, you know, I’m getting used to it!
I think it came from two different places. I was 21 years old when I started writing it [in late 2019], and I was articulating things from a much more physiological place and my own rough transition to adulthood mental health-wise. I was really going through it at the time and thinking, “Is this the rest of adulthood?” But as I got older, I realized there are more downtrodden effects from structural issues — the fact that the tentpoles of normal adult structure had disappeared and it’s not going to be buying a house, the nuclear family or religion, all these things that used to be the destination for a young person.
I was feeling aimless and lost and felt, “This might just be what the rest of it is like.” Luckily, it was not. Also, I was in a lot of the “Backrooms” threads very early on. I wish I had a less pretentious reason for, “Why an endless road and why a car?” but it just popped in [my head] one day, and the theme came from what I was going through.
Subconsciously like I didn’t fully rip it off? I love that scene and love that movie! I didn’t even know what that was at the time, but I’m more than grateful that anyone is comparing it to anything.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
