Neon Buys Gen Z Road Thriller ‘It Ends’ Following SXSW Debut (EXCLUSIVE)
Neon, the Oscar-winning studio behind “Parasite” and “Anora,” has acquired worldwide rights to “It Ends.” The thriller follows a group of recent grads whose post-college plans are derailed after they turn onto a never-ending backroad. “It Ends” marks Alexander Ullom’s directorial debut and stars Mitchell Cole, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth, and Phinehas Yoon.
The movie premiered in competition to critical acclaim at SXSW 2025. In a rave review, Variety described the film as “Jean-Paul Sartre with a Gen Z spin,” calling it “a hangout horror movie rife with existential anxieties that cinema and television have been wrestling with since their inception — from Luis Buñuel to ‘The Good Place’ — and which philosophers have pondered for much longer.”
Neon will release the film theatrically in 2026. “It Ends” is produced by Carrie Carusone and Evan Barber along with production companies Above .330, Aymara Films, Please Hold Pictures, and Snoot Entertainment. Snoot’s Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder serve as executive producers.
Ullom, who also wrote the film, was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2024. “It Ends” went on to receive the Best First Feature Award at the Fantasia Film Festival and is featured as one of the launch titles on the Letterboxd Video Store in the Unreleased Gems shelf. Ullom’s next feature horror film, “4×4: The Event,” was recently announced to be produced by Spooky Pictures and Image Nation after a competitive bidding process.
Ullom, Carusone, and Barber’s DIY took a novel and resourceful approach to the historically scrappy world of independent filmmaking. For “It Ends” that involved an early investor coming on board after a VR poker game with Ullom, the cast being sourced from Instagram, and the on set production being made up entirely of Gen Z crew.
The deal was negotiated by Neon’s VP of Acquisitions Sarah Colvin and Jessica Lacy of Range Media Partners on behalf of the filmmakers.
Heading into awards season, Neon recently received 21 Golden Globe nominations, the most of any motion picture studio this year. The nominations recognized Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value”; Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner, “It Was Just An Accident”; Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent”; Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât”; Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice”; and Ugo Bienvenu’s “Arco.” Five of these films have also been selected by their home countries as official selections for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th Academy Awards.
Neon’s 2026 slate of upcoming releases include Matt Johnson’s “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie”; Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers”; and Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters,” which is set to open SXSW this year.
