Streaming Services There's More to a UFO Death Cult Than Meets the Eye in This Indie Cosmic Horror Gem With no jump scares and no gore, this puzzling scary movie will reward sci-fi fans who like to think. Peter Butler Managing Editor Peter is a writer and editor for the CNET How-To team. He has been covering technology, software, finance, sports and video games since working for @Home Network and Excite in the 1990s. Peter managed reviews and listings for Download.com during the 2000s, and is passionate about software and no-nonsense advice for creators, consumers and investors. Expertise 20 years of editorial experience with a focus on software and the internet Oct. 28, 2025 11:48 a.m. PT 3 min read Brothers Justin and Aaron joined Camp Arcadia after a car accident that killed their mother. Well Go USA Entertainment What if the "UFO death cult" you escaped from wasn't so bad after all? Brothers Aaron and Justin face that question head-on in the 2017 indie film The Endless, a sci-fi horror feature with a uniquely terrifying monster. It's currently streaming for free on Prime Video and Tubi . Dominating older brother Justin helped the two of them flee Camp Arcadia nearly 10 years ago, but their lives after the cult (or commune?) haven't worked out well. They clean apartments for a living and have few hobbies, fewer friends and no romantic opportunities. Justin makes decisions with an iron fist, and Aaron follows along dutifully. One day, a video from Camp Arcadia arrives on the brothers' doorstep, containing a message from one of its leaders, Anna. She explains that anyone visiting the camp now might find all of its residents missing because of "the ascension." Justin and Aaron find something unexpected at the bottom of Camp Arcadia's lake. Well Go USA Entertainment Justin believes the video is proof he saved himself and his brother from the cult right before a mass suicide event. Aaron, whose memories of the camp are warmer than Justin's, is surprised to learn that the camp members didn't already kill themselves. He wants to return to the camp to see what's happened. Justin reluctantly agrees to visit for one day and one night. As we follow the brothers' return to Camp Acadia and their encounters with the main residents — clean-cut yet enigmatic leader Hal, who's working on an inscrutable physics formula ; Anna, the woman in the video who's sweet on Aaron; and Tim, the burly, bitter, bearded beer brewer who keeps watch over a mysterious, locked shed — we soon realize that the area around the camp is extraordinary. Birds fly in weird formations, a strange man keeps walking angrily through the same stretch of road, and both brothers are shocked to see two moons in the sky at night. The transition from two moons in the sky to three is a major plot point in The Endless. Well Go USA Entertainment The strangest part is that all the camp members seem to have aged very little in the decade since the brothers left. Justin says that Anna must be in her 40s, yet she looks the same age as Aaron. And when asked about the video they received, Hal and Anna assure them that no one from camp sent them anything. Additional characters and clues pop up as the brothers fall deeper into the spell of Camp Arcadia, until the revelatory moment when all the puzzle pieces fall into place. While the residents of Camp Arcadia act happy with their circumstances, they also seem a bit trapped. Well Go USA Entertainment Writer/director Justin Benson stars as Justin, and cinematographer Aaron Moorhead (who looks like a cross between young Matthew Modine and Carey Elwes) plays Aaron. The film oozes dread throughout, with help from an eerie soundtrack by the Album Leaf (Jimmy LaValle), which includes a haunting cover of The House of the Rising Sun , featuring Emily Zuzik. The pacing and plotting in The Endless is fantastic — there are no slow scenes, and there's not even much time to think about answers to the riddles before a new character or clue arrives to disrupt the entire narrative. The Endless is ultimately about how the brothers' return to Camp Arcadia forces a change in their dysfunctional relationship, but it's the mystery surrounding the bizarre area and what or who is controlling the campers' lives that will keep you glued to the screen. When the end finally comes, it's big and bad, and a lot of fun. Services and Software Guides Source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/theres-more-to-a-ufo-death-cult-than-meets-the-eye-in-this-indie-cosmic-horror-gem/