Tribeca 2017 Interview: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead & David Lawson Jr. Talk THE ENDLESS

One of my favorite indie horror movies of the last five years is Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Resolution, a genre-bending effort that’s so confidently unique that it’s become a film I’ve recommended countless times to friends and family, whether they dig horror movies or not, and even programmed it as part of the film fest I used to run out here in Los Angeles, just because I wanted folks to have a chance to see it on a big screen (which doesn’t often happen for a lot of lower-budgeted genre fare).

A few years ago, their Lovecraftian love story Spring knocked my socks off, and I enjoyed their contribution to V/H/S: Viral as well, but nothing could have prepared me for my viewing experience while watching their latest movie, The Endless. About five minutes in, I got absolutely giddy once I realized Moorhead and Benson were reprising their roles first introduced in Resolution, and then about 45 minutes later, once everything came together and you could see the throughlines between The Endless and Resolution, I absolutely lost my mind. What an incredible treat, particularly for those of us who fell in love with this universe that Benson and Moorhead first established back in 2012.

With The Endless recently celebrating its world premiere at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, Daily Dead had the opportunity to speak with both Moorhead and Benson, as well as with producer/co-star David J. Lawson (who also returns as his character from Resolution) about their experiences collaborating together on yet another genre-defying project, and more (I’ve made sure this is spoiler-free for those who are interested in seeing the mysteries contained within The Endless for themselves).

So, this was the procession of me watching the movie yesterday: five minutes in, I was like, "Huh, this is a really interesting coincidence," once I realized you guys were playing the characters from Resolution. And I was like, "Wow, that's sort of a fun little nod." Then, about 40 minutes in, there’s another prominent moment that happens, and I was like, "Well, okay. What the hell is going on?" And when I hit the 55 minutes in mark, I actually had to pause the movie, and in my room by myself, I exclaimed loudly, "Holy shit." So, first of all, congratulations. And thank you. This was an amazing experience.

Aaron Moorhead: Oh, thank you. You know, In the development of the script and getting feedback from readers and getting feedback on edits of the movie, a big thing we were just trying to make sure of was that, as inspired as we were by this little movie we made five years ago, I think we did our best work because we were inspired by that movie and that world. And it was so fun doing it. It was perfect continuity between two movies, really, so we were careful to make sure that if someone hasn't seen this little movie we made five or six ago, they would enjoy it just as much as the person who has.

But it's really interesting, because there’s a scene in particular that seems to be one of the places where people who had seen Resolution have freaked out over, where they’re like, "Oh my God, I can't believe this. It's so fun." It's also the scene where people who have no idea that a movie exists called Resolution, where they have walked out of the theater here at Tribeca and have come up to us and said, "Guys, I enjoyed that. I especially liked that scene,” and it warms our hearts. People experience movies in different ways, and what’s been great is that folks have been responding to The Endless whether they're familiar with that world or not.

Justin Benson: I'm actually really excited for and jealous of the people that walked out, never having heard of Resolution, and you can just whisper to them, "You know, there's a whole other movie about this world."

Aaron Moorhead: And actually, I remember when we sent the script to Dave, Dave said—and we were hoping that this was true—so I’m very glad that it came true, but genuinely, he said, "You know who's gonna love this? Heather's gonna love this." Because you've been such a big supporter of Resolution [laughs].

Well, what's really great about Resolution, and also this film, is that there are so many interesting themes that you guys play with, in terms of dealing with fear and dealing with family and dealing with what life is supposed to be, versus what it is. It's not uncommon to see genre films take on these ideas, but I'd love to hear a little bit about digging deeper. Because when you're watching something like Resolution, the idea of a resolution itself, it just means that something ends, but really, something else is beginning.  

And now, with The Endless and the way that you guys expanded upon those ideas, it's really ingenious. I'd love to hear about revisiting those themes and infusing them into this story about brothers who have to come to terms with their own relationship.

Aaron Moorhead: There's this point in Resolution where Chris and Mike are apologizing to each other and Chris says, "I'm sorry I'm not this imaginary guy that you think I am." And that starts to bring resolution to their conflict and their relationship.

And that idea was actually pulled into The Endless in many ways, where you—in any relationship, but a sibling relationship in particular—where you basically require unconditional love. Would those people be friends if they weren't related to each other? That's kind of a big sibling question, where you just have to accept someone's autonomy, whether or not you think that they've earned it.

So, that idea, when it comes to siblinghood, or even just general relationships, mutual respect of other people was what we really wanted to delve into, and that was actually one thing we were trying to do in terms of being in the movie and exploring ourselves, if that makes any goddamn sense.

Justin Benson: Yeah, I have siblings, but they're like seven years and eleven years older than I am, so we don't have that kind of relationship that the characters Justin and Aaron had in the movie. But I just watched friends that had siblings that they're closer to in age, or just by circumstance, and they've had to spend more time together and be around each other more. I've always been fascinated by watching that, because to me, it's an emotionally fascinating thing to see these people who don't express themselves to each other. You almost never see it. But if there's a death in the family or something like that, then it just comes pouring out. It's really fascinating, and I think that it works really well in the narrative. It gives you a really great third act.

I felt like you guys really raised the bar with what you were able to achieve with Resolution, and I know you didn’t have a huge budget to fall back on. With The Endless, did you look at what you were able to accomplish with that first film and figure out ways in which you could raise the bar again here visually?

Justin Benson: Well, one boring answer is that we've gotten better. We've become better visual storytellers. There's not very much jazz on our sets, not much improvisation, either. We work from a locked script. Aaron and I, before we get to the set, we sit around the room and we shot list for days on end, and we figure out how we're going to tell the story visually. We should get better at it with every movie. I hope we do. And I feel like we did this time.

David Lawson Jr.: You could put all three movies side by side and arrange them however you want, and you can tell the progression of the filmmakers, which I think is an important thing. Because every job, you should be better at it the more you do it. If you're not, I'm really confused why you're doing it at all. So, I think the same can be said for filmmaking. You should get better. You might get different toys and better toys or less toys, but you should get better as a filmmaker. You should be able to see that progression on screen.

Aaron Moorhead: Yeah, specifically with the visual spectacle aspects of it. One is the mythology ends up lending itself to it, as you can see on the page, when you watch a movie, but also, it can be as simple as working to your strengths. I remember I got a text from Justin as he was writing it. He was like, "Hey, can you, like, name some visual effects that you're really good at that are pretty simple?" So I just wrote a list of ten that I thought of that were still in the same realm of the story we had been talking about, and then we just made sure to integrate those.

David Lawson Jr.: I will say this: one of the fun things about working with Justin and Aaron is that they're constantly pushing each other and themselves to get better. That’s been so fun for me to watch.

Now that you've sort of opened this can of worms again, and done it successfully, do you feel like this is a universe you guys would be interested in exploring again down the road? Have you even thought about that at all, or has the focus been squarely on this story for now?

Justin Benson: There's a really weird thing for Aaron and I and Dave, where we just keep thinking about this world, and keep telling stories from that world and that universe. It’s just something that we can't stop talking about and thinking about and writing.

There's stuff cut from this script, and there are characters from that universe that exist, even now, that we had to cut for reasons of pacing, or we could accomplish that information in another scene and stuff like that. But they're out there. These stories, they're there, and they're ready to be told. And, if nothing else, we'll keep talking about it among ourselves.

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Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more special features on the Tribeca Film Festival 2017, and, in case you missed it, catch up on our previous coverage, as well as a clip and promo video for The Endless.