In The Endless, filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead play two brothers—also named Justin and Aaron—who were raised by a UFO death cult. So growing up wasn’t particularly pleasant, as the cult believes in mass suicide and an impending rapture by an extraterrestrial force. While Justin and Aaron have since escaped and been deprogrammed, life in the outside world isn’t that great, either—they’re house cleaners sharing a studio apartment in LA. The younger Aaron longs to return to “the commune,” and when they receive a mysterious videotape from a cult member, Aaron convinces Justin to return for a weekend visit.

Things do seem pretty great at Camp Arcadia: nobody ever ages, they homebrew delicious beer, and the vibe seems fairly chill, despite the whole UFO death cult thing. But there’s a strange presence rustling around the oak trees and spooking Justin. Things only get stranger when The Endless shifts its POV to this mysterious being that drops “signs” from the sky and seems to watch over the cult like some kind of god. Its constant gaze—and periodic tearing of the fabric of space-time—forces both the brothers and The Endless’ viewers to question whether the cult members are simply quirky hippies or if there’s some validity to their apocalyptic beliefs.

The Endless feels like one graceful, continuous spiral, with optical illusions and death-defying phenomena adding to the uncertain buzz in the air. It’s breathtaking to behold—the visuals alone are enough reason to go see it on a big screen, especially for the panoramic shots of the yellowed Southern Californian countryside. The film straddles the genres of sci-fi, psychological thriller, and horror, but most of its terror stems from one question: Is something always watching us and manipulating our world? Like a darker, weirder The Truman Show, the unraveling reality of The Endless offers both genuine scares and thoughtful ruminations on the human condition.