I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020) — Fargo meets Get Out and chills with The Twilight Zone

With a cleverly misleading title that hides an eerie horror-fest and pop culture references that not only inform the dialogue but also foreshadow the events to come and their meaning, Charlie Kaufman’s adaptation of Iain Reid’s novel is probably his darkest film to date. Literally.

A simple enough premise — a young woman, played by Jessie Buckley, contemplates breaking up with her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) as they drive in the snow to his parents’ farmhouse — is turned on its head as the new form of horror takes center stage, with creepy twists along the way and an increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere, beautifully framed by cinematographer Lukasz Zal. The woman, who goes through several names, jobs and clothes, is caught in an impossible situation with her boyfriend’s parents, played by David Thewlis and Toni Collette, as they get more and more psychotic, in a house that threatens to close in on her at any moment… The usual tropes are all there and yet it somehow feels fresh, new and unexpected. Like any psychological thriller, I’m Thinking of Ending Things drops details for you to grab and hold onto to before posing questions and riddles. What on earth is up with those parents? And the phone calls? And the janitor? And, of course, what does it all mean?

Even without really explaining anything, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is fully self-aware without being self-conscious and one suspects people will be analyzing it for years to come.