If nothing else, The End scores points for originality. After all, how many post-apocalyptic underground bunker musical dramas can you name? Unfortunately, the novelty and intrigue of the premise doesn’t really live up to the execution in this feature.

Set 25 years after mass environmental collapse left Earth’s surface uninhabitable, The End centers around a family of three: Mother (Tilda Swinton), Father (Michael Shannon), and bunker-born Son (George MacKay). Thanks to Father’s fossil fuels fortune, the trio have survived the apocalypse, living in comfort underground alongside a select few who know how to make themselves useful (a butler, a chef, and a doctor). Their home is as luxurious as an underground apocalypse bunker can be, complete with fine art covered walls, a swimming pool, a greenhouse, and more. 

However, the family’s would-be idyllic existence changes at the arrival of a stranger (Moses Ingram), who not only shakes up their routine, but stirs up long-repressed feelings and tensions among the group.

Now if you — like me — heard the premise of The End and anticipated a story full of dark, offbeat comedy… well, prepare for disappointment. The End is very earnestly a capital D-Drama, leaning much more into the emotional tensions of the family than the strangeness of their situation. 

And in a better film, this approach would work. The actors here certainly give it their all; one thing I can’t fault The End is its performances. Shannon and Swinton serve up two people so intent on burying their pasts you can practically see their emotional walls; Ingram shines as the outsider, walking the tightrope between her true self and the act she must put on to please her captors-turned-family; MacKay makes Son just strange and off-putting enough that you really believe this guy has never existed in the outside world.

But despite the actors’ best efforts, the story nearly always feels flat. Just when you think you’re peeling back the layers of one character, the movie abruptly switches gears. It leaves all of the characters feeling underexplored, which doesn’t work well in a film that hinges entirely on those characters’ inner worlds. To make matters worse, it’s not like The End simply doesn’t allow enough time to explore its ensemble; the film clocks in at two and half hours, and it’s the kind of movie where you really feel every minute.

As a cinematic experience and an art form, The End does make an effort. For a feature set entirely underground, there’s a fair diversity of setpieces. Director Joshua Oppenheimer delivers a few solid visuals and moments of interesting camera work, like during the scene when the family chases Ingram around their home, or in a musical number with MacKay dancing around in the dusty underground. Still, The End is not the kind of visual spectacular that a viewer can find themselves enthralled in for hours.

Finally, we come to the musical aspect. Now, I am a staunch lover of musicals. I’ve never understood people who complain about them, decry they’re “unrealistic” or describe cringing every time they hear the opening notes of the next number ramping up. That said, for the first time in my life, The End had me feeling that twinge of annoyance at the shifting of the score. 

The film features a swelling orchestral score, which can prove a cinematic treat at times. But the songs in the film are, by and large, just not good. There’s almost no musical diversity here. Every additional number feels like a repetition of the previous tune — in style, in story function, in emotion — until they all mush together in a bland tableau about as interesting as bunker dust. Ugh, they’re singing again, I found myself thinking while watching The End, like some sort of certified musical hater. That’s not who I am. Why would The End do this to me?

Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon in The End

Ultimately, watching The End feels a lot like being trapped indefinitely in an underground apocalypse bunker. Moments of light shine through, but you’re going to spend most of the time wishing you were literally anywhere else.

The End premieres in theaters December 6.