Violent Ends Review: Redneck Revenge Thriller

Violent Ends takes the familial trusts and betrayals of a New York gangster movie and transports them to the seedy South for this tale of revenge and violence.

Violent Ends is set in Arkansas in 1992, where Lucas Frost (Billy Magnussen, of Road House) is an honest man raised in a crime family divided in two, with his father smuggling dope and his uncle smuggling cocaine. A power vacuum emerges when his father is thrown in prison, and a war begins to brew in the family.

Lucas is happily engaged to the love of his life, Emma (Alexandra Shipp, of Tick, Tick… BOOM!), and always looking out for his half-brother Tuck (Nick Stahl, of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) and his police deputy mother, Darlene (Kate Burton, of Dumb Money). His life is turned upside down when his cousins, Sid (James Badge Dale, of Only The Brave) and Eli (Jared Bankens, of Master Gardener), commit an armed robbery with violent consequences.

Magnussen is an often underutilised actor who has specialised in comedies and action-adventure films, always in a supporting role and consistently excelling beyond the material. He usually plays a lighthearted and fun character, with a warm smile and line delivery that borders on neurotic. Lucas Frost is the opposite of this and is a crucial character for Magnussen to demonstrate to Hollywood exactly what he can do when he isn’t confined to playing a quirky personality, especially when he is unleashed in a story that reeks of violence, anger, and despair. It’s a brilliant role, made all the more compelling by Magnussen’s performance. 

Physically larger than in any other role he’s taken before, with longer hair and a tidy beard, Magnussen looks quintessentially of this area and period. A salt-of-the-earth man who seemingly has everything he could want from life, free from his family’s crimes and the guilt that accompanies them. At the start of this film, he moves with such lightness that you feel he might simply float away, but, as with all revenge thrillers and gang stories, the dirt doesn’t wash off that easily, and one inciting incident is enough to pull him back in. This is a career-best performance from Magnussen and offers an exciting glimpse of what the future may hold for the rest of his career.

Violent Ends is based on real events and people from this time period and location where the filmmaker John-Michael Powell is from. He crafts a screenplay that feels authentic with a singular voice shining throughout. The first act has so much hope that you can’t help but dread the moment where everything comes crashing down. The second act is a little slow, with the pace brought right down through the different narrative threads being explored, but when the third act showdown happens, you are firmly placed on the edge of your seat. The family relationships and who’s related to who did get quite confusing; an overreliance on sticking to the true story might have made the dynamics more convoluted than they needed to be. But it’s a strong screenplay that utilises the setting well to create a fresh take on a well-trodden genre. 

This is only the third feature film cinematographer Elijah Guess has made in his career, yet the way this is shot seems incredibly fresh and assured. He captures this sparse, bloody Southern world in such an effective way that it might as well be the streets of New York. The sound design in the violent moments is incredibly effective, making a brutal stabbing scene that bit more visceral and terrifying. 

A gruesome and violent film that makes our family disagreements look like child’s play, Violent End takes a tired conceit and injects it with brilliant writing and a layered, career-best performance from Billy Magnussen. A bright future in big-budget action films should certainly be on the cards for the lead and the filmmaker Powell.

Violent Ends will be released in select US theatres on October 31, 2025.