Violent Ends

Violent Ends is a 2025 thriller written and directed by North Little Rock (Pulaski County) native John-Michael Powell. The movie was released in select U.S. theaters on October 31, 2025, by Independent Film Company (IFC).

The film is set in a fictional, impoverished Ozark town and stars Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods, Aladdin) as Lucas Frost, Nick Stahl (Man Without a Face, Thin Red Line, Sin City) as Lucas’s brother, James Badge Dale (24, The Departed) as Lucas’s cousin, Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse, Straight Outta Compton, Barbie) as Lucas’s fiancée, and Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal; daughter of actor Richard Burton) as Lucas’s mother. The film was produced by Vincent Sieber-Smith and Undine Buka.

Violent Ends follows Lucas as he seeks to break from his family’s drug-fueled criminal empire to live an honest life with his fiancée, who is killed in a botched robbery. Lucas drags his brother and mother deeper into the Frost family drama and violence, which grows more gruesome as the plot progresses.

Violent Ends was filmed on location throughout northwestern Arkansas, including Greenland (Washington County), Rogers (Benton County), Van Buren (Crawford County), War Eagle (Benton County), and Lincoln (Washington County) from October to November 2023. The estimated production budget was $2 million. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $185,131.

Since the film is set in the 1990s, Powell and his crew, including production designer Christian Snell and costume designer Kristen Kopp, found cars and other items from the early 1990s to use in the production.

Violent Ends is the second feature film by Powell, who is the great-nephew of Warner Bros. star Dick Powell, originally of Mountain View (Stone County). The elder Powell moved on to directing after an early career starring in musicals and detective films. Notably, he directed The Conqueror in 1956, which was co-produced by Howard Hughes and starred John Wayne as Genghis Khan. John-Michael Powell said he never met his great-uncle in person but was fascinated by his career.

The younger Powell, whose early Hollywood credits include editor spots on the television shows Dear White People and It Happened in L.A., released his debut feature film The Send-Off in 2022. The film won the audience award at fellow Arkansan Jeff Nichols’s film festival Filmland in 2023, earning Powell a Panavision New Filmmakers grant to go toward the making of Violent Ends.

In an interview with the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Powell said the original title for Violent Ends was The Killing Kind, but a friend of his worked on a British television show by the same name that was released before he finished his script. Powell’s mother-in-law suggested the name Violent Ends, based on the quote by Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet: “These violent delights have violent ends.” Powell decided the name was more fitting because he wanted the violence in the film to leave a pit in the viewer’s stomach. As a longtime fan of westerns, he aimed to create complicated characters whose actions did not glorify violence, calling Violent Ends an anti-western.

He also sought to create Arkansan characters who did not lend themselves to stereotypes of barefoot hillbillies or bootleggers, even though his characters were deeply involved in selling and distributing cocaine and methamphetamines.

According to The Numbers, an online film industry data website that tracks box office revenue, Violent Ends brought in $117,813 in its opening weekend and remained in theaters for approximately two weeks.

For additional information:
Earl, William. “‘Violent Ends’: How John-Michael Powell’s Southern Thriller Without ‘Redneck Yokel Stereotypes’ Depicts the ‘Cyclical Nature of Violence’ through a Bloody Family Feud.” Variety, October 31, 2025. https://variety.com/2025/film/features/violent-ends-southern-redneck-yokel-stereotypes-1236552104/ (accessed March 24, 2026).

Ford, Kody. “John-Michael Powell on Filmmaking and His Latest VIOLENT ENDS.” Idle Class, October 24, 2025. http://idleclassmag.com/john-michael-powell-filmmaking-latest-violent-ends/ (accessed March 24, 2026).

Grear, Daniel. “NLR Native John-Michael Powell’s Film ‘Violent Ends’ Hits Theaters Friday.” Arkansas Times, October 29, 2025. https://arktimes.com/rock-candy/2025/10/29/nlr-native-john-michael-powells-film-violent-ends-hits-theaters-friday (accessed March 24, 2026).

Hooper, Monica. “‘These violent delights…’ Director and Writer John-Micheal Powell Sets Gripping Crime drama in the Ozarks.” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, October 25, 2025. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2025/oct/25/these-violent-delights/ (accessed March 24, 2026).

Violent Ends. https://www.violentends.movie/ (accessed March 24, 2026).

“Violent Ends.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6902560/ (accessed March 24, 2026).

Vorel, Jim. “This Southern Crime Thriller Reaches Gruesome, Engrossingly Violent Ends.” Paste, October 28, 2025. https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/billy-magnussen/violent-ends-2025-review-billy-magnussen-james-badge-dale-crime-thriller-southern-arkansas (accessed March 24, 2026).

Monica Hooper
Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette