Do you walk out of The Long Walk saying, “Yeah, I really loved that. I can’t wait to re-watch it,” with a smile on your face? Or do you walk out saying, “Hey, that was really good, but should we go to the bar and drink after that?” I really did like The Long Walk. By the time I walked out, I was a bit exhausted—in a good way. The same way I felt by the end of Smile 2. There’s nothing quite like a flat-out mean film. I’m incredibly glad this was produced and marketed so heavily without being watered down for a general audience, without playing it “safe.” Looking at you, Last Night in Soho.

How do you make a film where you just walk and walk and walk continually interesting? Well, you get Cooper Hoffman (Raymond Garraty) and David Jonsson (Peter McVries) as the two main characters, for one. Not to dismiss the rest of the cast, because they’re all very good too. It’s been great to see the rise of Cooper Hoffman over the years—he’s really a natural. What a guy. And David Jonsson? Whoa. Jonsson’s got the juice. Personally, seeing him in HBO’s Industry when that came out, then Alien: Romulus (sorry, Rye Lane, you’re on the watchlist), and now The Long Walk–he’s got a monumental career ahead of him.

The Long Walk is pretty unflinching when it comes to its brutal nature. Young men written with charisma and fondness are killed off, brutally, with many of the deaths put front and center. The plots and backstories provided only intensify the weight of it all. Each mile walked feels hefty, knowing all the side characters will eventually be killed. From the start, you know Hoffman and Jonsson are the leads, so yes—they’re going to be the ones left. Which just sucks, because every mile that passes makes it all the more inevitable.

Stephen King wrote The Long Walk during the Vietnam War, which naturally serves as a massive backdrop for the film. Several young men from across the United States come together without knowing each other, establish friendships, learn to care for one another, and slowly—one by one—watch as each dies. They are left psychologically scarred for the rest of their lives and given very little in return.

McVries, in the film, encapsulates it all. After everything he’s been through, witnessed, and sacrificed, he gets nothing. He becomes the broken piece he never wanted Garraty to become. Nobody congratulates him or supports him in the end. Watched on television by millions, he’s left only with his own decisions and actions that brought him here—only to walk off into the distance now that it’s over.

Directed by: Francis Lawrence

Written by: JT Mollner

Cast: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill