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Peter Cilella’s Descendent opens at the intersection of manhood and the unknown: a Los Angeles school roof at midnight, where security guard Sean Bruner (Ross Marquand) encounters a burst of phosphorescent spheres. Written and directed by Cilella, the film threads psychological drama with low-key science fiction—what one might call “domesday domesticity”.

Sean is days away from becoming a father alongside his partner, Andrea (Sarah Bolger), whose calm assurance masks her own trepidation. Suddenly, a bright beam sends him tumbling into a hospital bed, brain bruised and memory fractured.

The film’s tone oscillates between tender family moments and moments of primal disquiet: a sudden savant-like talent for sketching alien forms, inexplicable whispers echoing through walls, and visions of reptilian eyes in strangers’ faces.

This is not a hunting-alien thriller (no quick kill-shots here), nor a straight marriage drama—Cilella suspends us between two realities. What begins as a...

When Richard Dreyfuss walked onto the Mothership at the end of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” it was just about the first time — and also nearly the last — that a movie hero voluntarily went on any such ride. More familiar notes of terror and disorientation come with the UFO territory of Peter Cilella’s “Descendent.” It has “The Walking Dead’s” Ross Marquand as a working-class Southern Californian whose world comes unglued once he suffers an apparent alien abduction. Occupying the slippery-reality realm of “Jacob’s Ladder,” this effective first feature, debuting at SXSW, limns its protagonist’s unraveling with suspenseful skill.

But those expecting straightforward sci-fi horror may resent the writer-director’s insistence on sticking to an ambiguity, played somewhere between the narrative models of “Communion” and “Mysterious Skin.” Cilella never fully resolves whether our protagonist is, indeed, the victim of extraterrestrial meddling or instead suffering delusions triggered by delayed childhood-trauma memories,...

This year’s SXSW Film Festival, taking place in Austin, TX, has unveiled its lineup this afternoon and it’s another insanely packed year for horror premieres.

While the Midnighter section is dedicated to the genre lovers, SXSW 2025 has filled its Headliner section and beyond with buzzy, highly anticipated titles including Flying Lotus‘s sci-fi horror movie Ash, Christopher Landon‘s ode to Brian De Palma in Drop, and A24’s Death of a Unicorn. Also look for Clown in a Cornfield, the film adaptation of Adam Cesare’s YA slasher novel.

Read on for the genre titles included in SXSW 2025’s lineup, and stay tuned for additional programming announcements.

Headliner

Big names, big talent featuring red carpet premieres and gala film events with major and rising names in cinema.

Ash

Director: Flying Lotus, Producers: Nate Bolotin, Matthew Metcalfe, Screenwriter: Jonni Remmler

A woman wakes up on a distant planet...

"If my child were evil, would you kill it?" Freestyle Digital Media has released an official trailer for an indie film titled The Believer, from filmmaker Shan Serafin. This horror-thriller hasn't shown up at any festivals or elsewhere and is getting a VOD release next month. Not to be confused with the 2001 skinheads film also titled The Believer, this indie isn't getting much of a big opening. Serafin's The Believer is a psychological thriller involving demonology within the context of marital strife. A scientist attempts to consult a therapist for help with his wife's increasingly bizarre and erratic behavior. But they eventually discover she might be possessed, or something like that. Gaslighting: The Movie, anyone? The cast includes Sophie Kargman as Violet, with Aidan Bristow, Susan Wilder, Lindsey Ginter, and Billy Zane. So many strange things going on in this trailer, but there's not enough Billy Zane in here to...