SXSW 2025 Review: DESCENDENT, A Father-to-Be's Alien Abduction Exposes Male Anxieties

One night while on patrol at his job as late-night security for an elementary school, soon-to-be father Sean (Ross Marquand) spots strange floating lights in the sky. As they flit around, he marvels, then when he goes to change a flickering bulb, he suddenly finds himself inside what appears to be an alien ship, strapped to a table, bound by a gauzy weblike substance as unknown entities study him. Next thing he knows he’s in the hospital being told that he fell from the roof of the school and is suffering from a traumatic brain injury. But Sean knows what he saw, and it will haunt him until he figures it all out.

In Peter Cilella’s Descendent, the anxiety of impending fatherhood is explored through the trauma of alien abduction. Sean’s fears about the ways in which his life is about to change are externalized through an overwhelming sense of being separated from control over his own life. His new life awaits, but a traumatic past threatens to throw a monkey wrench into his future. He’s the only one who can save himself, but can he defeat these demons from within and without to do it before he inflicts his own damage on his child?

There are oceans of fears inherent in parenthood, especially when it comes to that first child. For Sean and his wife Andrea (Sarah Bolger), the excitement is palpable, they want desperately to be ready for this, but there are things in Sean’s past that have shaped the man he is that he tries to hide from the world. A mother who died in childbirth, and a father who died by suicide a few years later have understandably left a mark on him that he is terrified of visiting upon his unborn child. Can he be a good father when he doesn’t even know what that looks like?

One of several films exploring the uniquely complex psychology of men in transition between phases of life, Descendent utilizes the powerlessness created by alien abduction to talk about the ways in which men often force themselves to compartmentalize and sublimate their own emotions to present outwardly as masculine. Sean’s abduction trauma results in a new ability to draw and sketch at an advanced level, allowing him the facility to express his inner thoughts and fears through art. In the world of the film this results is lots of sketches of aliens, but it also provides him an outlet to share what’s going on inside his panicked mind.

Andrea, meanwhile, is now compelled to not only care for herself and the new life she’s nurturing, but also care for a husband who now has thirty-plus years of parental trauma suddenly surging to the front of his mind. While supportive and empathetic, she is also filled with anxiety? “You don’t think I’m terrified?”, she asks Sean as he desperately attempts to regain his composure. It’s a give and take that not only gives space to the father to experience his feelings, but also acknowledges that his feelings are not the only ones in play.

Produced by the team at Rustic Films – David Lawson, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson – Descendent is the latest film from this crew to land at SXSW after last year’s time-bending brother-sister heist thriller, Things Will Be Different, and it marks a bit of a change from Rustic’s usual projects. Director Cilella has a long history with Rustic, appearing as an actor as far back as Benson and Moorhead’s first feature, Resolution; Descendent is his debut feature, and it’s absolutely full of ideas, if only it can find the right audiences to process them.

Strong performances from Marquand and Bolger buoy this strong sci-fi allegory that tackles the oft-ignored subject of men’s mental health smartly, and with enough thrills to sate Rustic fans. Cilella’s script and direction are unusually assured for a first-time filmmaker and Descendent is sure to find an appreciative audience as it makes its way out into the world. This is a solid debut from a Rustic team that is determined to shepherd new talent into the genre film space every chance they get, definitely a winner.