What a year it has been for first time feature filmmakers at SXSW. Back in 2019, Caleb J. Phillips took home the Midnight Shorts Jury Award for his horror film “Other Side of the Box”, he returns to the fest this time with a feature that stays with the near genre but this time plays more with the tools of science fiction in the twisty, unpredictable thriller Imposters.
A young couple with a new baby has made the move out of the city to get a fresh start after husband Paul (Charlie Barnett) was shot in the line of duty as a NY police officer. His wife Marie (Jessica Rothe) wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about the decision, but she wanted to give them a fighting chance after the trauma of his injury changed their relationship for the worst.
In the midst of their son’s first birthday party that is as much about ingratiating themselves to their new neighbors as it is celebrating their boy, the child goes missing with no explanation or clue as to who or how it happened. While the local sheriff (Yul Vazquez) promises he’s doing everything he can, potential help comes from another unlikely source; down on his luck local, Orson (Bates Wilder) with a story to tell. Orson was an immediate suspect as he seemed to have been stalking the couple, but he tells them a tale of a cave in the woods where they might start looking, and Marie is desperate enough to listen.
Two weeks after the disappearance, frustrated and terrified, the couple find the spot and Paul refuses to take part in this wild goose chase. Marie, on the other hand has nothing left to lose and takes off into the darkness. Paul heads back home and a short while later his wife reappears, baby in hand, but something’s not quite right. Things aren’t quite adding up, Marie has an injury she can’t explain, she won’t talk about what went on in the cave, and that baby just seems wrong. What follows is a bizarre story of parallel realities, revenge, retribution, and the lengths to which grief can send a parent already on the edge.
Phillips does an excellent job building suspense and tension in the first two acts. Paul and Marie’s marriage already seemed beyond saving by the time we enter their story. Paul had slipped into the arms of another woman, and Marie had shut down emotionally to the point that both of them were just there for the baby – a formula that never works. But, when their child’s return puts new life into Marie, Paul begins to notice little things that don’t match the woman he once loved. Instead of feeling the joy of reunion with his wife and child, he spends most of his time picking apart little inconsistencies that he can’t quite seem to square with his reality.
Police Chief Reid provides some helpful overview of the town and its quirks and background on Orson, all of which – in combination with Marie’s off kilter behavior – to Paul’s decision to find out what exactly is in that cave and what happened to his wife and child. So begins a third act that unravels a set of interdimensional set pieces Phillips deftly executes in such a way to draw the viewer in to a whirlwind of revelations that get stranger and stranger as the film approaches its unexpected conclusion.
While Paul is the central protagonist of the film for the first hour, in the conclusion it is one hundred percent the Marie show. After breakout roles in Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2 U, Rothe has claimed a crown as one of genre film’s most reliable and enjoyable stars. Imposters finds her back in that mode, delivering a grief-driven feral performance in the third act that reminds us why we love her so much. She exudes the pain of love and loss through layers of blood and repeated moments of tragedy in a way that is never less that spellbinding.
SXSW has become a showcase for adventurous science fiction over the last decade, with films like last year’s Redux Redux blasting its way into the public consciousness and Imposters carries that flag proudly into the 2026 festival season. Every time you think you know exactly where Imposters is going, it defiantly defies expectation, zigging where you think it’s going to zag, keeping the audience on the edge of its seat, hoping against hope for a happy ending that seems almost impossible. In a strong year, Imposters is one of the strongest of the Midnighters section, and Jessica Rothe more than earns her stripes as a force to be reckoned with in one of her most powerful performances to date.