SXSW: ‘Descendent (2025)’ Feels Half-Baked

When the names Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead show up in the producer’s credits, that’s as good a seal of quality as any. Or, at least, it usually is. Descendent (2025), a science fiction drama written/directed by Peter Cilella, marks a break from that sort of quality that Benson/Moorhead’s involvement lent to films like She Dies Tomorrow and Things Will Be Different. Descendent is far from a bad film, but a heavy focus on the fears of fatherhood against a severely underdeveloped alien abduction plot leaves the picture feeling incomplete.

Sean Bruner (Ross Marquand) works as a school security guard to provide for his pregnant wife, Andrea (Sarah Bolger). His forthcoming child casts a cloud over his day-to-day work as he attempts to reckon with an unspoken trauma regarding his own father’s death. When a late-night call draws him to the school, Bruner is blinded by a white light in the sky. Returning with little memory of what happened, Bruner is shaken by whatever did occur, leading to him acquiring a sort of supersonic hearing as well as the compulsion to draw images of extraterrestrials and various random landscapes.

Ross Marquand is easily the best thing about Descendent (2025). The Walking Dead and Avengers: Infinity War actor doesn’t overdo the unraveling of Sean Bruner. Furthermore, Sean falls apart in a recognizable way, trying to guard what’s happening inside of him until it’s too late. Conversely, Peter Cilella treats the unresolved guilt and despair that Peter feels over the loss of his father with the extreme sensitivity needed for this sort of story. If Descendent (2025) were a drama only about the fear of bringing a child into this world when you were missing a crucial parental figure throughout your life, it’d be a much stronger film.

There connection between the alien storyline and Sean’s breakdown is tenuous in Descendent (2025).

It’s Peter Cilella’s ambitions to use an alien storyline to convey this story that makes the film less than the sum of its parts. The initial abduction scene is as horrifying as it needs to be, letting vague flashes of the aliens come through a confusing haze that feels like a simulation of being abducted.

The problem is that, following that initial scene, it seems as though that abduction was meant only to give an excuse for the unspooling of Sean’s mental state. There’s not a real satisfying return to this element of the movie, it’s a jumping off point that functions purely as a genre bait-and-switch.

Throughout, the movie still maintains a certain level of technical merit. The sound design for Sean’s super hearing is a neat baby monitor-like effect. Director of Photography Alexander Chinnici shoots striking naturalistic images. Tyler Strickland brings the mood with his score.

Above all else, the visceral, spiraling loneliness of Sean comes through, and on the aesthetic level, the blending of science fiction with humanist drama on a tonal level feels seamless. None of this, however, can make up for Peter Cilella’s screenplay’s inability to thread the needle between the two genres.

Descendent (2025) is the kind of film you want to love. It’s deeply felt, genuine stuff. Telling this story from the lens of science fiction ultimately dulls its effectiveness. For all that Ross Marquand throws into the role, it fails to make good on telling a story that properly serves the extraterrestrial component of its plot.

The term “elevated horror” has been used to describe horror movies that prioritize themes over fear. While this can be used as a compliment, it can also be seen as watering down the genre it’s ostensibly playing in. By that trade, Descendent (2025), unfortunately, feels like a case of “elevated science fiction.”

Descendent (2025) premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival on March 10. There is currently no information regarding its future distribution.