Descendent (Peter Cilella, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars
Sean, played by The Walking Dead’s Ross Marquand, and his wife, Andrea (Sarah Bolger, Things Will Be Different) await the arrival of their first child. As Sean struggles to meet his own standards of being a reliable provider and avoiding the unsolicited advice of family members, he is met with his next obstacle: alien abduction. Aliens rarely represent just themselves in this kind of story. You can think of them as a blank slate of sorts for whatever message or theme the artist wants to interrogate for 90 minutes.
Ambiguity is the name of the game for first-time feature writer/director Peter Cilella. The story of Descendent never resolves and that will understandably annoy a lot of viewers. The aliens in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds aren’t just aliens, they represent the horrors of British imperialism. E.T. in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial isn’t just a cute little creature. He’s a physical representation of the child Elliott’s absent father and his need for a genuine connection.
Cilella’s choice to leave the story unresolved creates a string of incredible psychological tension; however, it does dissipate after a while. The film’s visual style is not particularly flashy despite being in the alien sub-genre of science fiction. Often there can be a battle for the viewer’s attention span between the cerebral story and its grounded images.
Descendent uses its common tropes to reveal the hidden fragility of humanity. Marquand’s performance is brilliant in how it keeps his character’s faults and fears constantly present, even with no dialogue. Cilella’s approach—keeping a lot of answers to Sean’s story a mystery—will be the real fork in the road for most people. However, I believe the path less taken or, in this case, Sean’s internalized trauma and humanity, is the path that will place the alien abduction story in a new light for viewers.
Patrick Howard
Patrick Howard has been a cinephile since age seven. Alongside 10 years of experience in film analysis and criticism, he is a staunch supporter of all art forms and believes their influence and legacy over human culture is vital. Mr. Howard takes the time to write his own narrative stories when he can.