RLJE Films drops Descendent — the hauntingly cerebral debut feature from writer-director Peter Cilella — into select theaters today, August 8, with a nationwide expansion and VOD release set for August 15.
Equal parts psychological descent and extraterrestrial paranoia, the film unfolds with a quiet, mounting unease that burrows itself deep under the skin. Marking Cilella’s first outing as both writer and director, Descendent signals the arrival of a distinctive new voice in genre storytelling — one attuned to both the terror of the unknown and the weight of the internal.
At the center of the story is Sean Bruner Ross Marquand (“The Walking Dead,” Invincible), a school security guard quietly unraveling under the weight of impending fatherhood and a past that refuses to stay buried. One night, during a lonely graveyard shift, a searing beam of light slices through the sky above the elementary school grounds, triggering a chain of disorienting visions and strange visitations. As spectral apparitions and arid desert landscapes bleed into his reality, Sean is forced to question not just what he sees — but who he really is.
Marquand is joined by a stellar supporting cast including Sarah Bolger (A Good Woman Is Hard to Find, “Mayans M.C.”), Charlene Amoia (“How I Met Your Mother”), Brandon Scott (“Dead to Me”), and Alexandra Barreto (“Mayans M.C.”) .
Ahead of the release, CinemaChords’ Ashley Northey sat down with Peter Cilella to talk about the driving force behind Descendent — the fear of becoming a father, the weight we carry from the ones who came before, and that strange overlap where personal demons bleed into something unearthly.
