Some of the best movies out there are sci-fi. It’s a fan favorite genre full of wide-ranging stories that challenge our perceptions of reality and human nature through explorations of new worlds, cutting edge technology, and even the big questions of the universe, including those about if we’re alone and, if not, are our fellow beings friends or foes. But while many of the best sci-fi films are major productions that come from big studios, there are a lot of truly great independent sci-fi films as well and one such masterpiece is headed to Hulu this week.
Arriving on Hulu on May 26th is Descendent. The film was released in 2025 by Rustic Films and is written and directed by Peter Cilella. The film stars Ross Marquand and Sarah Bolger in a story about Sean, a man dealing with a lot of stress and personal trauma as he and his wife, Andrea, prepare for the birth of their first child. However, when he climbs up on the roof one night to fix a light bulb, he sees something in the night sky and falls from the roof. As he recovers, Sean finds himself dealing with visions of a spacecraft and unexplained artistic ability prompting the question of what really happened to Sean.
Descendent Isn’t Your Ordinary Alien Abduction Story
While, on its face, Descendent seems like a standard alien abduction story, the truth is that it is anything but. While there is absolutely the alien abduction element of the story, at the film’s core it is really a story about parenthood and the anxiety that comes with such a monumental life change. In the film, what happens to Sean on the roof changes everything for him. It reshapes his self-identity, as well as thrusts him into a world that is unlike anything he is familiar with or comfortable in. This sort of transition is mean to be an allegory for becoming a parent. When someone becomes a parent, it not only represents a major life change where nothing is the same as it was before. It’s disorienting and challenging, not unlike what one would expect from an alien situation.
The film also explores the nature of unresolved trauma. For Sean, he has to content with the death of his own father and how that impacts his own emotional health and stability, something that will in turn impact his parenthood journey. This, along with the exploration of parental anxiety, makes Descendent a richly layered, and very intimate sci-fi film that does what the best film sin the genre do: explores various aspects of what it means to be human in a way that is equally uncomfortable and revelatory. While Descendent may not have been a big blockbuster, it’s a gem of a film you should certainly check out on Hulu.
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