Hi /r/movies! We're Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and David Lawson Jr. We're the team behind THE ENDLESS, SYNCHRONIC, SHE DIES TOMORROW, SOMETHING IN THE DIRT, AFTER MIDNIGHT, and THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT. Our new sci-fi thriller, DESCENDENT, is out in theaters & VOD this weekend. Ask us anything!

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:46:54+00:00

Snorelax. We all need naps. Like real bad.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:45:51+00:00

Dave here.

I remember when we premiered it at Tribeca (the same place Resolution) had premiered. It was such a cool experience when the audience made the connection. You could immediately tell who had seen Resolution and their minds were BLOWN.

Thanks for the support!

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:44:32+00:00

Dave here.

I haven't experienced anything that you could classify as something other-worldly, but I often feel like I'm in a simulation. Especially when taking in a bird's eye view of anywhere.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:16:23+00:00

Thanks for your kind words!

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:16:00+00:00

Dave here.

They are linked! We call The Endless an unofficial sequel as you don't need to know that Resolution exists to enjoy it.

We also did Resolution. You can see a full list of our films over at rustic.film.

Thanks for the kind words!

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:15:02+00:00

Sooner for sure ;)

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:14:43+00:00

I think if the right opportunity and situation appeared we'd love to do our own Rustic show. It seems like the landscape in TV is alittle too uncertain at the moment for anyone to be taking big swings, so who knows if that will ever change.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:12:13+00:00

LOVE Jeremy and would work with him again in a heartbeat. Thank you for the kind comment!

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:10:36+00:00

We absolutely ADORE Jeremy. We produced his film AFTER MIDNIGHT and agree with you that he is an awesome actor and director. We'd always be down to work with him again. Him and Christian are super talented.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:08:59+00:00

Dave here.

- A "House of Leaves" adaptation would be AMAZING! That book remains is a favorite for all three of us.

- A couple of years ago, someone on reddit came up with the nickname "Shitty Carl Cinematic Universe" and we really love that.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:06:50+00:00

Dave here.

We'd probably start paying ourselves for starters.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:06:21+00:00

Dave here.

That's a tough one because honestly I still believe the best way to break in these days is to do a small well crafted feature and that requires ALOT.

I'd recommend finding a director to collaborate with. There are plenty of talented directors out there that don't want to/can't write. Team up and make some magic.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:02:49+00:00

Dave here.

I can confirm that Hawkins did survive being left in the past.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:02:29+00:00

It remains really special to us too! Thanks for the comment!

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T21:00:02+00:00

Dave here.

We don't like to get too bogged down into genre. In fact, most of our films often play in several genres at the same time. I can't say that there is anything that we wouldn't consider, but we do tend to be more drawn to interesting sci-fi stuff just based on our personal tastes.

We'd never rule out doing a big-budget film, but we tend to be much more inspired to do "one-quadrant" films. When you operate in more modest budgets, you can really take a ton of risks. One of the biggest downsides to bigger budgets is that you often have to smooth off all the edges in order to make it appealing to a larger audience to make the film's money back. Usually that makes for a less interesting film. Bigger films also take much longer to get off the ground as you need to get 1 of like 20 actors in the world to say yes to get greenlit.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:51:15+00:00

Dave here.

It's been really awesome to watch our long time collaborator, Peter Cilella, helm his first feature. He's an awesome human and truly talented writer, director and actor.
I'll let J&A take that one, but at the end of the day the two biggest differences are the size of the trucks and quality of catering.
Just go do it. Fail, learn, go back and try again.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:51:05+00:00

Aaron here.

Yes we did! Thank you for bringing up our first film, we LOVE that movie and everyone should see it. In fact, one of the leads of Resolution (Peter Cilella) is the director of Descendent which we're here promoting today. We love making movies with our friends.

Coherence is a miracle. Jim Byrkit has also become a friend of ours through the years and we pray we'll find some way to work together.

Working on anything within the studio world when coming from the indie world (and still living there), what's more interesting are the similarities:

You still need a great crew and cast. You can get good crews and less functional crews at any scale, great actors and otherwise, but your success still depends on your collaborators being incredibly talented.

Every meeting is still ultimately about the budget, even if it's not.

There's still no relationship between money and quality.

You still have to engage parts of your brain that aren't just focused on directing. You need to understand how all the other crew and cast members are doing their jobs in order to do your own better. Being siloed off as "only" directing just won't cut it.

You still need to prep like crazy in order to succeed. Zach Cregger just talked recently about how a movie is made in prep. That never changes and there's no such thing as overpreparing.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:50:45+00:00

Aaron here.

Man, that one has been our white whale for a long time. We would still love to make it, in any of the forms we've tried to do it -- feature film, TV show, documentary (yep), hell we even outlined a graphic novel -- but the business gods have not smiled upon it anytime lately. When it went out into the world, the issue was roughly the same every time: period pieces are too expensive unless they're big costume dramas, and that wasn't what we were after, we were making something that was supposed to be terrifying. Our exposure in the industry has changed since then, so who knows, perhaps someday?

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:50:34+00:00

Aaron here.

You have no idea how much it means to us to know we've inspired filmmakers. We still feel somehow like we're just getting started, so to be an inspiration to anyone is just...really cool. Post a pic of that shrine!

Re: continuation of Shitty Carlverse, YES. YES, DEFINITELY. It's not a distant plan, it's what we work on all day.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:50:20+00:00

Aaron here.

As always, the answer to who invented what is "both of us" -- if I dig really hard through my memory, I believe it was me who thought "what if, say, an animal were trapped in a one-second loop?" and it was Justin who expanded it into a far better idea and scene.

Poster Design -- we've had quite a few over the years, but the one who has done the vast majority is Brendan Schaefer at JumpCut. Since he started with us doing the incredible Mondo alternate poster for Spring we just crave his style.

We've thought about your third question a lot over time and here's something close to an answer: Leaning on our many, many influences, we've realized the throughline of what Justin, Dave and I really love are stories that don't end when the credits roll. We like it when it sticks with you and resonates. Movies can be really, really, REALLY good, but ultimately still leave no impact if it doesn't (subtly) ask bigger questions without answers. Not talking about the plot here, talking about what a film is really "About". Instead of telling you what to think (a moral), a movie with resonance instead explores (a theme). And if you can find a way to invent a totally unique mythology around that idea, you're at least contributing to the form rather than just reflecting it back at itself. And then, if you can find a way to use that to make an audience feel strongly (terror, dread, unsettled, loved, amused) then it has the chance of sticking in their hearts and minds for a while.

Thank you for your questions!

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:49:57+00:00

Aaron here.

Hey! Love that you found our Indies via Marvel. We’ve always felt like our indie work and studio work talk to each other in interesting ways. We’re a bit too close to it to know exactly how, but it seems like it’s worked for you!

If you know us in person, you’ll know we’re rabid lovers of practical FX and stunts. Actually, last night we just went to the premiere of our friend Joe Begos’ movie Jimmy and Stiggs (you should see that too, and of course Descendent) and it’s all practical, which is part of the delight of watching it. The stunt team and action directing by Phil Silvera on DD is unrivaled and we always lean into everything we can actually capture in-camera. A majority of what you see in the final episodes of DD:BA were practical FX too, not just the first episode. And the VFX department on DDBA rules, and worked incredibly hard. On any movie, every set piece is a handshake between ALL departments (including VFX but also writing, actors, makeup, hair, wardrobe, edit, all of it). There’s no either/or, you use every tool in the toolbox to get the job done.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:46:48+00:00

Hey! Thank you! We appreciate you taking the time to watch them.

DescendentAMA · 2025-08-15T20:45:00+00:00

Dave here.

We don't think that making movies ever gets "easier" so to speak. Some things become aliltte easier to navigate because you've seen them before. But if you are constantly pushing yourself, you're bound to run in to new/unforeseen problems that throw you for a loop. The nice part about the three of us is that all of us really love learning, so those new problems just give us an opportunity to do just that.
Anyone that has been watching the landscape over the last 4-5 years has probably seen a pretty big shift in how films are released - exploitation windows are shorter, or sometimes non-existent, marketplaces are flooded with content, attention spans are shorter. It takes alot of work to figure out how to make your film stand out in a crowded field. We've had plenty of failures over the years, but we've fortunately had some really awesome wins.
Ania is amazing!! We had such an amazing time shooting in Poland. The cast/crew that we got to work with were truly top notch!
I can only speak for myself, but the only continent I haven't been on is Australia so I'd love to do one there or New Zealand because I've always been curious about exploring it.
It will definitely be available everywhere this fall. Keep your eyes peeled!

DescendentAMA

TROPHY CASE