“Victims; aren’t we all?”
– Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) in The Crow (1990)
The beauty and horror of life is that there’re many different ways to look at a situation. Because of this, whether it’s a massive life event or something as minor as turning left, individuals ruminate on the wake created. This can elicit either regret or jubilation because, if not for that singular choice, all that lies before you might not exist. This is a core component of writer/director Caleb Phillips’s feature-length directorial debut, Imposters, having its world premiere in the Midnighter section of SXSW Film & TV Festival 2026, as it explores the choices we make, the patterns they cause, and the truths they reveal.
L-R: Charlie Barnett as Paul and Jessica Rother as Marie in IMPOSTERS. Photo courtesy of SXSW.
In the two months that married couple Paul and Marie (Charlie Barnett and Jessica Rothe, respectively) have lived in their home, they’ve done little to get to know their neighbors. Feeling a touch isolated, Marie signs them up to host an upcoming house party, much to Paul’s dismay. As the reverie goes on, something terrible happens to their infant son, Theo (Lee and Declan Bennett), sending the couple reeling. After two weeks, and desperate for anything to help find Theo, Marie chooses to believe the seemingly reality-addled Orson (Bates Wilder) when he claims that there is a way to get their son back. Though she’s inclined to try anything, Paul is skeptical and, when she returns with Theo in-hand, Paul’s concerns don’t abate amid Marie’s newfound paranoia about their home.
Jessica Rother as Marie in IMPOSTERS. Photo courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.
Phillips’s script works on several levels. It’s an examination of a marriage in crisis and of a family unit going through a horrible predicament, while also serving as an existential exploration of the choices we make to keep ourselves stuck regardless of the pain we cause. After a cold open intended to establish the mystery at the center of Imposters, we meet Paul and learn of his “coin theory.” Having survived a near-crippling event as a police officer, he now carries a coin with him to flip when making decisions, the notion being that the universe is directing him where he should go. On the outside, that sounds like a comforting, even charming notion, but it’s an absolute abdication of personal responsibility. It’s an out by which he can soothe himself whenever the choice doesn’t lead to a result he inwardly wishes and sets the stage for resentment to fester. This is his pattern, his unwillingness to take control of his life because the universe knows better, feeding bullshit to his partner, practicing joy before lifting his child, and failing at being the “man” he declares himself to be. Barnett’s (The Stand In) performance gives Paul an air of superiority and smugness with subtle notes of plausible tenderness that make one wonder what he was like before the moment we meet him. Was Paul always a pretentious asshat who put himself first or did his incident just give him the permission to act this way?
It does, however, take two people to make a marriage work and Marie is not infallible, either. Unlike Paul, though, Phillips teases out the locations of Marie’s cracked façade, waiting until the right moment for the film to switch from Paul’s story to her’s. When it does, the film itself changes from a family thriller to something far more disquieting as more than one child’s life is under threat, but the entire notion of parenthood with the question of “what’s best for the child?” rattling at its core. Those familiar with Rothe’s game — two Happy Death Day films, Boy Kills World (2023), and others — understand that she can handle what horror thrillers can throw at her characters, infusing Marie with a very human desperation to avoid loneliness, to have all the choices she’s consciously made (sans coin) amount to something meaningful. What Imposters asks for from Rothe as an actor is quite different than the other films as Marie’s outward choices reflect her inner turmoil, requiring Rothe to metaphorically strip herself in ways we hadn’t yet seen.
Whether viewing from Paul or Marie’s perspective, Imposters works as a changeling tale, a psychological thriller in which Paul is lead to believe that his returned child is not his own, but it also works as a film in which *no one* is who they claim to be by the mere virtue of failing to communicate their needs and allowing themselves to become trapped. The confinement of information, the compartmentalization of emotional needs, and the inability to process one’s grief are all valid reasons for the best of us to turn into villains with no hope in return. It always takes one choice to reset, to rejoin the correct path, but that’s less likely when one is limited in their capacity to understand a greater picture or refuses to acknowledge it. Denial, denial, denial. Though the question about Theo’s origination and authenticity matters and is critical to the engine of Imposters, what it all stands for contains more significance. How many people thought that sticking around was the better option than leaving a relationship? How many think that children are a salve rather than a larger wedge to cleave a couple? How many stay in unhappy relationships for the sake of a child? This is the cycle Phillips explores through a sci-fi thriller vehicle in which authenticity is tantamount to perception based entirely on the lies we tell and the truths we hide in order to fabricate an idyllic life.
As fascinating as Imposters is to dissect, it’s far less interesting in the execution, certainly before the perspective switch. It’s not so much that Barnett’s performance isn’t intriguing, it’s that his characterization is uninspired; likely intentionally so in order for the audience to immediately see Paul as the problem, creating a vocal point for the rage and disquiet that comes from Theo’s initial absence. Even Rothe faces a similar dilemma as one struggles to care about her beyond her role as “mother” and “betrayed spouse.” These are things that make Marie an empty shell of a character despite Rothe’s performance which asks for attention (just as Marie does and is ignored by Paul). It’s not until the change comes and the thriller invokes its sci-fi elements more clearly that one starts to lean in more, the intention of the film finally taking clearer shape. It certainly doesn’t help that the initial introduction of Theo is so large as a means of portraying Paul’s fictitious joy of fatherhood that we’re told exactly what to observe that makes Theo unique. With Chekhov’s Gun set, we’ve got little to do but wait, and that makes the time between too noticeable for a 102-minute film.
Jessica Rother as Marie in IMPOSTERS. Photo courtesy of Blue Finch Film Releasing.
In your lifetime, you’ll be faced with several moments that will have lasting repercussions on your life. You could be passive to them, such as your parents’ separation, thereby requiring an active decision on how to react, where to go, etc. You can be active within them, such as having to decide between moving to a new city or staying where things are familiar. You may have no choice whatsoever, such as being the victim of another’s decisions. In each, we may not realize it at the time, but these moments come to define who we are and how we will live our lives. If we had chosen one direction, would we still be in the same place? Would the universe had made sure to get you where you are now? Phillips asks all of this within Imposters while also declaring that none of us are who we say we are as long as we cling to the version we keep secret from everyone else. We can choose to be victims or we can choose to be brave, but we can’t be both at once and be our most authentic self. So, make your choice, do it defiantly, and step into the light.
Screened during SXSW Film & TV Festival 2026.
For more information, head to the official SXSW Film & TV Festival Imposters webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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