Den of Geek SXSW 2025 Special Edition

UNICORN DEATH OF A

SIX ISSUES STARTING IN MARCH

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CONTENTS

THE ACCOUNTANT 2

Ben Affleck is back as an underworld maths genius in a follow-up to 2016’s crowdpleasing thriller. So why the nine-year wait? We find out. PG. 8

PREVIEW 2025

FILM This year’s eclectic movie slate runs the gamut from highconcept comedies to sinister sci-fis and everything in between. PG. 26

DOCUMENTARIES

Snake assassins, alien cover-ups and timely historical warnings: these docs need to be seen to be believed. PG. 34

TV True-crime drama Happy Face and starry industry satire

The Studio are just two of the compelling contenders vying to be your new favorite show. PG. 36

DEATH OF A UNICORN

The fantastic beasts get a monstrous makeover in this A24 genre-bender— Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, and creator Alex Scharfman tell us how. PG. 18

MUSIC From Austinbased quartet Invoke to Austrian pop sensation FILLY, we take you on a tour of some of the most exciting acts at this year’s music festival. PG. 40

TECH & GAMING

We explore some of the fascinating SXSW panels that are offering a glimpse into the digital future, including a visit from gaming legend Hideo Kojima. PG. 44

ASSASSIN’S CREED SHADOWS

AC fans have been waiting a long time for a trip to Japan—we get the lowdown on Shadows’ samurai and shinobi action. PG. 46

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NUMBERS CRUNCHED

Director

Gavin O’Connor

does the math on The Accountant 2’s journey to the screen.

BY DON KAYE

IN 2016’S THE ACCOUNTANT, BEN AFFLECK PLAYED CHRISTIAN Wolff, a man on the spectrum whose genius with numbers made him the go-to “accountant” for criminal organizations looking to launder money or find out who’s stealing from them. Hired by a seemingly legitimate company to audit their books, Chris found himself drawn into a web of intrigue that involved an innocent bookkeeper (Anna Kendrick), a U.S. Treasury agent named Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), her own slippery boss (J.K. Simmons), and ultimately Chris’ estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), a security expert who comes into conflict with his sibling.

Directed by Gavin O’Connor, The Accountant was released by Warner Bros. Pictures and became the definition of a sleeper hit. A mid-range adult drama —which is increasingly a rarity in Hollywood—it grossed $155 million off a modest $44 million budget, making a very decent return on investment. And yet, it’s taken nine years for O’Connor, screenwriter Bill Dubuque, and Affleck to get The Accountant 2, the middle entry in a proposed trilogy, up and running, thanks in part to unforeseen events such as COVID and the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, but also the peculiarities of studio politics and decision-making.

It turns out that Amazon MGM Studios ran the numbers and came up positive, giving The Accountant 2 a home at last. The movie promises more of the same combination of action, intrigue, mystery, and quirky character drama that made the first film a viewer favorite, with Bernthal, Addai-Robinson, and Simmons all coming back in addition to Affleck — though as we see in the trailer, one of those characters doesn’t make it very far into the movie. O’Connor explains that and more about the sequel’s journey to the screen when we catch up with him.

Treasury director Ray King (J.K. Simmons) meets with the mysterious Anais (Daniella Pineda).

The original movie was the kind of mid-budget adult crime drama that has become very hard to make in the last few years. Yet it got out there and people enjoyed it.

I was very happy to see that people responded, but what I didn’t expect was the life after it came out in theaters—home entertainment and streaming—where people seemed to really respond to the movie. It was just a different type of action thriller, and it’s just such a unique, original character, that I think people responded to that.

Did that post-theatrical life help in terms of making this sequel come to fruition?

It was a rollercoaster trying to get it made. We finally got a deal with Warner Bros. to get Bill [Dubuque] to write a second movie. That took two

years…. It was so odd to us because the movie was in that mid-range budget and performed really well, so we were very surprised why there was hesitancy. But we were hammers on a nail, refusing to give up. In the end, we were able to extricate it from Warner Bros.

They were generous enough to let us leave and take it to Amazon, which felt like the right place for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that a lot of our friends who were at Warner Bros. when we made the first one were now at Amazon, so they knew the [first] movie intimately.

Did you keep in touch with the cast to make sure that they were still interested?

I always knew everyone was going to come back. We all had a really fertile creative experience making the first

Jon Bernthal returns as security expert Brax.

movie. Jon and J.K. are in my life as friends, so I wasn’t worried about bringing them back. The hard part, to be honest with you, was breaking the news to J.K. that his character, Ray King, dies. Which is no secret. It’s in the trailer. I had to break that news to J.K. and explain to him why, which was that obviously I wanted to make it personal for Chris and Marybeth.

Watching the trailer, I was a little surprised to see that in there. We tried, man, we tried. But I mean, beyond that, do you know what the movie is about from watching the trailer?

Only that they’re trying to find out what Ray King was doing that led to his death.

That’s all you get! That was the goal and it was tough to do without giving that one piece of information away, but we were protecting everything else beyond that.

What can you say about where we pick up with the characters?

The challenge was that every year that went by, I had to justify why Chris and Brax haven’t seen each other in so long. We were constantly massaging that. It makes it easier when one character’s on the spectrum and the other one lives an itinerant lifestyle, so we started to work all that out. What never changed and what was important to me in building the script was that I wanted the key in the ignition to be that Ray gets killed, and let that sort of tentacle into a much bigger story.

I also wanted to build a movie around human trafficking. Since 2018, that’s been really important to me, and I just wanted to be able to shine a light on that. But that also came with its own complications because it becomes very tricky to be dealing with this kind of heavy subject matter and also trying to make a fun, entertaining movie, so we were walking a tightrope there. And then I guess lastly, the puzzle aspect of the movie was really tricky to do because if it’s too easy, you don’t need Chris to come in and figure it out. And if it’s too complicated, the

Treasury agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia AddaiRobinson) is back on the case.

audience is going to check out of the fucking movie.

It seems like Chris and Brax are much more of a team in this movie. The movie very much is about Chris and Brax, and how they have to fix it with each other. That was always the intention in the second movie. And then the third movie is going to be what I call Rain Man on steroids. It’s just the two brothers. We don’t know exactly what happens yet [in it], Bill and I have ideas, but the third movie is going to start with the two brothers together and we’re off to the races. We’ve always been building the franchise in that direction.

You’ve worked with Ben now on three films in a row (the Accountant movies and The Way Back). What makes you two simpatico creatively? I can remember Ben saying to me, before we made the first one, “I like your taste. I feel like we have similar taste.” And I think what he meant by that, which I agree with, is that he and I have, just artistically and as storytellers, a similar aesthetic. We trust each other artistically. For me as a storyteller, it actually starts with the performances. So I think Ben understands and appreciates that and trusts that we’re not only going to find and explore the character, but create something that just feels honest and truthful and grounded. So there’s just a lot of work going into the characters and performance.

The Accountant 2 opens in theaters on April 25.

Estranged brothers Chris (Ben Affleck) and Brax (Jon Bernthal) reunite to face a new threat.

THE KILLER’S DAUGHTER

Paramount+ series Happy Face tells the real-life story of a serial killer’s family.

BY ALEC BOJALAD

THEY SAY EVERYONE has a story worth telling, but Melissa G. Moore really has a story worth telling. Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer who murdered at least eight women during the early ’90s. She has shared details of her unique upbringing on

talk shows, books, podcasts, and more. Now her life is getting the scripted television treatment on Paramount+ with the Jennifer Cacicio-created, Michael Showalter-directed series, Happy Face.

“I’ve told my story in all these mediums, but the one thing that’s been missing is what it’s really like

to experience what I experienced,” Moore says. “It’s one thing to say, ‘This is what happened to me,’ but it’s another thing to give people the emotional elements.”

Happy Face indeed spares few details about what it’s like to be the child of a killer. Primarily set after Jesperson has been discovered, convicted, and imprisoned, the eight-episode series stars Annaleigh Ashford as Moore as she endures ongoing harassment from her father and works to ensure that the Happy Face Killer’s victims receive justice.

“I’ve been really lucky throughout my career to have played a few

Above: Melissa (Annaleigh Ashford) meets her father in prison. Below: Melissa tells her story to daytime TV host Dr. Greg (David Harewood).

real-life people, and that was really helpful jumping into this incredible story,” Ashford says. “The best part of getting to play this character is that the real Melissa has such a beautiful and authentic heart. That’s a real gift—to play someone who really cares about others before she cares about herself.”

Dennis Quaid steps into the role of Keith Jesperson, dubbed the Happy Face Killer because of his penchant for scribbling smiley faces in correspondence with authorities. Jesperson is currently 69 years old and continues to torment his daughter from behind bars in Oregon State

Penitentiary with unwanted letters. “[Happy Face] shows what it’s like to have these letters still coming into my mailbox, him watching my Instagram, strangers reaching out to me, just the emotions of what that’s like, and the emotions of what my children go through, having a grandfather who’s a serial killer,” Moore says.

Moore credits Ashford and Quaid’s performances in the show with helping her better understand her own dynamic with her father. Ashford adds “they got the emotional entanglement, how toxic it was,” says Moore. “There was always going to be a part of me that wishes that this wasn’t true, that I really did have a dad. Dennis knows that my desire is to have a father and how my real father plays on that as manipulation.”

“One of the things that Dennis did so beautifully was he was able to play both people. He was able to play the man before the crime and the man after the crime. It was a thrill to act with him. I feel like we had a really natural parental chemistry.”

In unpacking Moore’s trauma, Happy Face walks a familiar truecrime tightrope by examining the dark psyche of a killer while still respecting the humanity of his victims.

“I want to tell my story, but when I tell my story, I’m also giving attention to my serial killer father,” Moore says of the dilemma. “But I’m also giving attention to the victims of my father

I’VE TOLD MY STORY IN ALL THESE MEDIUMS, BUT [THE SERIES SHOWS] WHAT IT’S REALLY LIKE TO EXPERIENCE WHAT I EXPERIENCED.”

MELISSA G. MOORE

and the victims’ family members. I have to respect them. What you’ll see in this series is sometimes, victims’ family members want autonomy; they want privacy. Sometimes, my wishes are in conflict with their desires. There are very complex and delicate conversations that I have privately with survivors.”

Family ties loom large in Happy Face—not only in the twisted entanglement between a killer father and an innocent daughter but also in the far more healing relationship among Moore, her husband Ben (James Wolk), and their children, Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) and Max (Benjamin Mackey).

“It’s about family,” Ashford says. “When things are darkest, there always has to be light. I think that’s something special about this show.”

The first two episodes of Happy Face premiere Thursday, March 20 on Paramount+.

Dennis Quaid plays Keith Jesperson, a.k.a. the Happy Face Killer.

Isabela Merced

Get to know the new star of HBO’s The Last of Us.

BY LOUISA MELLOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK MORGULIS

1

The 23-year-old Peruvian American actor has been acting and singing professionally since she was 10, including roles on Broadway, Nickelodeon, and in Transformers: The Last Knight. In 2019, she changed her stage surname from Moner to Merced in tribute to her maternal grandmother.

2 James Gunn’s Superman—in which Merced plays Kendra Saunders, aka Hawkgirl—isn’t her first comicbook movie. She played Anya in Sony’s little-loved Madame Web and was in the running for the lead in WB’s unreleased Batgirl, for which she coincidentally auditioned opposite new Supes, David Corenswet.

3 In season two of HBO’s post-apocalyptic video game adaptation The Last of Us, Merced plays Dina, an orphaned survivor who becomes key to Ellie’s story. A musician who released her debut album in 2015, Merced made a playlist for Dina and Ellie including a song by Adrianne Lenker that she says sets the tone for the pair’s relationship. Merced reports that the show’s sets look impressively close to the game.

4 To make her character’s shivering, screaming reaction to the Xenomorph seem realistic in Alien: Romulus, director Fede Alvarez had an old-school technique: “Fede was like, ‘Yeah, let’s just dump a bucket of water on her!’” Merced told Den of Geek. “We had already done a bunch of takes with the Xenomorph landing over me, but then it was just a bunch of water.”

5

A self-confessed musical theater nerd, Merced’s first ever role at the age of six was as a Munchkin in a community production of The Wizard of Oz. She got a callback for Steven Spielberg’s 2021 movie West Side Story and has said she would love to star in an original stage musical in the future.

SAY WHAT?

Quotes of the month from Den of Geek exclusive interviews.

PHOTOS BY NICK MORGULIS

“We used the whole novel part already. So we have no novel in season two, but we have real history and models.”

Hiroyuki Sanada on developing Shogun’s second season.

“THE CHARACTER IS BEAUTIFUL AND HAS RESONATED WITH PEOPLE AND CONTINUES TO. SHE IS A PART OF A BEAUTIFUL WHOLE, AND I THINK BEING PART OF THAT IS WONDERFUL.”

10 years later.

“I’m very interested in exploring what it looks like on the stage. But yeah that movie is untouchable to me.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda about the future of his Warriors concept album.

“WHEN I DREAMED ABOUT [BEING IN A PERIOD PIECE], I WAS THINKING MORE LIKE PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, NOT, YOU KNOW, PEOPLE’S THROATS BEING RIPPED OUT.”

— Betty Gilpin on starring in Netflix Western American Primeval.

“It has to be the Hulk. You can’t beat the Hulk, you can only hope to contain him. I’ve always been a Nightcrawler fan [and] my favorite character in all the MCU would probably be Gambit.”

“I saw how [Harrison Ford and Michelle Yeoh] did it. They make sure that everybody feels loved and welcome… that your contribution in the movie is just as important as theirs.”

— Ke Huy Quan on preparing for his first leading role in Love Hurts.

“I FEEL IT HAD MOSTLY BEEN USED TO DESCRIBE A CERTAIN AESTHETIC FOR CLOTHING, MUSIC, ERA OF FILMS, ERA OF TIME. IT WASN’T SOMETHING THAT MY PARENTS TALKED ABOUT. NO ONE HAD REALLY BRIEFED

— Daisy Ridley on the legacy of Rey

Anthony Mackie picks his dream Avengers team.

MAKING A KILLING

Jenna Ortega plays Ridley Kitner, an art history major who forms a special connection with a unicorn. This isn’t that one.

Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, and writer-director Alex Scharfman are about to go medieval on your childhood fantasies in Death of a Unicorn. BY

DAVID

CROW

Jenna Ortega has a confession to make: she likes blood. The more of it, the better. Already she’s been covered in buckets of the substance throughout her career, which includes a bounty of genre darlings running the gamut from Scream VI to Ti West’s X. And never once in all those chillers has she tired of the red-dyed corn syrup.

“Maybe if it’s cold outside and it’s like four in the morning,” Ortega begins while considering the downsides of cinematic gore. But the thought exercise just won’t stick. “No, I can’t really even say that. I always like it whenever they bring the blood. It’s like you’re getting into the good stuff.”

In which case, Ortega and audiences are about to be swimming in good stuff, and rest assured that with the star’s latest movie, it is of a vintage never seen before. In Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn, not only does the blood flow plentifully, but it is also opalescent, shimmering, and imbued with restorative properties. Or: it’s magic purple goo that twinkles in the sunlight, and by the end of the movie everyone’s dying for it.

To Ortega, this is part and parcel of making a distinctly A24 genre mashup that plays toward her own eccentric sensibilities. She’s done horror; she’s done comedy; but it’s a one-of-a-kind experience to be hiding in the grass beneath a car on a warm Hungarian night and see out of the corner of your eye a practical unicorn horn stalking around the vehicle.

“It’s just so funny to me,” Ortega says, recalling the night. “It looks like the shark fin from Jaws. There’s something that is so strange and funny about that, and also still scary… that image made me very happy.”

It even makes up for the practicalities of the aforementioned purple blood, which the actress later acknowledges has “got a bit more sparkle to it. The unicorn blood had some glitter. So it’s harder getting off.”

Such must be the perils, though, of making the first movie where these magical creatures are absolutely, and quite literally, Old Testament terrifying.

DIVINE MONSTERS

The filmmaker who dreamed up Death of a Unicorn recognizes when we catch up with him that it is kind of funny he was never a unicorn guy. Like almost anyone around the world, Alex Scharfman grew up aware of the majestic beasts of yore—or, more commonly these days, gentle family fantasies like My Little Pony. As a New York City kid, young Scharfman went repeatedly to the Met Cloisters in Washington Heights where the famed Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries from the Middle Ages reside. The white steed with a luminescent antler was omnipresent in his life, if never

at the top of mind. Yet, somehow, the beast was still able to pierce through the subconscious.

“It started like a lot of my ideas often do,” Scharfman tells Den of Geek. “It’s a scene or an image, a kernel of something, and it kept sticking in my brain.” There would be a father and a daughter standing somewhere, as well as an impossible thing bleeding out in front of them. “I had the idea nearly a decade ago… and it was always just a family driving, and in the midst of having a relatively banal or grounded conversation, they accidentally kill a unicorn with their car.”

Nearly 10 years later, it’s a dream turned reality, not to mention Scharfman’s first feature as director. When we sit down with the helmer, the movie is barely two weeks away from its premiere as a SXSW headliner, and the last touches are still being woven in. In fact, Scharfman has ducked out of his sound mix stage to chat with us in a nearby room. He seems both visibly proud and wary of congratulations, apparently not wishing to jinx things until the film is locked.

Nevertheless, it already stands as a culmination of what, in the hands of others, could have simply been a sketch gag or a one-off bit in a conventional comedy. Even Scharfman admits he originally imagined it to be a short film. Yet the more he toyed with the concept (sometimes substituting the unicorn with other magical creatures to see if it might play differently), the more he realized he had a truly killer opening for a larger story. Seriously, who doesn’t want to revel in a tale where a father and daughter mercy-kill the ethereal?

“When I first saw this script in my inbox, I thought, ‘I’m probably going

I always like it whenever they bring the blood. It’s like you’re getting into the good stuff.”

–JENNA ORTEGA

to want to do this one,’” Ortega laughs about how she learned of the concept. Even better, the story gets right to it with Ortega’s character Ridley and her father, Paul Rudd’s mild-mannered Elliot, delivering the coup de grâce by page 10. “I love it when a script doesn’t waste time. It’s nice to just get into it. Like we want to see the unicorn.”

But the unicorn Rudd and Ortega’s characters see is not the beatific wonder doted on by Ridley Scott or Rankin/Bass. It has heavy clawed hooves, long cruel fangs, and hair

Téa Leoni, Will Poulter, Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, and Anthony Carrigan debate what the “horse-like” creature is after Rudd’s Elliot hits it with the car.

that darkens with its mood. As one character surmises on the real unicorns of antiquity, they were supposed to be “divine monsters.” Which is true.

“The first recorded unicorn story goes back to like 400 B.C.,” Scharfman explains. “And it used to be a much more wild kind of monstrous creature that you have for most of their history.” The writerdirector’s excitement is infectious as he rattles off facts and speculations. Roman historians might have misunderstood reports of Indian

rhinoceroses when repeating tales of unicorns, and “in the Old Testament, the word used for unicorn, when you translate it back, is re’em, which actually meant aurochs… so [they were] more of a wild bull.”

What also became clear the more Scharfman researched the creature is they could be something that appealed to his heightened storytelling instincts. These were beings to be feared, respected, and in absolutely no uncertain terms, fucked with. “Old World gods,” as the filmmaker sums up.

He even found his way back to those Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries he saw as a child: “I became interested in the specific medieval unicorn mythology, and [those tapestries] quickly came to the fore,” Scharfman explains. “Somewhere in the outlining stages, it became this idea of turning the movie into an adaptation of the tapestries.”

Believed to have been produced sometime around the turn of the 16th century in the Netherlands, this Gothic masterpiece is composed of seven murals depicting the men who

seek to kill and extract a unicorn’s healing abilities… and the creature’s refusal to stay down.

“We referenced them all the time,” says Ortega. “I mean, they’re kind of a dead giveaway if you have any knowledge of them for what the film really is… It’s like a cheat sheet.”

As her director muses, “All the violence of the second half of the movie and a lot of the creature feature fun is brought into that more formal language of the Middle Ages, and the tapestries themselves.” It was an ancient way to speak about the world of here and now.

FATHERS AND DAUGHTERS

When we meet Rudd’s Elliot and Ortega’s Ridley, neither resembles a

character from fantasy or crumbling texts. They’re an everyday father and daughter, moments away from discovering the last extraordinary thing in the world after it falls beneath the wheels of their car.

The scenario is preposterous, but the characterization of a family still grieving the loss of Elliot’s wife and Ridley’s mother is not.

“I don’t think we’ve properly dealt with [the loss], either one of us but particularly me, in the healthiest of ways,” Rudd tells us of the schism in the relationship between his and Ortega’s characters. “There’s a lot of love between us, but it does feel as if we’re just a little bit off track.”

Ortega would agree, suggesting that until the characters can acknowledge aloud their continued sense of loss, there is no ability to

heal. The implications this has for two folks about to discover the curative powers of a unicorn are obvious, but it’s even stronger when considering where the two are headed in a nigh-deserted nature preserve: the summer home of the Leopold family, a billionaire pharmaceutical dynasty and Elliot’s new prospective clients.

“Paul’s playing someone who is grappling with a lot of very real conflicts of conscience as an adult in the 21st century,” says Scharfman. “He’s trying to make a living, provide for a family, and all of the moral relativism that comes with that when you choose to be an attorney for a pharmaceutical company.”

It’s also created a divide between a father and daughter that seems ever pertinent.

Richard E. Grant and Téa Leoni play Odell and Belinda Leopold, the wealthy heads of a pharmaceutical dynasty. They have big plans for what to do with that magic horn.

What is a pure-hearted maiden in 2025?

Probably an idealist empath who’s on a college campus somewhere protesting right now.”

–ALEX SCHARFMAN

“When they’re young and idealistic, kids say, ‘You can’t do morally corrupt things to earn money,’” Rudd considers, “and sometimes as you get older, you can somehow talk yourself into certain things because you need to pay your rent.” Death of a Unicorn is thus touching on the age divide in this current moment. However, it’s also about disparate generations coming together—on and off the screen.

“Whether it’s someone playing my parent or somebody playing a love interest, I try to connect with people through music,” Ortega explains of her process of building a rapport with co-stars. “I think that’s the easiest way just to get a better understanding of somebody.” So she and Rudd broke ice and bread by exchanging playlists, often by way of the younger thespian introducing the older to new sounds.

“I’m blown away by her depth of musical knowledge; she was playing me stuff that I’d never heard, from all different decades, that was just so good,” Rudd beams. “I didn’t know about the Amazing Blondel, but I listen to the Amazing Blondel so much now, and that’s all from Jenna.”

In a certain sense, the film is about the eternal divide between fathers and daughters. In another, it is derived from the extreme present.

EAT THE RICH

When Elliot and Ridley show up at the Leopold estate, still splattered in liquid lavender, the father thinks he is there to find a client. Instead, it is a modern-day liege lord that awaits. Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant) and his family might greet Elliot as a new “amigo” and legal partner, but in actuality they yearn for a miracle cure for Odell’s late-stage tumors. Played with freakish flair by an ensemble that also includes Téa Leoni as the patriarch’s polished wife Belinda and Will Poulter as a callow son who will put almost anything up his nose, the Leopolds and their servants gather round the old man’s bedside as if reenacting a tableau of a dying king and his attendants.

“I was trying to think about the movie writ large,” says Scharfman. “To update a medieval story to the 21st century, a captain of industry, an oligarch, is essentially a feudal lord. They do have their fiefdom, and his fiefdom is the pharmaceutical industry… it’s just not a geographical fiefdom; now it’s an industrial one, it’s a corporate one.”

If it were a tapestry, Elliot would be here to bend the knee—and avert his gaze from the weirdos of the realm. As Rudd muses, “The thing about Alex is he’s got an economy with language, and he writes so descriptively about these kinds of upper-crust people who are horrible.”

One doesn’t need to squint to see the modern parallels of the current moment when this family discovers unicorns are real and begins dreaming of selling their lifeforce to any friends in Davos who’ve had a public health scare. Rudd even cracks he could find a corrupt pharmaceutical family’s latest scandal by simply scrolling through today’s headlines.

Still, all involved seem a little shocked at how prescient this movie’s turned out “in a Luigi Mangione sense,” as Scharfman acknowledges.

“I didn’t see that coming specifically,” he adds, “but I do think there’s a rising tide that people have seen coming for a while, though I don’t know how high that tide will get.” And despite not necessarily being a fan of so-called “eat the rich” movies, the filmmaker admits there’s something in the zeitgeist; after all, Death of a Unicorn is “the only one of these movies where some of the rich are literally eaten.”

CREATURES FEATURED

As perceptive as the subtext of Death of a Unicorn becomes, the text ultimately remains the film’s star attraction, and by movie’s end, it’s in bold capital letters as the thing turns into a throwback to the creature features of yesteryear. There’s a monster outside the house, and it wants in.

“It was cool because we actually used puppets,” Ortega says of the film’s many practical moments where she came eyeball-to-eyeball with a unicorn. “So you just kind of have to ignore the people huffing and puffing and doing backbends to hide their bodies off-camera.”

This includes shots where it might just be a guy holding a unicorn’s head on a stick in front of Rudd. It’s ridiculous in the moment but effective onscreen. It also deliberately evokes some of Stan Winston’s velociraptor tricks in the original Jurassic Park.

Smiles Scharfman, “I started realizing the creatures were about the same size as the raptors in proportion to the humans. This led to ‘oh, they can get inside the house!’ which you don’t get with a lot of creature movies. So that became a fun reference point.”

[Alex has] an economy with language and he writes so descriptively about these upper-crust people who are horrible.”

–PAUL RUDD

No stranger to special effects either, Rudd took a special pleasure in the retro charm of it all, revealing his phone is chock-full of photos of malevolent unicorns captured in mid-construction.

“I remember the first day when we were all on the soundstage for filming and saw some of the unicorns being built, and how they worked with the puppeteers, and how they made the hooves move,” Rudd says. “I thought the craftsmanship that went into making them was incredible, and every detail, just from the eyes to the hair on the puppets, you couldn’t believe you weren’t looking at the real thing.”

Raptors, xenomorphs, and George Romero zombies were all namechecked among the influences in the film—as were intriguingly the Coen Brothers and Bong Joon-ho. As it turns out, not every “creature” element is meant to terrorize. Some, in fact, are transcendent, such as the first time Ortega touches the fabled horn and communes with the beast in a kaleidoscopic symphony of imagery and harp music.

“It’s this otherworldly supernatural attachment to this creature,” Ortega says of her kinship with the beast. “It takes her on this celestial journey into the unknown. It’s everything that we think the afterlife would be, and it’s like all of these realms existing at once, and it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen in your life, and it’s the most terrifying thing you’ve ever seen.”

It also hints that there is more at play with these steeds’ intelligence than just an appetite. Says Ortega, “I think in a way they’re almost trying to enlighten Ridley. It’s this understanding that they need to protect one another, that they are one, which I guess makes sense coming from a unicorn who’s endangered. You might want to form some sympathy.”

THE MAIDEN FAIR

Death of a Unicorn can be a strange beast. It’s funny. It’s scary. It wants to be, as its director says, “someone’s favorite movie,” provided that fave is silly, highly rewatchable, but never “junk food.” It is perhaps a film meant

for someone like the character of Ridley—a vaper who would appreciate that she’s inspired by art history.

“I was trying to think of what is a pure-hearted maiden in 2025,”

Scharfman says about the final major influence from medieval mythology: a young woman who can enchant a unicorn. “And that’s probably an idealist empath who’s on a college campus somewhere protesting right now.”

Says Ortega, “I mean down to even that big red jacket that I wear, it was inspired by the cloak the maiden is wearing in the tapestries.”

The movie toys with generational and class differences, and has at least one elite consumed à la carte by stallions, but it is reaching toward something the director hopes is finally aspirational.

“With my generation, it’s a blessing and a curse to have the internet because we have the world at our fingertips, and we can educate ourselves as much as we want to, or we can fall down rabbit holes as much as we want to,” Ortega

considers.“But the general feeling, and what kind of gives me hope for my generation, is that for the most part, we are doing our best to be open and empathetic and supportive of so many different walks of life.”

That can include the unicorns they meet along the way. Sure, the ones in this movie are ferocious, ravenous, and sometimes prone to wholesale slaughter, but they’re also inspired by real-life animals. Even that glittery purple blood carries meaning.

“There’s something interesting in creating a fictional creature that somehow lives between warm and coldblooded,” Scharfman says. “Obviously, red plus blue equals purple.” But he also notes that throughout the movie, Rudd’s Elliot is coded in blue while Ortega’s Ridley is in red.

“As the movie progresses, they’re moving toward each other,” the director adds. “Which gives you purple.” The good stuff.

Death of a Unicorn premieres at SXSW on March 8 and opens nationwide on March 28.

but there was always something funnier about killing a

Will Poulter is Shepard Leopold, the trust fund heir of the Leopold family fortune. He likes hot tubs and self-medication.

Writer-director Alex Scharfman on set with Jenna Ortega. Scharfman considered other magical creatures for his film,

unicorn.

2025 PREVIEW

You can always bet on SXSW to serve up an exciting and eclectic line-up, from starry headliners and indie-movie aces to dynamic docs and future TV classics, as well as the best in music, gaming, and tech. This year is no exception…

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

CHLOE LEWIS

BY DAVID

 THE DUTCHMAN

Nestled deep within SXSW’s list of films and featuring an unassuming title, The Dutchman nevertheless has one of the most stacked casts in this year’s festival. André Holland, Kate Mara, Zazie Beetz, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Aldis Hodge, and Lauren E. Banks all highlight this thriller from director Andre Gaines. Together, Gaines and that cast tackle this story of a successful Black man who is drawn into a psychological game of cat-and-mouse with a mysterious white woman on a New York City subway.

CROW, LOUISA MELLOR, ALEC BOJALAD, JOE GEORGE

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT

 AMERICAN SWEATSHOP

WE DOUBT MANY THESE DAYS would argue with the truism that the internet is a toxic place. So Daisy’s online job in American Sweatshop should probably come with hazard pay since she is charged with seeking out, identifying, and then purging hateful, sexual, and otherwise violent content from a social media platform. This “worst job in the world” is a setup ripe for psychological horror, perhaps, although director Uta Briesewitz might be going for something a little more nuanced in a film that stars Lili Reinhart as the digital Sisyphus.

An obvious departure from Reinhart’s most famous work on Riverdale, the Galveston star is no stranger to SXSW dramas or the troubled corners of online fandom. American Sweatshop also stars Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) and Joel Fry (Our Flag Means Death).

 GOOD BOY

There have been plenty of ghost stories about children who see dead people, video cameras that record them, and even Ouija boards that communicate with spirits and spooks. Yet for anyone who’s ever owned a dog or cat that startles itself at midnight and gets distracted while staring into the dark, it’s a bit odd to realize no one’s explored what is going on during this hour of the wolf. Until now.

Ben Leonberg makes his feature debut in this midnighter with a wicked setup about why your pet fixates on empty corners, refuses to go in the basement, and inexplicably barks at nothing. And you can bet it’s nothing good in a movie with a logline that promises “no talking pets, just terrifying scares.”

MIDNIGHTER

 O’DESSA

Geremy Jasper made a splash at Sundance and SXSW in 2017 with his wildly original character study, Patti Cake$, and now he’s in Austin for something described as no less than “a rock opera.” That’s right, O’Dessa, which will have its world premiere here, is expected to be a full-throated, electric-strumming musical from the guy who helmed Florence + the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over” music video. O’Dessa stars Stranger Things breakout and “All Too Well” muse Sadie Sink as a farm girl headed to the big city. She’s leaving home to recover a family heirloom, but what she will discover is her destiny and the power of true love, song, and, of course, rock. She’ll also run into a murderer’s row of talent that includes Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Luce), Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus), and Regina Hall (Girls Trip).

 FANTASY LIFE

Amanda Peet makes an overdue return to the big screen in Fantasy Life, a new in-competition narrative dramedy from actor-turned-director Matthew Shear. In the film, Shear plays Sam, a recently laid-off paralegal who finds himself working as a babysitter for Dianne (Peet), an actor running into some challenging times after taking time off to raise a family. But when Sam is invited to join her family for the summer in Martha’s Vineyard, complications start to arise.

The film has all the makings of an adult-leaning delight from a writer-director who’s worked a long time in Noah Baumbach’s repertoire. Fantasy Life additionally holds the distinction of being Alessandro Nivola’s first film after amazing work in The Brutalist and Kraven the Hunter (yes, we’re serious about the latter). Here, he plays an aging rock star bassist who’s often on tour and perhaps in for the vacation of a lifetime.

 CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD

If one had to speculate about where horror trends are headed in the 2020s, we might guess that the movie monster is back. In which case, Shudder and RLJE Films could well have the next creature to take over your nightmares: Frendo the Clown.

The eponymous clown was once the benevolent idol of his community, a symbol that stood as shorthand for the happy lives of Midwestern town Kettle Springs. But after Kettle Springs’ corn syrup factory burns down and longsimmering tensions among neighbors boil over, guess who’s there to set things right? Ol’ Frendo again, now a smiling clown who comes in from the cornfields to cleanse this town of its burdens, one screaming victim at a time.

 ASH

DISTANT PLANETS. DECIMATED CREWS. Sci-fi mysteries within enigmas. These are some of our favorite things, and they’re arriving in force via Ash, the latest directorial effort from multi-hyphenated talent Flying Lotus. Indeed, the sometime music producer, DJ, and rapper is again trying on his genre hat with this space-opera throwback in which a woman wakes up on an alien world to discover her crew has been brutally slaughtered and that she has no memory as to how.

The film stars Eiza González as Riya, a boon for anyone who witnessed her steal scenes in Michael Bay’s Ambulance and wanted to see the Mexican actor get more leading roles. The movie also features Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul as a mysterious man who shows up in deep space and tells Riya that he has come to answer a distress call. But in space, everyone can hear you second-guess and doubt others.

MIDNIGHTER

 NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE

South By veterans should adore Matt Johnson after his 2023 movie, BlackBerry—a funny and thoughtful biopic about the infamous handheld device. Off the strength of co-writing, directing, and co-starring in that movie, Johnson’s ready to raise that credibility with Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Since 2007, Johnson and Jay McCarrol have created shorts about themselves as hapless musicians in Nirvanna the Band, a concept they parlayed into the TV series Nirvanna the Band the Show. Now, The Movie ups the stakes by showing the duo finally getting their holy grail—a gig at Toronto hot spot the Rivoli —only to get sent back in time to 2008. Alt-comedy hijinks are sure to ensue.

FILM

HE ADL INE R

 HOLLAND

NICOLE KIDMAN AND MATTHEW MACFADYEN are coming to SXSW! Unto itself, that is exciting news, but to know it is in a new twisty thriller from director Mimi Cave (the helmer of Fresh) just makes Holland seem ever so much more delicious… and menacing. In the film, Kidman and Macfadyen play an idyllic married couple, with Kidman’s Nancy finding time to be both an astute teacher and a happy homemaker for her husband and their son, Harry (Jude Hill). Meanwhile, Macfadyen’s Fred is a veritable pillar of the community. However, no picture is ever really perfect if you look at what’s outside the framing. And when fellow teacher Dave (Gael García Bernal) comes to Nancy with a secret that might implicate their whole way of life, a chain of events begins from which there will be no hiding.

NARRATIVE SPOTLIGHT

 THE BALTIMORONS

Legendary indie filmmakers and actors the Duplass Brothers are always a must-see engagement at any film festival, even when there’s only one of them attending. This time around it’s Jay Duplass’ turn to shine as he co-writes and directs The Baltimorons

Not to be confused with a Baltimore Orioles fan podcast of the same name, The Baltimorons follows a newly sober man named Cliff who cracks his tooth on Christmas Eve and embarks on an adventure through Baltimore with Didi, his emergency dentist.

 HALLOW ROAD

“The phone call that changes everything.” It’s a fear we are all familiar with in our modern era of technological interconnectedness. And it’s a fear that Babak Anvari’s Hallow Road seeks to explore. Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys star in this thriller in which two parents receive a late-night phone call from their daughter, who says she has caused a tragic car accident. Shot in Czechia and Ireland, Hallow Road brings an international flair to SXSW’s Midnighters lineup.

FILM

HE ADL INE R

 THE ASTRONAUT

As one of several films featuring Kate Mara at this South By festival, The Astronaut puts the Black Mirror star in the role of Lt. Sam Walker, the eponymous starwoman who is at the tail-end of her trip around orbit. Yet upon returning home, Sam becomes convinced that something extraterrestrial has followed her back to Earth.

It’s an intriguing premise that offers paranoia, dread, and a genre-ready way to examine concepts of identity and self. It is also a chance for Mara to return to space after starring in one of the best astronaut movies, The Martian. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Jess Varley and also stars Ivana Miličević (The 100 ) and the Laurence Fishburne.

 ARE WE GOOD?

MARC MARON MIGHT BE THE MOST INFLUENTIAL comedian of his generation, and yet most people can’t name one of his bits. That’s because Maron, whose stand-up and acting career goes back to 1987, rose to prominence with his podcast WTF?. Part comedy insider chat show, part therapy session, WTF? revealed Maron as a shockingly vulnerable and insightful interviewer, someone who unlocked the central appeal of stand-up comedy.

 DEAR

TOMORROW

Since the late 2000s, Danish filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schröder has explored odd corners of the world, as in his 2009 parkour documentary My Playground or 2018’s Fantasy Fantasy, about two girls with autism. For Dear Tomorrow, Schröder returns to one of his favorite locations to tell the story of lonely Japanese men.

DOCS SPOTLIGHT

For Are We Good?, director Steven Feinartz traces Maron’s life and career. The film touches on everything from his childhood and early career to the public explosion of his very personal podcast to the loss of his partner, indie filmmaker and SXSW legend Lynn Shelton. Are We Good? promises to be classic Maron: raw, moving, and hilarious.  THE AGE

Dear Tomorrow focuses on a mental health hotline that supports men in crisis, showing not only the difficult circumstances under which these professionals work, but also the incredible size of the loneliness epidemic. As bleak as that sounds, Schröder always finds a human, empathetic core for his stories, and Dear Tomorrow continues in that vein—honoring the men’s dignity and never allowing them to become mere statistics on a government chart.

OF DISCLOSURE

The Age of Disclosure offers an irresistible premise: director Dan Farah speaks to 34 members of the American government, including high-ranking officials in the military and intelligence community, about the existence of aliens. The film purports to reveal an 80-year effort by U.S. leaders to hide findings about non-human intelligent life, even battling against other nations to protect their information.

While that concept alone makes The Age of Disclosure a mustwatch, and materials for the film

play up the ’90s paranoia of the concept with an aesthetic that recalls The X-Files, Farah has more than sensationalism in mind. The Age of Disclosure also promises to explore the impact of government secrets on the populations they are supposed to represent.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION

THE SPIES AMONG US

The Spies Among Us offers one of the more timely competition entries at SXSW. Directors Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman follow a former victim of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, as he confronts his one-time tormentors. The Spies Among Us cuts through the rhetoric about dictatorship to remind viewers of the fundamental cost. Fearless but empathetic, this documentary should be essential viewing for anyone who’s worried about the world today.

 ARREST THE MIDWIFE

What does it fully mean to have the freedom of choice when it comes to childbirth? That understanding is going to be examined in Arrest the Midwife, a new documentary from director-producer Elaine Epstein— the filmmaker who gave the world the Sundance and Emmy-nominated doc State of Denial Epstein’s Arrest the Midwife picks up where the media fallout left off after three homebirth midwives who served Amish and Mennonite communities were arrested in upstate New York. Their detainment ignited a media firestorm and a wave of legislation, as well as a debate about just what freedom of choice, and maternal health, really means.

REMAINING NATIVE

Thanks to recent works such as Reservation Dogs and Sugarcane, pop culture is becoming aware of Indian boarding schools, a particularly shameful chapter in American history. Director Paige Bethmann, who recently made the list of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch, continues that conversation with Remaining Native The film focuses on 17-year-old Ku Stevens, whose running feats continue the work of his grandfather, who escaped from a boarding school decades earlier. As he works to make a collegiate running team, Stevens refuses to let the country forget what happened to his family. Bethmann chronicles everything from Stevens’ sporting achievements to investigations of artifacts stolen from Native peoples.

THE PYTHON HUNT

You might not know this, but Florida can be a really weird place. Case in point: this new doc about a group of amateur hunters who compete in a 10-night, government-sanctioned contest to see who can remove (read: kill) the most Burmese pythons, invasive snakes that threaten the Everglades ecosystem. Filmmaker Xander Robin (2016 horror Are We Not Cats) sheds light on this most Floridian of conservation efforts.

 MIX TAPE

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him somewhere even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teenagers who bond over their shared love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been.

SXSW PREVIEW

 GOVERNMENT CHEESE

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail-time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life.

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter alongside screenwriterproducer Aeysha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, and will stream on Apple TV+ in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

 HAPPY FACE

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death… behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount+ series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator who has a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith “Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. The show stars Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, and it lands in March.

 DATES IN REAL LIFE

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. The show stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thinks her virtual relationship with her boyfriend is fulfilling—that is, until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others, face to face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series.

 SPY HIGH

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

#1 HAPPY FAMILY USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become #1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series —created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24—mines the early 2000s Muslim American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March.

 STARS DINER

Fun fact: the statistic that 90 percent of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17 percent of restaurants close after year one. But what’s the statistic for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California? That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker, and features Natalie Palamides (who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast).

PREMIERE

THE

STUDIO

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV+ in March.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad, Knocked Up, This Is the End), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s Catherine O’Hara and Agatha All Along’s Kathryn Hahn, along with Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, The Batman’s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty (Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

 BULLDOZER

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms (perhaps you remember “Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm’s ninth season?), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. Assisted by notable performers such as Nat Faxon, Mary Steenburgen, and Harvey Guillén, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman who’s trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of… motorized construction machine.

LIVE MUSIC SPOTLIGHT

The must-see acts performing this year.

BY NICK HARLEY

KOE WETZEL

Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW (Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park), March 13

Country music fans have never been more open to genre experimentation. The success of artists such as Jellyroll, HARDY, and Shaboozey proves that there’s an audience for hip-hop, hard rock, and metal-infused country music, and the next artist primed for a mainstream crossover breakout is Koe Wetzel. Fusing grunge and outlaw country with pristine pop production, Wetzel fits comfortably in a country lineage while pushing the genre forward. With a summer opening for Morgan Wallen in stadiums ahead, Wetzel should be country music’s next household name.

 COLDWAVE

Mohawk, March 12

Not to be confused with the gothy, atmospheric genre of the same name, Coldwave is a hard-charging six-piece indie rock band hailing from Adelaide, Australia. Coldwave combines rafter-reaching guitars and swelling horns with bandleader Harrison Evans’ talk-singing vocals, the type that seems to be all the rage in the post-punk scene. Those who miss the Isaac Wood-led iteration of Black Country, New Road will find comfort in Coldwave’s most recent single, “The Ants” b/w “Italia ’06.”

QUELLE ROX

The Driskill Bar & Grill, March 13

Brooklyn-based, self-proclaimed “chonga” artist Quelle Rox creates what she calls “Spanglish Dream Pop.” All it takes is one listen to tracks like “apareces de la nada” and “mas bonita” to see the vision; spacey synth textures, wobbly guitars, and vintage R&B-tinged vocals make you feel like you’re floating in a neon-hued Miami dreamscape. Rox, who also goes by Rocky, has a warm versatility that would fit just as well on a bill with Kali Uchis as with Mac DeMarco.

 TERRAPLANA

Valhalla, March 10

KAP BAMBINO

Elysium, March 11

France’s Kap Bambino first graced SXSW in 2009, where their coarse electropunk style put them in the same lineage as Atari Teenage Riot and made them contemporaries with Crystal Castles. But with chiptune and hyperpop rising with a new generation, Orion Bouvier and Caroline Martial find themselves returning to Austin as elder statesmen. Wildly unpredictable and known for their kinetic live performances, Kap Bambino are performing tunes from their new record, set to be released on Cleopatra Records in March 2025.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to hear Brazilian shoegaze band Terraplana’s sophomore record, Natural, by the time of print, but if lead single “Charlie” is any indication, we’re in for a treat. Featuring classic quiet-loud dynamics, alternatingly lush and abrasive guitar leads, and bassist/vocalist Stephani Heuczuk floating above it all like a siren in dark waters, “Charlie” is an instant attention-grabber in an increasingly crowded field. Terraplana has more moves than the typical shoegaze playbook, flirting with grunge, emo, and even Britpop in the past, so we’re excited to see what other tricks they have up their sleeve.

DIE SLO

Shangri-La, March 15

Three Austin-based hip-hop groups joined forces to form DIE SLO Entertainment, a collective greater than the sum of its parts. United by their motto “Stay humble but stay hungry,” DIE SLO features core members Sertified, SouthSide Hippie, WKDZD, and Clova, emcees with different skill sets and cultural backgrounds who nonetheless coalesce. The group’s latest single, “Still Holdin’,” featuring Clova icily gliding over Cassidy Fisher’s waterfall keys, signals this camp is just getting started.

CARDINALS

The Velveeta Room, March 13

Ireland’s Cardinals fuse swaggering indie rock with Irish trad folk and hints of shoegaze. Their bio mentions Andy Warhol’s Factory and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound; the use of squeeze box on “Roseland” recalls the Pogues, and the distorted vocals on “Amphetamines” conjures images of Julian Casablancas in midtown Manhattan. Cardinals are clearly rock traditionalists, but singles like “Get It” show they have the chops to echo legacy acts without falling into pastiche.

 INVOKE

Cooper’s BBQ, March 12

Austin’s own Invoke is a multiinstrumental quartet that attempts to wrap its arms around the entirety of the traditional American songbook. Whether it’s bluegrass, Americana, Appalachian folk, jazz, or classical, Invoke pushes the classic string quartet in progressive, ineffable directions. The group’s resume is sprawling, academic, philanthropic, and damn impressive, featuring countless collaborations, commissioning projects, residencies, workshops, and more. You would be hard-pressed to find a more decorated, accomplished group of musicians at SXSW.

FILLY

Shangri-La, March 13

After a Brat Summer, Austria’s FILLY seems primed for an American breakout of her own. Her latest single, “Whatever Happens,” even has a cover featuring a familiar shade of green. The rising hyperpop artist mixes classic pop hooks with drum and bass touchstones, and her shimmery vocals and buoyant energy are like a sugar rush you don’t want to end. Songs like “Sweat” throw a fresh coat of paint on early ’00s electropop signifiers.

LUVIS

Mohawk Indoor, March 11

Hailing from Uji, Kyoto, multi-instrumentalist singersongwriter luvis makes genre-crossing alternative music that pulls as much from R&B, soul, and jazz as from guitarbased indie rock. His public playlists on Spotify are just as likely to have My Bloody Valentine and Boards of Canada as Minako Yoshida and Haruomi Hosono. Having appeared on NPR’s World Cafe, luvis’ breezy style is accessible enough for mass consumption yet distinct, making one-toone comparisons tricky. He brings to mind indie pop acts like Still Woozy but feels capable of so much more.

SQUID THE KID

Cooper’s BBQ, March 13

Genre-bending Squid the Kid makes a funky mix of hip-hop, R&B, and pop, garnering comparisons to KAYTRANADA and Anderson .Paak. With infectious charisma and an effortless flow, the Melbourne native shifts in and out of melodic crooning and credible rapping on his latest EP, KOZY TAPE, sometimes sounding like three distinct artists on one track. The effect creates a bullet-proof collection of feel-good bops, the type of music that will have you smiling and feeling just as fab as Squid the Kid sounds.

CHAN

Coconut Club Rooftop, March 12

Milwaukee’s Sebastian Oliva had no musical experience before deciding to dive headfirst into music production in 2012. Now known as Chan, he’s assembled an impressive catalog of EDM tracks that blend traditional Mexican styles with dance music. Whether he’s remixing regional Mexican music for the club or creating his own bangers that combine banda, cumbia, merengue, and other Latin styles into something thoroughly fresh, Chan’s irresistible beats will certainly supercharge your

Want a sample of the range of acts hitting Austin? Check out our SXSW 2025 playlist. BY CHRIS LONGO AND ADAM SWEENEY

SCAN THE QR CODE TO

STREAM THE FULL PLAYLIST

BOLD LOVE “Never Enough”

Personal Trainer “Round”

Delivery “Like a Million Bucks”

Two-Man Giant Squid “Weird Recordings (you’ve got some)”

Sierra Spirit “bleed you”

Journey Montana “Best One”

The Ting Tings “Down Hands”

Sunflower Bean “Moment in the Sun”

Twin Shadow “Run My Heart”

Catcher “Three”

Freak Slug “Spells”

Gurriers “Sign of the Times”

Lucy Sugerman “Our Suburbia”

Mall Girl “Midwest”

GAMES & T

SXSW PREVIEW

PANELS: THE STATE OF PLAY

BY JOHN SAAVEDRA AND MICHAEL AHR

GAMES

THE HUMAN CONNECTION OF NARRATIVE WRITING & VOICES IN GAMING

Tuesday, March 11, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am CT, Fairmont | Manchester EE

What would our favorite triple-A games be without the talented voice actors who bring their characters and stories to life? Featuring award-winning voice actor Eli Harris (Immortals of Aveum, Starship Troopers), this panel dives into the craft of giving voice to great video game narratives.

CLAIMING THE FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT (FEAT. CONAN O’BRIEN)

Tuesday, March 11, from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm CT, Austin Convention Center | Ballroom D

TV’s very own Clueless Gamer, Conan O’Brien, hosts a fireside chat with Blizzard president Johanna Faries about the power of a great IP in today’s games industry. Blizzard franchises such as World of Warcraft continue to bring gamers together, and Faries shares insights on why that’s more important than ever to the medium.



DEATH STRANDING 2 PANEL (FEAT. HIDEO KOJIMA)

Sunday, March 9, from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm CT, Austin Convention Center | Ballroom D

Gaming’s first true auteur, Hideo Kojima, has been marrying the interactive with the cinematic for decades to make games that are not only innovative but have also proved shockingly prescient about our future. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, with its starstudded cast, beautiful visuals, and epic tale about heroes working to reconnect society after an apocalyptic event, promises to be the culmination of Kojima’s work in the medium. But what’s next for the game director? The movies, thanks to a deal with A24 to make a Death Stranding adaptation. Might we hear news about that as well?

TECHNOLOGY

NASA’S LOVE LETTER: STUNNING WEBB IMAGES & MORE

Sunday, March 9, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am CT, Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon K

Get ready for NASA’s panel exploring the latest discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope and other cuttingedge observatories. Featuring the participation of NASA astrophysicists Amber Straughn, Stefanie Milam, and Knicole Colón, this session will take attendees on a journey to the most distant galaxy ever observed, reveal insights into the atmosphere of an extraterrestrial planet, and showcase star nurseries through the use of breathtaking space photography.

VIDEO GAMES AND THE CROSSOVER WITH ENTERTAINMENT IPS

Monday, March 10, from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm CT, Fairmont | Manchester GG

Video games have crossed over into movies and television for almost as long as the medium has existed, but recent offerings, such as The Last of Us and Fallout, have truly ushered in a golden age of video game adaptations. But what about when the crossover is the other way around, with major Hollywood IPs like Dune and The Boys popping up in the games we love? Activision Blizzard chats with Variety about the lucrative world of IP crossovers.

OUT OF THIS WORLD: BUILDING A MOBILE NETWORK ON THE MOON

Monday, March 10, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am CT, Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon J

For a fascinating look at the future of space communication, don’t miss Nokia Bell Labs’ panel on building the first cellular network on the Moon. As part of NASA’s IM-2 mission, this groundbreaking project will test whether the same technology that keeps us connected on Earth can help astronauts as they collect data, share information, and control operations on the Moon and beyond. With a vision toward a future space economy, this discussion will explore how cellular networks could lay the foundation for a lunar internet.

WAVEFORM: THE MKBHD PODCAST LIVE WITH MARQUES BROWNLEE

Saturday, March 8, from 10:00 am to 11:00 am CT, Austin Convention Center | Ballroom A

Fans of the wildly popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee can look forward to a special live taping of Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast. With over a decade of experience reviewing everything from cutting-edge smartphones to electric vehicles, Brownlee, alongside co-hosts Andrew Manganelli and David Imel, will share expert insights into the latest technology trends. The live presentation will offer, as you might expect, a deep dive into the hottest new gadgets and whether they are worth the investment.

RESTORING OUR SANITY ONLINE: A REVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL FRAMEWORK

Thursday, March 13, from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm CT, Hilton Austin Downtown | Salon J

Looking for a thought-provoking take on the future of social media? Be sure to check out author/inventor Mark Weinstein’s panel on how Big Tech is impacting our minds, society, and democracy itself. Pulling from his book Restoring Our Sanity Online, Weinstein will present a bold and revolutionary framework for reimagining social media—one that prioritizes critical thinking, mental health, privacy, and civil discourse.

ASSASSIN THE SAMURAI AND THE

We visited Ubisoft Quebec to get a first look at Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the actionadventure franchise’s long-awaited foray into the world of samurai.

BY BERNARD BOO

It’s truly mind-boggling that we’ve waited almost 18 years to play an Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan. The franchise has essentially been a ninja simulator from the beginning, yet players somehow went toe to toe with a minotaur before ever getting to sneak around the shadowy bowels of a Japanese castle. Fortunately, Assassin’s Creed Shadows may just be worth the years-long wait. In many respects, it’s the most ambitious AC game yet. Den of Geek was recently invited to Ubisoft Quebec’s studio in Quebec City to play six hours of a preview build before the game’s March 20 release. We were shown a few early cinematics introducing us to the game’s two protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke; we explored the open world; completed one of the game’s main missions and a few side activities; and played around with the hideout customization mode. Most of the demo was set in the Southwestern region of Harima, where our heroes followed clues to find those responsible for stealing a precious box tied to Naoe’s past.

The challenge with a long-running series like Assassin’s Creed is that fans have certain expectations of the franchise yet demand that each entry feel fundamentally new and different from everything that’s come before. It’s a tenuous balancing act, but Ubisoft Quebec has approached that challenge not by expanding the scope of Shadows in comparison to previous titles but by deepening, refining, and even subverting the core concepts of Assassin’s Creed.

The game’s heroes, Naoe and Yasuke, represent different perspectives— and playing styles.

JAPAN AT LONG LAST

Shadows is set in the year 1579 during Japan’s Warring States Period, with daimyō (feudal lords) like Oda Nobunaga jostling for power. It’s the perfect era for an action-packed story of samurai and shinobi.

Yasuke is taken under Nobunaga’s wing and trained to be a samurai when he arrives on the shores of Japan at the service of Jesuits. Yasuke is based on a historical figure of the same name, the first Black samurai; in the game’s story he represents the perspective of nobility.

Naoe views things from the perspective of commoners and working-class people. She was trained to be a shinobi (ninja) by her father and has been largely shielded by him from the larger machinations of war raging across Japan. She never knew her mother and knows little of her family’s background, but when she’s thrust into conflict, she learns about the nature of her lineage and decides to build a brighter future for her people.

“At its heart, it’s a story about community,” associate narrative director Brooke Davies says. “It’s about rebuilding after loss with a chosen family. These are ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstances, and the team really poured their hearts into exploring these stories in this tremendous historical context.”

Ubisoft Quebec spent time in Japan, consulted experts in Japanese history, and did extensive research to craft an open world that feels immersive and transportive, and more historically rich and accurate than any version of Feudal Japan seen in a video game before. “We immersed ourselves in Japanese history every day,” Davies says.

Shadows is technically the first completely new-gen game in the franchise (Valhalla and Mirage were both released for new and last-gen platforms), and that’s made abundantly clear when exploring its lush environments. Whether you’re riding your horse along rice fields or sneaking into a heavily guarded fortress, the visuals are picturesque and absurdly detailed, down to the texture and reflectiveness of materials in houses and the flight patterns of birds. The game even features new cloud and wind simulations never seen in the series before, as well as dynamic changing of seasons.

“We built new graphics technologies for this game as we were developing the game itself. We built systems for

textures, wind, facial animation, and even hair,” explains game director Charles Benoit.

It’s not just that the game looks “pretty” or “realistic.” It’s that the high fidelity of the environments makes the game world more engaging to explore. Open-world games have a tendency to feel empty after a few dozen hours of play, but the section of Shadows’ game world that we played encouraged exploration, not just to find new things to do but to find new things to gawk at.

“Exploration was something we really focused on to make sure players looked around at the world and weren’t just dragged around by icons on a map,” Benoit says. “We want players to discover things on their own just by moving around.”

THE WAYS OF THE BLADE

The core gameplay elements of Assassin’s Creed—parkour, stealth, melee combat—are all represented in Shadows and feel familiar on first touch. Series veterans will be able to pick up and play, no problem. But once you actually engage enemies and try to, say, loot a fortress, you find out very quickly that the stealth and combat mechanics in this game are completely different beasts.

Yasuke and Naoe play very differently from one another —this is as asymmetrical as it gets. Yasuke can take a lot of damage and wreck shop with giant swords and hammers, much like the weapons-based combat from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Ubisoft Quebec’s own Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, but with more heft to it (blocking, parrying, and good timing in general are key). It’s not that Yasuke’s a tank. Parkour is definitely within his skill set, but if you try to run across the spine of a rooftop with Yasuke, you’re absolutely going to get struck by arrows. He’s slow but powerful, especially when compared to Naoe.

Naoe is the most nimble, agile assassin in the entire franchise thus far. She’s quick, elusive, and can get herself out of trouble in a snap. But if you’re not thoughtful about your approach to enemy encounters and get cornered, she can’t take much damage at all. Careful stealth is key to playing as the shinobi, especially if your objective is to take out dozens of enemies without alerting a soul.

There are some small improvements to stealth that make enemy encounters in Shadows feel significantly more dynamic and challenging. There’s the ability to go prone, which reduces the sound you make. Yes, enemies react to light and sound disturbances, and get this: enemies can look up now, too! So the old trick of losing guards by simply skittering up onto a rooftop doesn’t work anymore; they’ll sniff you out if you’re not precise. “With prone, light and shadows, and sound, it’s a way for players to kind of rediscover stealth in Assassin’s Creed,” Benoit explains.

The specialized nature of Yasuke and Naoe’s respective skill sets means you need to play tactically and adaptively. This creates an extra layer of strategy for you to consider when deciding who you want to take into each mission. The best part is that both of them are fun to play, and you’re incentivized to switch between them as opposed to leaning on one all the way through.

“During production, we had moments where we had to balance things between Naoe and Yasuke,” Benoit recalls. “At first, Naoe was super good at everything. She could stealth and was super good at fights, and Yasuke was missing something. So we pulled some levers, removed some things from Naoe, and added things to Yasuke’s game to make him a superior fighter. They feel very different from each other, but it’s all very balanced.”

The result of these refinements is stealth and combat that’s more intense, challenging, high-stakes, and volatile than we’ve seen in the series before.

DREAMS OF KUROSAWA

characters with humanity and pure emotion. There’s a brutal, heartbreaking scene early in the game that introduces the story’s villains, and without spoiling too much, Tsunoda’s acting is startlingly powerful and evocative in this sequence.

The game’s music is evocative as well, with sweeping orchestral pieces organically mixed with modern psychedelic rock and hip-hop. It’s a strange musical tapestry that doesn’t seem like it should work, but it totally does. The changes in style and genre coincide with the changing emotions of the scenes, so the music is almost seamlessly woven into the story.

Shadows is about people coming together to make the world a better place, to bring light into difficult times.

“It takes a village to bring these moments from script to screen,” Davies says. “We were fortunate to work with a great cinematic design team and amazing performers. The actors really embodied their roles, and our music really heightened the emotion. [Each of our teams] comes together to make sure these key emotional moments are felt by the player.”

The game’s cinematic elements have been elevated as well. The most noticeable difference is the cinematography—all of the camera angles and compositions feel heavily inspired by the greats of Japanese cinema such as Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. Conversations between characters often look stilted in open-world games, but there’s an uncommon level of care put into the cutscenes here.

Mo-cap makes a big difference, with actors Masumi Tsunoda (Naoe) and Tongayi Chirisa (Yasuke) infusing their

Like any great piece of Japanese cinema, Shadows aims to tell a story with a profound message. While fictionalized, Naoe and Yasuke’s journeys speak to real-world issues and reflect not just the tumult of Feudal Japan but aspects of humanity and compassion that resound in the world of today.

“Shadows is about people coming together to make the world a better place, to bring light into difficult times,” Davies says. “I hope players feel like they’re part of that story.”

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is out on March 20 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Naoe’s shinobi skills make her one of the most agile assassins in the series so far.

SOUTH BY SOUTHQUIZ!

Test your wits on our SXSW-themed movie and TV quiz. BY LOUISA

1

 Actor Nic Cage was a headline speaker at SXSW 2024. What’s his real name?

Eric Marlon Bishop

Nicolas Kim Coppola

Carlos Irwin Estevez

Issur Danielovitch

2

The first SXSW was held in March 1987. Which of these former SXSW performers wasn’t yet born?

Lana Del Rey

Lady Gaga

Lizzo

Solange Knowles

3 Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s series The Studio is this year’s SXSW opening night TV premiere. Which 2011 superhero comic-book movie did they write together?

Green Lantern

X-Men: First Class

The Green Hornet

Thor

MELLOR

4

Which mystical creature completes the title of this SXSW 2025 Headliner starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega: Death of a…?

Dragon

Leprechaun Mermaid Unicorn

5

Which of these famous Austins played Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic, Elvis?

Austin North Austin Daye

Austin Allegro

Austin Butler

6

SXSW 2025 features a Jay Duplass rom-com about a newly sober man spending Christmas Eve with his dentist. What’s its title?

The Baltimorons The Orlandorks The Omahalfwits The Dallasshats

7

A Kevin Bacon career retrospective is taking place at this year’s SXSW. According to the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” what is Kevin Bacon’s “Bacon Number?”

8

 Which of the following is true about 1994 SXSW speaker Johnny Cash?

He once broke five ribs in a fight with an ostrich

He was an ordained minister in the Gospel of Jesus Christ

He accidentally started a wildfire that destroyed over 500 acres of forestland

All of the above

9

At which famous U.S. landmark does Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest culminate?

The Grand Canyon

Mount Rushmore

The Empire State Building

Niagara Falls

10 Who directed 1993’s Dazed and Confused, set on the last day of school at Robert E. Lee High in Austin, Texas?

Richard Linklater

John Hughes

Amy Heckerling

Wes Anderson

11

 Two acres of land outside Austin in 2018 were used to build a recreation of the town of Sweetwater to promote season two of which TV show?

Ozark

Atlanta

Westworld GLOW

12

 And finally, a full-scale replica of fictional chain restaurant Los Pollos Hermanos popped up in downtown Austin in 2017 to promote season three of which TV show?

The Leftovers

Rick and Morty Better Call Saul The Good Place

LIFE CAN CHANGE IN A FLASH.

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TheBook Industry Charitable Foundation (Binc) is the only nonprofit in the country dedicated to supporting bookstore and comic shop owners and employees through life’s unexpected emergencies like ER visits, eviction, cancer diagnosis, flooding, death in the family, and weather-related disasters. Support bookstores, comic shops and the people who work there by supporting Binc. Find out more at bincfoundation.org

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—Comic retailer helped through a housing crisis