The Descendent
2006 · 16m · USA
Directed by Robert Glickert
Genres: action, fantasy, horror
A supernatural action short film, produced as a Chapman University senior thesis, that was broadcast across Europe, Africa, and the United States — a student genre work in the lineage of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson's own early short films.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Glickert's senior thesis achieved broadcast distribution across three continents — an unusual outcome for a student film — and its self-conscious placement within the Raimi-Jackson genre tradition makes it a document of how that lineage transmits itself forward.
Senior thesis supernatural action, Sam Raimi cosplay, sold to Canal+. The director openly cites Raimi and Jackson, which is honest, and also tells you everything: it's apprenticeship work that succeeded by being competent in a niche. Fine for what it is.
A Chapman senior thesis that self-consciously places itself in the Raimi/Jackson genre-apprenticeship lineage and got picked up by Canal+ and NBC Universal. Student work with clear ambition and a real festival run, though the framing is more interesting than the synopsis lets on.