SXSW 2026 Interview: Richard E. Williams and the Cast of Dead Eyes on First-Person Horror and Indie Filmmaking
- Horror Movies Uncut
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SXSW 2026 Interview: Richard E. Williams and the Cast of Dead Eyes on Grief, First-Person Horror, and Bringing the Nightmare to Life
When Horror Movies Uncut sat down with filmmaker Richard E. Williams and the cast of Dead Eyes at South by Southwest, the conversation quickly revealed the unusual origins of one of the festival’s most inventive indie horror projects.
The film blends psychological horror, grief, and first-person perspective filmmaking into a story that feels both intimate and unsettling. During the interview, Williams and his cast shared how the film came together—from the nightmare that inspired it to the technical challenges of making a first-person horror film on an independent budget.
The Image That Started Everything
For Williams, Dead Eyes began with a simple but haunting visual.
“My original idea was the image of this ghostly little girl in a forest,” Williams told Horror Movies Uncut. “That image became the jumping-off point for the entire story.”
The director explained that while the film deals with supernatural elements, the emotional core of the story comes from something far more grounded.
“Real horror is losing someone,” Williams said. “That’s the kind of horror people actually experience.”
By combining the supernatural with themes of tragedy and grief, Williams wanted to create a film that felt emotionally authentic even while exploring the unknown.
“That’s what gave the story a real face,” he added.
Grief at the Center of the Story
Actress Ana Thu Nguyen, who plays Grace, said the emotional depth beneath the horror was what drew her to the project.
“What really stood out to me was that underneath all the horror, the story is exploring grief,” Nguyen explained.
Her character experiences that grief not only through her relationship with Sean but through the tension it creates between them.
“Grace becomes a driving force in Sean’s journey,” she said. “But she’s also dealing with the emotional fallout of that grief in their relationship.”
The result is a character who acts as both a grounding presence and someone caught in the escalating chaos.
Building the Film’s Most Unsettling Character
For actor Mischa Heywood, stepping into the role of Lily became one of the most enjoyable parts of the experience.
“I had so much fun playing Lily,” she said with a laugh. “She looks cute and innocent, but she’s actually terrifying.”
Heywood approached the character by blending familiar horror inspirations with her own physical performance choices.
“I referenced The Ring a little bit,” she said. “That idea of someone always being in the shadows.”
But she also wanted Lily to feel something otherworldly.
“I thought of it like an alien trying to figure out how to move a human body for the first time,” she explained.
Subtle eye movements and unnatural gestures helped create the unsettling presence audiences see on screen.
Horror Through a First-Person Lens
One of the most ambitious elements of Dead Eyes is its use of a first-person camera perspective—an approach rarely attempted in independent horror.
Williams knew from the beginning that he wanted to push the format further than most filmmakers.
“The only first-person films I’d really seen were basically done with GoPros,” he said. “I wanted to put a cinema camera on someone’s head.”
That decision created a series of logistical challenges during production.
“We basically had four people operating together as one character,” Williams explained. “The camera operator, someone carrying the rig, the boom operator, and another actor following them.”
Coordinating movement, performance, and camera framing simultaneously made each scene a technical puzzle.
But for Williams, that difficulty was part of the fun.
“That’s the best part of indie filmmaking,” he said. “Figuring it out.”
Performing Without Being Seen
Actor Rijen Laine faced a unique challenge on the project: performing in a role where audiences rarely see him on screen.
At first, the concept caught him off guard.
“My first thought was, ‘Wait… I’m not actually going to be seen?’” Laine joked.
Still, the film’s horror-game inspiration and unusual perspective made the project an easy yes.
“I’m a big fan of the video game influences behind it,” he said. “So the idea of doing a film built around that concept was a no-brainer.”
For actors facing similar situations, Laine believes the fundamentals of performance remain the same.
“Whether you’re on camera or off, you’re still doing the same work,” he said. “Those acting techniques you learn exist for a reason.”
The SXSW Premiere Experience
Like many independent productions, Dead Eyes reached a major milestone with its premiere at SXSW.
For some members of the cast, the screening marked the first time they had seen the finished film.
“It was wild seeing it come together,” Laine said.
Williams admitted that hearing the audience react in real time was one of the most surprising parts of the experience.
“People were laughing at moments I didn’t expect,” he said. “And then other moments landed exactly the way we hoped.”
For Nguyen, watching scenes she wasn’t present for during production added a new layer to the experience.
“As an actor, you don’t always see the full picture while filming,” she said. “So it was really exciting to watch the rest of the horror unfold.”
A Collaborative Indie Horror Effort
By the end of the conversation, one thing was clear: Dead Eyes is the result of a collaborative creative effort that embraced the limitations and possibilities of independent filmmaking.
For Williams and his cast, SXSW provided the perfect place to share the film with audiences for the first time.
And as the festival continues, the team behind Dead Eyes is eager to see how viewers respond to a horror story built on grief, perspective, and a nightmare that began with one haunting image in the woods.
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