SXSW 2026: POV Horror Dead Eyes Debuts Trailer Ahead of World Premiere
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SXSW 2026: POV Horror Dead EyesUnleashes Trailer Ahead of World Premiere
A new POV horror experience is headed to Austin.
The trailer for Dead Eyes, the latest feature from Australian filmmaker Richard E. Williams, has premiered ahead of the film’s world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival next week.
The film will debut March 12 at 3:00 p.m. at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – South Lamar (Theater 6) as part of the festival’s Visions section, which is known for showcasing bold films with distinctive directorial voices.
The newly released trailer offers a quick glimpse of what audiences can expect from the film’s intense POV presentation. Rather than revealing much of the story, the footage primarily highlights the immersive first-person perspective that drives the film. What we do see suggests that the central group of characters has ventured into the forest in search of Sean’s missing father, setting the stage for the nightmare that unfolds deeper in the woods. Expect to hear more about Dead Eyes as we move closer to its South by Southwest screenings.
Dead Eyes stars Mischa Heywood (Bring Her Back), Ana Thu Nguyen (upcoming Mortal Kombat II), Stephen Phillips, Charles Cottier (The Demon Disorder), and Alea O’Shea, with additional performances by Rijen Laine (In Our Blood, Tidelands). Worldwide sales are being handled by AMP, led by Head of Sales and Acquisitions Anthony Buckner.
The film follows Sean and his fiancée Grace as they travel into a remote forest in search of Sean’s father, Paul, who disappeared after the tragic death of his youngest daughter, Lilly. But returning to the site of Lilly’s death begins to unravel Sean’s mental state, with grief and guilt manifesting in increasingly disturbing ways.
As the pair digs deeper into the mystery of Paul’s disappearance, they uncover a horrifying truth.
Paul had been conducting cloning experiments in an attempt to resurrect Lilly.
The forest has since become a nightmarish battleground populated by cannibalistic mutant girls—each a clone of Lilly—violently competing to prove she is the “real” one. As Sean and Grace attempt to escape the grotesque creatures surrounding them, they are forced to confront unsettling questions about identity, loss, and the limits of grief.
Shot using a custom head-mounted Sony VENICE Rialto camera system, Dead Eyes places audiences directly inside the action, delivering a fully immersive first-person cinematic experience designed to intensify the film’s psychological horror and body-horror elements.
Williams, who previously directed the feature White Blood, has built a career spanning independent film, screenwriting, and commercial work in Australia. A finalist at both the Slamdance Film Festival and the QLD Screenwriting Awards, the filmmaker is now bringing his most ambitious horror project yet to the festival circuit.
With its visceral POV presentation and unsettling premise, Dead Eyes is shaping up to be one of the more daring genre entries hitting SXSW 2026.
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