Family Movie | SXSW 2026 Film Review

In Family Movie, screened at SXSW 2026, the real-life Bacon clan brings their dynamic to the screen in a heartfelt, slightly unhinged horror story about what it truly means to stick together. The film follows a filmmaking family navigating personal frustrations, buried resentments, and unexpected crises, all while trying to remember the one thing that matters most: no matter how messy life gets, family shows up for each other. And yes, it gets bloody.

Dad is Jack Smith (Kevin Bacon), a low-budget horror film director with little accomplishments to his filmography outside of always making gory pics with his beloved family. Also, he’s always in debt and this latest film needs to be completed or they will lose their family farm. His wife Elle (Kyra Sedgwick) is a devoted mother and actress in all of Jack’s films, and I mean she’s REALLY devoted to the mom portion. Ulla (Sosie Bacon) is also an aspiring actress who just booked a lead in a TV series, but she needs to leave ASAP and is afraid to break the news. Then there’s Trent (Travis Bacon), the family editor and kickboxer who wants to take over the camera even once, if his dad would ever let him.

All secrets converge in an almost vaudeville manner as a local neighbor ends up dead, which threatens to derail the entire Smith family film project, and all of their lives in the process. The events steamroll, but at the center of all the screaming and scrambling is a family that truly thrives when they’re together.

At the center is Kevin Bacon, who plays the kind of father who believes everything is mostly fine even when the emotional house is clearly on fire. Bacon leans fully into the role with a delightfully unaware charm, delivering the kind of performance that is both comedic and painfully relatable. You can almost see the gears turning, but always a few steps behind everyone else.

Then there’s Kyra Sedgwick, whose performance is gloriously unhinged in the best possible way, embodying a mother whose love for her family burns so intensely it occasionally scorches everything around it. She swings between warmth, fury, and desperation without ever dropping her smile.

The kids were no slouches though. Travis Bacon isn’t known for his acting, but he holds his own here as Trent, as well as composed the score which bounds all over in terms of scope in the best of ways. I swear there is even a little Scooby-Doo vibe in the mix. The true standout is Sosie Bacon as Ulla, who brings a grounded emotional center to the film. While the rest of the family spins wildly around her, she anchors the story with sincerity.

What makes Family Movie work is not just the novelty of seeing the Bacon family together nor the obvious love shown to the indie horror genre; it’s the authenticity they bring to the idea that family is complicated, frustrating, and occasionally insane. But at the end of the day, it’s all about supporting each other, because they’re still family.

Come for the Bacons, stay for the meal. If you love a good old-fashioned cheeky, meta-horror flick, Family Movie nicks the right artery.