LEAD BELLY (U.S., 2025)
Writer/director Stephen King Simmons’ sophomore fright-fare feature Lead Belly finds young teen Kyle (Bastian Carrasco Betemps) and his older teen brother Marcus (Liam Foehl) spending summer vacation 1997 at their father Michael’s (Danny James) new home after he and the boys’ mother Sara (Emily Ashby) split up. The trio’s living situation goes from claustrophobic to weird to terrifying, with Simmons doing a fine job of developing the characters and their difficult relationships before heaping on the horror in a gonzo third act. James and Foehl give spot-on performances as two brothers who have a complicated relationship, while James gives a strong turn as their troubled father and Ashby is solid in her supporting role as the boys’ rightfully concerned mother. Simmons’ faithfulness in recreating the film’s late-nineties time period is certain to bring back a big dose of nostalgia. He delivers some unexpected revelations in Lead Belly, a coming-of-age slice of fear fare calculated to make viewers feel as uneasy as its two young protagonists.
The Lost Episode (Canada, 2025)
The Lost Episode is one of the better found footage horrors in recent memory for yours truly. It doesn’t deliver a lot in the way of huge surprises for the subgenre, but its terrific performances and a suspenseful full third act — rather than merely the last few minutes, which is often the case with many found footage shockers — elevate this one above the pack. A cameraman and sound man follow two smaller-town police officers on their route for a Cops-type day of filming on Halloween 2004. (In a classic found footage trope, the footage wasn’t unearthed or released until “now” — and yet again, we viewers are left to wonder who found it and how.) The filmmakers’ commitment to authenticity is undeniable: No credits are given except for “Assembled by XPU$HER and made available through the Black-Torrent Release Group,” and the film’s minimal festival information lists it as a Canadian film. The police officers feel like police officers, and the creepy characters come across as truly eerie. Found footage aficionados need to add The Lost Episode to their must-see lists, and fright-fare fanatics who tend to avoid the subgenre should make an exception and give this one a try. Kudos to all the so-far unnamed people who worked on this film.
Lead Belly and The Lost Episode screen as part of A Night of Horror Film Festival, which runs from March 6–9, 2025 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. For more information, visit http://www.anightofhorror.com/.
