Sometimes children will learn unhealthy coping mechanisms from their parents, especially when the parents are struggling with mental health issues, substance abuse, or abusive relationships themselves, leading to a vicious cycle with lasting impact on emotional well-being. Lead Belly presents a moving narrative around childhood trauma, which successfully uses supernatural themes to convey its message, but the nonlinear storytelling doesn’t always work in the film’s favor.
Written, directed, edited, and scored by Stephen King Simmons (The Parker Sessions), Lead Belly is a coming-of-age story set in 1997 about two brothers attempting to cope with childhood trauma and their parents’ divorce. Kyle (Bastian Carrasco Betemps) and his older brother Marcus (Liam Foehl) have become estranged from their father Michael (Danny James) due in large part to his alcoholism and how it has affected their family, especially their mother Sara (Emily Ashby). Michael drinks and passes out, which leads to a near tragedy, and the emotional distress causes Sara to have a miscarriage. Kyle and Marcus have witnessed all of this, so when their father suggests they spend the summer with him, they are less than thrilled with the idea.
Against Sara’s wishes, Michael takes the boys to stay at his cluttered apartment, which doesn’t have many furnishings and very little food to eat. In an attempt to win the boys over, Michael takes them to the video store to rent some movies. Despite a sign warning that you must be over 18 to enter, Kyle manages to sneak into the back room where the horror movies, and other movies that aren’t appropriate for children, are kept and grabs a couple of horror titles. Remember the good old days of video stores when horror movies were kept in a back room with pornography?
That night, Michael prepares a simple meal for the boys from a can, and they watch horror movies, with his father warning Kyle about having nightmares. As expected, Kyle does have nightmares, hearing strange sounds and seeing shadowy figures in the house. Michael gets drunk and passes out on the couch. Kyle and Marcus have frequent flashbacks to their parents fighting and their mother’s miscarriage, which led to her being depressed all the time. Kyle has a large scar on his side and the injury that resulted in the scar is revealed later in the film.
Lead Belly is Liam Foehl’s first lead role in a feature film, and he gives an impressive, powerful performance as Marcus. The film is also Bastian Carrasco Betemps’ first lead role in a feature, and he gives a heartbreaking performance as young Kyle, who despite his father’s drinking, doesn’t quite understand why his parents split up and just wants them to be a family again.
Eventually, Kyle, Marcus, and Michael all begin having nosebleeds and feeling sick, as well as witnessing shadow figures around the house that seem to be trying to convey some kind of message.
Despite some good performances from the cast and the use of some interesting metaphors for trauma, the way the story unfolds in Lead Belly is often confusing for the audience. The ability to tell a story without revealing all the details, so the viewer can make up their own mind about the motivations for the characters and even the outcome works very well when executed properly, but the story in Lead Belly is frequently hard to follow. Regardless of the fact that the third act of the film gives the viewer all the information they need to understand the narrative, overall, Lead Belly suffers from too many flashbacks that don’t make sense and a failure to effectively utilize its non-linear storytelling.
Lead Belly premiered at Panic Fest 2025, which offered a hybrid festival experience again this year.
The post ‘Lead Belly’ Review – Examination of Childhood Trauma Suffers from Non-Linear Storytelling [Panic Fest ’25] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.
