Panic Fest 2025 has come to a close but you know we couldn’t say goodbye without taking the time to check out a new Canadian Found Footage flick set on Halloween night! The mysterious COPS inspired creeper The Lost Episode is a showcase for true independent creativity and a brilliant twist on an already perfect subgenre (and I’m not only saying that because it was shot in my hometown…but surely my love for this lo-fi creeper was a teensy bit tainted by countless Leo Pointing at my television).
IMDB says The Lost Episode is directed by Nick Wernham from a screenplay by “Abbadon Night” but it’s way more fun to suspend your disbelief and thank the real people responsible for unearthing this buried footage: The Dark Web. And to the filmmakers’ credit, The Lost Episode goes the extra step that few Found Footage movies can, completely scrubbing all evidence that what you’re watching is a movie. There are no credits, there’s no score, all the effects are as in-camera as possible, and they shot all the footage using early 2000s cameras to give the damn thing authenticity. *chef’s kiss*
Assembled by XPu$her and “gifted to the world by the Black-Torrent Release Group” The Lost Episode is compiled from footage shot by a local television crew while following two police officers on October 31st, 2004. What transpired during those 10 hours was so shocking, so unbelievable, so disturbing (so Canadian!) that it has been swept under the rug for more than 20 years. But thanks to the bravery of the mysterious Black-Torrent Release Group, this horrifying story can finally be told.
If you’re a fan of Found Footage you probably don’t need much convincing beyond the words “New Found Footage M*therF*ckers!!” but take it from some bonafide shaky cam addicts that The Lost Episode is classic Found Footage and pure Indie gold. The story unfolds naturally with quiet, subtle hints of a larger encroaching evil a la The Last Exorcism (2010) (or Ben Wheatley’s Kill List (2011) for those of us less obsessed with analog terror) and dives deep into its own madness like the divisive but buck wild Dashcam (2021).Â
“The Lost Episode is classic Found Footage and pure Indie gold.”
The Lost Episode doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel but it holds tight to the subgenre’s original promise of believability. It also doesn’t overstay it’s welcome and really feels like an accurate spoof of a COPS episode (if COPS had satanists and demons and spooky cult stuff). It’s a clever handmade Horror with one hell of a fun premise that delivers culty, foreboding supernatural evil, and all set on Halloween night.
All Hail Independent Found Footage 🙌📼🙌
Nick Wernham’s The Lost Episode was an official selection of Panic Fest 2025, and hands-down one of the best movies we saw at the festival this year. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival and be sure to let us know all about your personal Found Footage obsessions over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
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