DANCES WITH FILMS 2025 REVIEW! No matter how hard you try to get away, it’s your family that brings you back…for better or worse. In the Sposatos’ supernatural thriller, Between Two Waves, it’s definitely the latter.
After years of estrangement, Cass (Koko Marshall) returns to her childhood home out in the sticks to settle her late mother’s estate alongside her twin brother, Tate (Dave Colman). Cass has avoided this place and her brother since a mysterious falling out with her mother. Yet, the spiritual connection with her remains strong. The moment she steps back into the house, traumatic memories come rushing back like a banshee’s wail. Her bedroom remains exactly as she left it, down to the old restraints on her bed, triggering flashbacks of a traumatic childhood and her tenth birthday—a day she remembers with pain and confusion, convinced her mother always favored Tate.
Strange things begin happening around the house, including lost time, vivid dreams, and eerie visions involving their mother and a birthday cake. Cass insists there’s something supernatural at play, while Tate believes her grasp on reality is slipping. Tate tries to explain it all away by bringing up a local phenomenon called “Leeways,” an unexplained hypersonic sound that flows through the valley, causing hallucinations for some and banshee-like howls. As they dig deeper, they uncover an ancient book written in Gaelic and a name—Alma McCormick—whose ashes now sit on the mantle, suggesting a darker history to the home.
As Cass descends further into her visions, Tate is forced to protect her, even as his grip on reality begins to slip. The house warns them that only one will make it out, and as secrets come to light, both twins must confront the truth of what happened to them—and what still lingers in the house—before the past consumes them entirely. But when Cass disappears for a week, Tate’s patience reaches its breaking point.
In Between Two Waves, twins Cass (Koko Marshall) and Tate (Dave Coleman) attempt to contact the beyond using a spirit board, triggering haunting revelations.
“…traumatic memories come rushing back like a banshee’s wail.”
Between Two Waves refers to Cass being forced to exist between the past and the present, and how her mother’s house somehow attracts an energy that causes time to collide. It explores generational trauma and how the bond between siblings is strong enough to hopefully come out on top.
I’m most fascinated by the adversarial yet familial relationship between Cass and Tate, played beautifully by Koko Marshall and Dave Colman. There’s an amazing tension between the twins, who have nothing to do with one another, but can’t break this undeniable connection—fractured, volatile, yet unbreakable.
The supernatural elements are portrayed with eerie precision through Cass’s visions of her mother, her lost time, and the cryptic clues that feel both personal and otherworldly. Put it all together, and you have a haunting late night to spend with your friends. Major kudos to the Sposatos for pulling off a visually rich, psychologically layered horror film on a microbudget that showcases the supernatural and the ability to create atmosphere out of sheer ingenuity. Truly, horror is best left in the hands of indie filmmakers.
Between Two Waves is an intense spiritual journey into our past (particularly the traumatic ones) and explores the familial threads that bind us, whether we want them to or not. With its creepy atmosphere and grounded emotional core, the film throws us into limbo between what was and what still haunts us now. The Sposatos have crafted something intimate, unsettling, and deeply resonant—all to leave us wrecked in the end.
Between Two Waves screened at the 2025 Dances With Films. For more information, visit the Between the Waves official website.
"…Truly, horror is best left in the hands of indie filmmakers."
