Writer-director Thomas Mendolia is taking audiences to the Southeastern United States of the 1990s with his debut feature, Henry's Ebb, though the trip comes with little in the way of Southern comfort. The film follows Henry, a boy whose unpredictable single mother turns abusive, and his best friend Ebb, a fierce and protective companion. The pair set off across the American South to find the father Henry barely remembers, hoping for a different life.
Ebb, however, is not only protective but manipulative, and as the boys meet different people on the road, their bond frays and their priorities drift apart. The strain cuts deep because Ebb helped Henry survive a turbulent childhood. There is also one more complication: Ebb is an imaginary friend. What begins as a drama- and trauma-fueled adventure in the spirit of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn gradually exposes a darker, psychological horror side.
Kingston Rumi Southwick, known from Widow's Bay, plays Henry, while Banks Repeta of Armageddon Time portrays Ebb. Ashley Shelton and Will Holland round out the cast. The film features cinematography by Chaochen Li and editing by Tyler Ten Haken, with Lucas Ford and Joey LePage producing and Tony Tehle and Irina Slepneva as co-producers. Bridge Independent is handling sales.
Henry's Ebb makes its world premiere on Wednesday, Nov. 11, far from the American South, screening in the 26th edition of the Youth and Children's Film Festival within the 30th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia. Mendolia spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the film's origins and his approach to genre.
The idea arrived as a sleepless image. "This movie started with this image of two boys on a bike going through the American South. This was one of those 2 a.m. ideas where you can't sleep," Mendolia said. Rather than saving the imaginary friend reveal for the finale, as in Fight Club or A Beautiful Mind, he wanted to "rip that band-aid off in the very beginning" and ask why Henry needs Ebb at all, describing Henry as "a boy at the end of his youth" who may have to shed the coping mechanisms he built for himself.
Mendolia, who was born in Brooklyn to an Italian-American family and raised in Elkin, in the Appalachian region of North Carolina, wrote the film's locations entirely from childhood memory, channeling what he called a "hyper-nostalgia" for the forests and small towns of his youth. He cited Fargo and the work of Jeff Nichols, one of his favorite filmmakers, as models of regional specificity, arguing that the more specific a film's voice, the more universal it becomes.
On the horror elements, Mendolia said he has always loved the genre as "such a beautiful platform to experience the human psyche," one that can amplify themes even on a lower budget. Ebb, he explained, is "a visual manifestation of his coping mechanism," and every horror set piece had to be purposeful, tied to what Henry fears in that moment. He even pointed to Cloverfield, noting that everything Ebb does springs from fear of losing Henry and of what the future holds.
Casting was crucial. Mendolia said Repeta's audition for Ebb stood out for the vulnerability beneath the character's abrasiveness, and the actor, from Wilmington, North Carolina, is local to the film's area. Southwick's tape for Henry was immediately convincing, and the director described the pairing's chemistry as being "like Sherlock and Watson."
As for what comes next, Mendolia said he has two to three big ideas, including one developed with Ford before Henry's Ebb. Without revealing the title, he described it as a darker genre piece, "like Prisoners meets Ex Machina": a father-and-son reconnecting story set in Appalachia with a sci-fi element, inspired by a non-fiction book about a real place, and what he called a very dark version of the Spielberg movies he grew up loving.
