The Well

To start with, this was not what I expected. After reading the reviews, I thought this is gonna be another poorly made "amazon prime" special - low budget, made with little talent to fill a time slot. I was surprised.

Firstly - I'm a huge movie fan and a massive indie horror supporter. I'm a filmmaker myself and produce folklore horror films based on Scottish Myths. So a folklore story based in rural Italy is right up my street.

For the first 20 minutes I was unsure, then something clicked and I started really enjoying it. Interesting premise, some creepy moments, well shot, surprisingly well acted, good creature / monster design and yes good gore if that's your thing.

I would definitely give this a go.

Terrible, in every way. A non-existent film direction, embarrassing dubbing and a stupid script. They try to quote the Italian horror of the 80s but they end up trashy, the soundtrack is ridiculous to say the least and used at the wrong times. The only positive things are the protagonist's acting and the gore scenes. The rest is rubbish unfortunately. We see the passion for the genre but we don't see the talent or any other artistic ambition, this is not the Italian horror we need. Furthermore, it must be underlined that all the influencers who talk about cinema and who have expressed negative opinions and sensible criticisms on the film have been accused of incompetence by the film's official Instagram account. Except the director who accepted them. Shameful, that's not how cinema is made.

Italian mastery fully delivered. I knew it already Italian horror movies from the past are famous for being super scary and very well done. Well, this one follows all the way! There are constant vibes of fear, suspense and discomfort. The brilliant cinematography help this out a lot. Most of the characters are quite petrifying and the monster is fantastically designed. Atmosphere is nightmarish as hell both in the house and "downstairs" and the more the plot is revealed the more you feel the tension increasing. It basically sticks to you all along, til the end credits, when you finally are allowed to breath a sigh of relief. By the way, what a shocking end! A special mention to the gore, so barbaric that it made feel me sick. Lauren is the chef's kiss.

"The Well", is where "Hostel" meets "A Picture of Dorian Grey", and indeed with some old school Italian gore direction, a la Umberto Lenzi. I've been waiting for this one since Stieges 2023 and Zampaglione (Tulpa)'s direction did not disappoint. La Vera (Terrifier 2) carried her "final girl" crown well, though obviously in a more demure manner. The acting by the four prisoners was excellent and the cinematography was top notch. The story was a bit thin but the gore and other visual effects made up for it in spades. Zampaglione truly got right that which Rob Zombie usually buggers up. He even had a family member who could kinda act in the film.

The well was better than the sum of its parts brought together would have you seen. Lauren lavera coming off her terrifier fame has ventured into a new horror this time playing a character called lisa. Shes on her way to italy to restore a painting in a big mansion on behalf of her father who could not be there. It seems routin at first but the woman she is doing it for seems to have an altier motive. These some gore here and there and the makeup of the creatures we see is very good. There are other characters a group lisa meets that get caught up so its interesting watching the action unfold from their perspective also. Overall the well was well good in fact and I enjoyed for what it was even if some elements fell flat when it was brought all together.