"The Well"
review by Diabo Joe

Audio version


"The Well"


Imagine if iconic horror filmmaker Jean Rollin were alive and well today and still making films. Now imagine that he had swapped his love of lesbian vampire eroticism for an equally intense love of brutal torture and mayhem. The film he might have produced could likely resemble Federico Zampaglione’s “The Well,” a moody, at times dream-like, picture that alternates that phantasmagorical milieu with savage violence.



Lisa (played by “Terrifier 2’s” Lauren LaVera) is a restorer of antique art summoned to the historic estate of Emma (a suitably aloof, mysterious, and beautiful Claudia Gerini) to strip the soot obscuring the canvas of a large painting blackened by fire damage. As Lisa’s work progresses, revealing horrifyingly nightmarish figures and beings underneath the grime, she begins to uncover the secrets behind the painting’s history, but also those of Emma and her young daughter Guilia, and the well that lies deep in the heart of the centuries-old building that houses them all.



As the film opens, gentle acoustic guitar and eerie choral vocals immediately create a sense of otherworldly mystery that takes the mind back to the European horror of the 1970s. And if one were to think that Zampaglione was about to deliver us an homage and a bit of a pastiche of the ethereal dreaminess that filled many of the movies of that era, then you wouldn’t be wholly wrong. There are so many facets to his style and story that, in lesser hands, might seem simply cribbed, but Zampaglione manages to give them fresh life by expertly blending the poetic with more ferocious and visceral horror. The result shouldn’t work as well as it does, but it does.



As far as the story goes, “The Well” is a tale oft told vis a vis numerous horror tropes and subgenres. There is little, story-wise, including its ending, that will surprise any but the most naïve viewers. Still, the originality of Zampaglione’s script—or any lack thereof—is not the point here. The director aims to unnerve and horrify, and he does it with great style and effectiveness.



Both LaVera and Gerini are excellently cast in their roles. LaVera expands on the wide-eyed charm she displayed in “Terrifier 2,” playing the ingénue to Gerini’s urbane, enigmatic Emma. The pair’s early scenes hint at the potential for chemistry had Zampaglione gone the more obvious erotica horror route. Adding to the mix is Zampaglione’s daughter, Linda, whose Guila is moody and brooding but wise to so much more than she initially lets on. On the horror end of the spectrum, the eerily striking model Melanie Gydos lends her unique and strange beauty as one of the demonic figures tied to the painting’s secret. But it is the terrifying performance of Lorenzo Renzi that ups “The Well’s” ante across the board. Massive, brutish, and bestial, his only dialogue consisting of deep, goat-like grunts and guttural coughs, Renzi is petrifying every second he is on screen.



And it is this latter character responsible for the violent scenes of eye-gouging, limb hacking, and worse that befall a trio of young people Lisa befriends at the film’s opening. The cocktail of Renzi’s character, the horrifying screams of his victims, and the impressive gore effects of Carlo Diamantini dominate the film, making it so much more than just an homage to a bygone era of Euro-horror cinema.



“The Well” may bear its influences boldly, but Zampaglione uses them in even bolder brush strokes, revealing a portrait of horror and accursed mystery that enthralls, entertains, and unsettles.



This devil of a reviewer gives “The Well” 4 out of 5 imps.