On September 3, 2024, after a limited theatrical release in August, Uncork’d Entertainment was released to an expanded audience via streaming. In the film, which as received a score of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. "When novice art restorer Lisa Gray goes to a small Italian village to bring a medieval painting back to its former glory after fire damage, little does she know she is placing her life in danger from an evil curse and a monster born of myth and brutal pain." The ensemble cast includes Lauren LaVera, Claudia Gerini, Giovanni Lombardo, and Linda Zampaglione. Read the full review round-up below.
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| Photo by Peter Schad on Unsplash |
Dolores Quintana of Nightmarish Conjurings writes, "THE WELL (2023) is an old-school Italian shocker that has a modern feel and twist, great production value, and an excellent lead-in Lauren LaVera. The cast does terrific work and makes the film believable and scary." Adding, "LaVera is a great choice for the lead since, even though her character is quieter and less of a showy lead, she has more than enough charisma and intelligence to keep the audience’s attention. The actors who play the prisoners really give their all in the scenes of gut-ripping torment. Their commitment to the characters and their work is admirable and goes a long way to establishing the central idea that what is happening to them is wrong while still allowing the voyeuristic thrill of watching the admittedly rough scenes of the monster taking their lives."
Michael Talbot-Haynes of Film Threat praises the film, stating, "Italy had a golden age of horror for thirty years in the late 20th century, with a parade of operatic, blood-soaked classics unrivaled in extremity. Many of these films were heavily censored in various countries, leaving it up to the laserdisc market in Japan to preserve the uncut prints. By the ’90s, Italy’s fear factory ground to a halt as markets and budgets shrank. However, the classic spaghetti nightmare movies amassed a following as the laser discs fed a thriving market of Japanese subtitled bootlegs. Then, at the turn of the century, the U.S. finally saw uncut, remastered prints of these movies on VHS and DVD through companies like Anchor Bay and Blue Underground. But it was all gore-soaked nostalgia until The Well. We had rumblings that a return to form was on the horizon. First, it was when the Italians released their best post-apocalypse film yet. Then, we saw earnest attempts at reviving the Anthropophagus and Diabolik franchises. It is The Well that has brought the beloved spaghetti nightmare back from the grave."
Anton Bitel of Projected Figures says, "Federico Zampaglione’s gory gothic delves deep into Italian cinema past to restore and resurrect a particular kind of grotesquery." Concluding, "The Well exposes the rotten corruption of those who would like to be at the seat of power and beyond the ravages of time, while delivering a cynical ending reminiscent of the coda to Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral (2012) – and like any good restoration, it both dwells in the past (much as Lisa insists on residing in the same room as the old painting), while updating it for a new world where ancient magic has become a prisoner to modern science – but where little else has fundamentally changed about human (and inhuman) nature."
Jennie Kermode of Eye for Film notes, "The bulk of the action happens, as it ought, in a magnificent but slightly dilapidated mansion owned by a formidable yet welcoming duchess who wears prim old fashioned satin blouses with very pointy bras, and keeps a pet crow in a cage. The duchess possesses a painting dating back to 1493 which, she insists, needs to be restored in accordance with a strict timeframe. Having been exposed to a fire, it’s covered in a thick layer of soot. Lisa, who believes that it can be done but is worried about damaging it by working at that speed, arranges to sleep in the same room so that she can get to know it. As more and more of the image is revealed, however, she begins to have disturbing dreams. Is it just a reaction to the solvents? Of course not. We all know what’s going on here – would do even if we hadn’t already been privy to something of the horrors going on in the cellar."
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