'The Well' was the opening film at the inaugural Other World's Austin Sci-Fi festival this year. Directed by Tom Hammock, the film is set in a post-apocalyptic Oregon where we are informed that 'the rains' have simply stopped some ten years ago (from the not too distant future) and the last remnants of a once fertile valley struggle to survive as their most precious resource - water - systematically becomes more and more scarce. Teen Kendal is one of such survivors that hides out in an abandoned farmhouse with a character whose name I forget. Meanwhile we learn that there is villainous figure surrounded by his many zealots that scour the valley, hunting for survivors who he claims are using his water without his permission (as he has claimed the remaining water in the valley and thus the land). As one of these few remaining holdout survivors, Kendal scrounges for water and supplies why searching fruitlessly for a distributor cap to aide in the repairs of an old airplane (that her group dreams of escaping in). The film itself started off fairly slow though it kept my attention with an intriguing plot and a fairly convincing performance by Haley Lu Richardson. She grows to be a bad-ass through the film battling her foes with her trusty shotgun and eventually a katana. It isn't outrageous or over the top like you'd see in a Tarantino or Rodriguez style film but it still has that 'this is still a low budget sci-fi' charm to it. She gives a decent performance that is not only mildly genuine, but also just felt right for this type of survival flick. The cinematography is decent and gritty at the same time and really lends itself to feeling the sparseness of the wasteland. Other than Kendall and maybe the villain played by Jon Gries, the characters and their development aren't too memorable, but it isn't glaringly sub- par. It's a solid little movie with some fairly decent suspense and action sequences as well as the much needed creepy-factor from both the landscape and the gas-mask wearing henchman.At any rate, I enjoyed The Well for what it was and what it was not. It's clearly not a big budget film, but yet it still manages to capture the magic and intrigue of films like The Hills have Eyes, Mad Max, The Road, as well as a host of other post-apocalyptic films. Like I said the dialogue isn't all that great and some of the supporting characters are occasionally painful in their deliveries and screen presence, but overall it was still a fun little movie to watch. If you're like me, you'll probably get annoyed by some of the hiccups in the 'attention to detail' category as well as the fact that in a completely barren wasteland, the main character has inexplicably fantastic hiding skills. Seriously, she just runs across the desert and no one spots her or thinks to check behind the door-frame when she's hiding out in a house.
