Zampaglione displays an encyclopedic knowledge of Italian horror tradition, with allusions to many of the classics throughout, like Deep Red and The Beyond. These cinematic references are both visual and narrative, yet it doesn’t feel like a patchwork girl or a rip-off queen. Zampaglione has recognized an amazing set of terrifying tools and put them to work.
This includes Italy’s famous super blood and guts. The splatter FX isn’t as hyper-realistic as Fulci, but the gore reaches outrageous brutality levels, just like D’Amato. It is an Italian-style slaughter that honors the country’s trademark of going way over the top. The finale is pure Argento but is arguably better executed here than that director’s famously underdone ending of *Inferno*. Hindsight has given these bloody pencils big Italian erasers.
“Zampaglione displays an encyclopedic knowledge of Italian horror tradition…”
The coda takes it into sinister Michele Soavi territory, making something that was already good just that much better. There is a controversial choice of using challenged actors in the role of monsters, like back in the day in The Sentinel, where freak show circuit performers were used as demons. There is definitely a problem with projecting physical challenges as scary, as that is more steps backward than a reverse centipede.
However, the performance by Melanie Gaydos as Dorka has got to be an exception to any rule, like a Michael Berryman clause. Gaydos is so good at scaring the hell out of you. She embodies her demon with a diabolic ruthlessness that may result in horror movie iconography. I hope to be scared by Gaydos many more times in many more Italian horror movies.
Zampaglione has reopened the spaghetti nightmare crypt with The Well, and it now cannot be re-sealed. This is a movie created from a deep love of some of the most violently beautiful cinema ever shot.
"…has brought the beloved spaghetti nightmare back from the grave."
