About – A lone traveller contacts his friend to see him. When a sudden murder takes place, which frightens them both, they must come up with an idea of how to distribute the body and come up with an alibi.

Jack (Micah Parker) is the lone traveller that contacts his friend Frank (Laurence Fuller). To keep Jack company and help get him to his other friend’s house (Chris). When an unfortunate murder takes place, they both must distribute the body in a safe area. There are certain issues that come their way, they must come up with an alibi and try stay out of sight.

Jon Cvack the director and writer of ‘Road to the Well’ has done an amazing job at this incredible piece of art house film. This being his debut feature as a director and writer, ‘Road to the Well’ is a superb starting point. The thrill and excitement this brings is through the vision of what Jon has to offer. Jon is in post-production on his second film which is a short ‘No Better, No Worse’. If his second film is close to ‘Road to the Well’ Jon’s future is looking bright which excites us to know, what will be produced by him very soon.

Jack portrayed by Micah Parker is the lone traveller that contacts Frank. Jack is the ‘cool’ character, nothing ever fazes him no matter what the outcome is. In some ways, he has no emotion towards other characters. Micah Parker plays this role without any hesitation, it is like it comes naturally to him, on how he wants to portray this character. Without a doubt this character is frightening but you also fall in love with the raw impact he has on Frank.

This leads onto the other main character Frank, played by Laurence Fuller. Frank is a pushover character, that has no confidence when it comes to women or friends, unless he has had a drink. He is the one that is over the top, about the murder and gets shaken up with the outcome of what Jack does. Laurence Fuller resembles a young Edward Norton in ‘Fight Club’. This is a strange comparison but the unconfident person in both these films are seen. Which shows the outstanding work that Laurence Fuller has done here. Laurence plays this role brilliantly you get a true sense of realism from him. If you were in this situation you would be acting like Frank does. This brings Laurence’s performance to an outstanding and important style of his character.

Normally lighting doesn’t get talked about or recognised within film but it should do. Especially, within this feature, the lighting is brilliant. By having natural light in certain scenes, this brings the naturalism of the beautiful establishing shots that are displayed to us. The use of red lighting symbolises death and danger, which is used in a way that Tom Ford did in his second film ‘Nocturnal Animals’. These types of symbolic meanings go far within a film and ‘Road to the Well’ uses them superbly to interact with the audience, which makes us think about what is going to happen or what has happened.

The score brings tension and dramatic effect to the whole film. With violin’s and acoustic guitar’s being used when establishing shots were being used and when the men were travelling in a car to. This resembles the calmness before the storm. There were also dramatic beats, that can only be described as ‘heart-beats’ for the effect of the adrenalin rush of your heart beating through these intense scenes. Both of these elements, brought the whole film together, to have an impact on the viewer so that we fixate onto the visuals.

The cinematography was outstanding, showing the raw beauty of the valleys and the attention to detail of the close-ups on the characters within houses and clubs. The camera work and the score complemented each other perfectly. This then achieves the best outcome for the viewer to feel like we are in this thriller. This was flawlessly done for us to feel warm and cold within scenes and be part of this narrative.

Overall, ‘Road to the Well’ is a brilliant crime thriller. By having all these elements working together from the score, cinematography, narrative and performances. It makes you feel part of this gripping film. Parts of the film lead you down a road but stunningly doing the opposite to what you thought was going to happen. This is essential for this film to engage with the audience and it does in that way. Without a doubt, it brings out the good and bad person in you, which is exactly what you want from this tension, making thriller of a journey.