Other Worlds Austin Opens With The Well

Drink it in: The Well is the opening night film for Austin's latest addition to the film festival calendar, Other Worlds Austin

Get ready for eco-horror: As the seemingly never-ending Texas drought continues to bake us, Other Worlds Austin has announced its opening night film as a dramatic reminder that the water wars are coming.

The Well dumps young lovers Kendal (newcomer Haley Lu Richardson) and Dean (Booboo Stewart, X-Men: Days of Future Past) in a world without water. Ten years after the last rainfall, the Oregon Valley is run by a violent gang, ruled by Carson (Jon Gries, Napoleon Dynamite, Taken), and now it's up to Kendal to take on this desiccated Lord Humongous.

The new festival has already announced its centerpiece title, chrono-terror Time Lapse. Its latest addition is the directorial debut for someone whose eye for design is already familiar to Austin festivalgoers, and especially fans of Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett (who helped with editing and a cameo respectively): Tom Hammock, whose work includes production design credits for You're Next, V/H/S/2, and The Guest. He co-wrote the script with Jacob Forman, with whom he worked on local shocker All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (filmed in 2006, and finally escaping to a real release last year). Festival founder Bears Fonté said, "Mandy Lane is probably my favorite horror film ever shot in Texas (sorry Leatherface)."

Fonté first saw The Well when it debuted at the L.A. Film Festival, and said, "Not only does the film offer exciting fight sequences in a classic sci-fi setting, but it boasts an awesome, powerful female lead who faces off against some pretty memorable villains."

Other Worlds Austin film festival runs Dec. 4-6 at the Galaxy Highland. Visit www.otherworldsaustin.com, or read our June 3 story, "Austin to Visit Other Worlds."