The Last Survivors

"There was a time when a man owned the land, he controlled the water. But things are different. The water's mine, so the land is mine."

The feeling I had after watching this post-apocalyptic film, was an irresistible urge to drink. Just as in "Mad Max" there's a scorching drought. Earthly life is reduced to a struggle for survival in a world that hasn't seen a drop of rain in more than 10 years and the survivors search daily for some precious water. Similarly, the courageous and very young Kendal (Haley Lu Richardson) who goes on patrol every day to get a few sips of water for herself and a few survivors in the area. She's also looking for a particular component that's required to make a defect airplane so she and the sick Dean (Booboo Stewart) can escape from the dead and dry Oregon valley.

First the positive comments about this movie. The dreary, parched landscape is truly brilliant portrayed. The decaying houses buried by sand and the endless sweltering desert ensure, as I mentioned earlier, that you soon need something to quench your thirst. To create this miserable, desolate world, the Mojave Desert was used. The isolation of the scattered remaining inhabitants, is filmed in an adequate way. More than once the images made me think of an old Western movie. Also the performances were, especially that of the youthful Richardson, admirable. Quite an achievement at that age. She plays the role as protector and guardian of the spring with skill. The role of Booboo is limited, partly due to his illness, which means that his action space is confined to the attic. And the most adorable part is played by Max Charles as Alby, a brave little boy who sometimes turns out to be more mature than we thought in the first place. And third, despite the lack of action, the tension is tangibly present.

Unfortunately, there were also some negative points. First, the bad guys are not very original. Obviously, there's again the religious whining. And when push comes to shove, they turn out not to be that clever when it's about defending themselves. After a while it even started to be a bit monotonous. Over and over again the back and forth running in between the various buildings and abandoned vehicles, really started to irritate at a given time. And seeing this fragile girl using a samurai sword as if she has done this already for years, was also hard to believe.

But still it managed to fascinate me and it all looked intriguing enough, despite the limited budget. The desperate situation in which the individuals found themselves and the insane plan of Carson to acquire dominion over all the available water, so his daughter Brooke would become heiress of an empire, created a nerve-wracking cat-and-mouse game. "The Well" is a typical low-budget film that nevertheless managed to surpass other similar films, just by the appropriate use of limited resources, its authenticity and some decent acting.

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A decent movie in a genre that is invaded by bad movies like the zombie genre before (and still to the day). The Last Survivors won't blow your mind and soul up to Jupiter, but if you like your post-apocalyptic dose, this one will give you a solid and (to a certain degree) entertaining time.

I think the ratings on IMDb for this movie are for once spot on. It doesn't deserve more than an average 5. It's not that I didn't enjoy watching the movie or so because this is one of the genres I really like, apocalyptic movies. But the story-line is sometimes really stupid and that brings the movie down. For example when the bad guys visit the farms for multiple times over and over again and they need heat sensors to see if there is still somebody living or hiding there is just too ridiculous. The house is almost totally destroyed and is a dump, you really don't need a heat sensor to figure out if there are survivors. It's little things like that that are not good for the movie. Otherwise Haley Lu Richardson as the main character does not do a bad job. She's just not helped by the poor script. The last half hour is also not that great. They clearly ran out of imagination and didn't put too much effort in it.

A teenage girl (Haley Lu Richardson) fights to protect the last working well in a drought-stricken valley from a greedy water baron (Jon Gries).

What I like about his film is that it concentrates on building a world. Although the location used was probably relatively small, we are given the illusion that the entire world -- or at least enough of it -- has completely dried out. And it is very effective.

We do not have zombies (thank goodness) or unbreathable air. Just the simple idea of a drying up world and the increasing value of water. It works. By gosh, it works. Add in a few guns and a samurai sword, and we have a nice plot. Is it horror? Not really. Science fiction? Sort of, but it is so close to reality it almost gets around that, too.

I ran across Last Survivors by accident and I can safely recommend it. It stars Haley Lu Richardson and Booboo Stewart and it's set in Oregon. All about a future without water. So many of the Dystopian films are just poorly done, on small budgets. This one from a few years ago is well done on a small budget and the two leads are kids on their way up. The camera loves them both. The other players are all forgettable, too bad for them, but hey they got a few minutes in the sun with two representatives of the real future. I'm not sure what type of SciFi you like, this isn't a FX extravaganza and it doesn't feature a cameo by any of the living cast members of the original Star Trek. But, it's got a tight script and quite of bit of angst, pathos and violence. Wow, the big three!