User Reviews

I hesitate to criticize foreign films too harshly because what we see is a dubbed version that has undergone who knows what changes in coming to an American audience. But compared to the way that films by Fulci and Argento have such power despite the translation process, PANIC is simply a mess.

This is the kind of movie that a first year film student should have been able to make. This isn't complicated and doesn't require a lot of sophistication from writers or the director.

There's a lab in England doing medical research. Something goes terribly wrong and there's an awful accident. One of the scientists disappears. We find that he's mutated into a horrible monster that avoids the light...not so much because he's photosensitive as that the makeup isn't really all that convincing when seen in full light.

The hero investigates with the help of a beautiful blonde scientist who has a really bad perm. We have the setpieces of the monster attacking various people. First, predictably, a couple smooching in their car. A woman in the shower. The audience at a cinema (the monster comes bursting through the screen, a rather nice touch). A priest and a group of children in a church. A drunk stumbling down the street. A family in their home.

We know these people are going to be attacked by the monster because, with the exception of the family in the last attack- the father is involved with the research project- they have no connection with the story other than being potential monster chow. We at least see the children and the priest in one scene prior to their being chased by the monster. The others are simply dropped into the narative for no purpose other than being chased and possibly caught by the monster.

Since there seems to be no way to stop the monster (which is carrying an awful disease) the military decrees that if the situation isn't contained by a certain time, the town will be destroyed.

OK. I could write this. So could most people reading this review.

What kills PANIC is that it's dull and unexciting. When a director can't wring any suspense from the plight of a group of small children locked in a church while a priest tries to find a way to save them, it's time to go into a new line of work.

There's no sense of urgency. The military rolls into town and cuts off communication with the outside world for days but this happens in a vacuum. The hero returns to the cinema and is attacked by the monster. The local police come in with guns blazing. The monster vanishes around a corner and nobody seems in a hurry to catch him.

People in the town make halfhearted attempts at getting out but they must not have any relatives or friends in other places. There's unconvincing talk of a "military exercise" but this goes on for days and we don't see anyone wondering why they can't contact anyone in this town. Today a town of any size being cut off would attract an army of reporters at the barricades within hours.

Continuity is, at best, peculiar. We meet the priest at rehearsal for the children's choir. He gives them candy and tells them to be careful on the way home. We expect the next scene to show us one or more children in danger, but we don't see them again for days. There's a guinea pig that's escaped from the lab, too. It's found in a sewer. People are like "how remarkable" and "dang, look at that" but it's never mentioned again.

There's a subplot about a series of tunnels supposedly built by the Romans that connect the cinema, the church, the house where the family is attacked and other sites but that's introduced and dropped. The American horror film THE BOOGENS made effective use of monsters that terrorized a town where mining had been the main industry. The subplot is mentioned then dropped, as if the writers just didn't know what to do with it. Pity.

The most fun in this is watching the Spanish and Italian actors pretending to be British (all dubbed, of course) and the director trying to convince us that the stock footage of England is a match for the city streets we see. Too many of the actors just don't look British, especially the soldiers.

The leading man is from New Zealand. The blonde lady scientist is from Sweden. Were there two people on the set who spoke the same language? I hope so.

This was in the CHILLING CLASSICS collection from Mill Creek. The picture quality was adequate, the sound less so. The IMDb didn't tell me the original picture ratio. This is full screen, and often action at the edges of the screen is lost. If this was originally in Panavision ration (1:2.35) it should have been letter-boxed. The closing titles would indicate that this was the intended screen ratio. Of course distributors of DVD's are limited to what they can get their hands on.

It's not in me to call people "bad" actors (something other reviewers in this page have made a point of because of a comment made by the leading man that leaves this avenue wide open. I've done enough acting and directing on stage to know that you've got to consider the material and how strongly directed the actor is. These folks seem to have been largely left to their own devices. At the end of every scene you can imagine the actors saying, "Well, that's over. Let's go get some coffee." Francis Ford Coppola said that if there is no passion, there is no art. The director of PANIC has no visible passion for the project, so I didn't see any art.

Your standard "Frankenstein"esque mad scientist messing around with ill-advised covert bacteriological war experiments premise gets clumsily crossed with a similarly hackneyed crazed killer on the loose story with a dash of that old reliable standby of the deadly plague which could wipe out thousands of folks if it isn't nipped in the bud right away in this energetically cheesy and entertainingly slapdash grab-bag Italian sci-fi/horror thriller. An accident at a top secret government lab turns a professor into a hideously malformed, murderously deranged and seemingly indestructible humanoid beast with scraggly hair, an ugly, bloated, pus-oozing, skin-peeling boil-like face, superhuman strength, a horrid wheezy moan of a voice, and a decidedly antisocial sanguinary disposition. Worse yet, Mr. Unsightly Dementoid Freakshow has a highly lethal and contagious degenerative disease which forces anyone infected with said ailment to bag other people for their precious blood. Naturally, the ghastly mutant goes on a grisly killing spree in Great Britain, attacking a libidinous teenage couple doing just what you think in the back of a car, a lovely young blonde lady in the middle of taking a shower, the audience in a movie theater watching an asinine comedy, a plastered out of his skull drunk, and, best of all, even a priest (yes!). It's up to two-fisted man of action David Warbeck (who carries himself here with the same stolid austerity he brought to such Lucio Fulci flicks as "The Beyond" and "The Black Cat") and fetching femme doctor Janet ("Eaten Alive," "The Gates of Hell") Agren to stop the pitiably grotesque monster before things get disastrously out of hand. Sure, the basic plot is anything but original or inspired, but handy helpings of frequent violence, a grimly serious tone, Gionanni Bergamini's spirited direction, an unerringly fast and steady pace, and the wildly eventful narrative ensure that this baby remains a satisfyingly schlocky affair from start to finish just the same.

A cheesy, ineffectual monster-on-the-loose yarn from director Tonino Ricci, a man who can usually be relied upon to deliver the goods in a typically low-budget, untalented fashion. Although not as much a laugh riot as his later classics RUSH THE ASSASSIN and its super sequel RAGE, PANIC is nonetheless an interesting but failed attempt by the Italians to produce a British-set horror-cum-science fiction thriller. In some ways the film is similar to the Spanish LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE - copious use of location filming in the UK adds to the impact and feel of the film but Ricci is not able to bring enough atmosphere to his settings as Grau did in his classic zombie film. To add to the similarities between the two films, Jose Lifante pops up again playing the fairly major part of an investigating policeman, Sergeant O'Brien, instantly recognisable with his pale visage and bulging eyeballs.

The film begins with a poorly-edited accident at a science lab, where something happens to somebody. It's hard to tell what, because the editing at this point is atrocious, a flaw that is occasionally repeated throughout the movie. Later it turns out that a scientist has been exposed to a germ which turns him into an ugly mutant with a thirst for human blood. PANIC enters predictable B-movie territory as the monster stalks and slashes a variety of naked Italian females, who spend their time either making out in their cars or showering at unfortunate times. A pleasing amount of shoddy gore effects are splashed about, adding to the minimal enjoyment that the film offers. Lots of padding is taken up with scenes of government investigator David Warbeck (playing, get this, a character named Kirk Dude!) and his superiors searching uselessly for the deformed scientist, whilst some poor effects and a smoke machine behind an aeroplane try to convince us that the authorities are ready to drop a bomb on the town at any moment.

Things culminate in a not-bad attack by the mutant on a cinema full of patrons watching an exceptionally bizarre film, which seems to involve a man riding back and forth on his motorbike whilst comedy music plays! Sadly Ricci ruins things by filming the actual attack in the pitch black, so all we hear are the noises. His money-making ploy doesn't pull off. The finale of the film involves the creature being cornered in the sewers whilst Warbeck and the police force close in, and there's a cheesy action finale in which Warbeck lets loose with a gas-gun. One highlight that the climax holds is the surprisingly excellent special effects used for the monster, basically a gruesome prosthetic pulsing mask which looks really nasty - kudos for the effects guys on their obviously limited budget.

Entertainment spots to watch out for include the various monster attacks, plagued by overacting from the monster and its victims, and the gratuitous nudity thrown in at every opportunity. One hilarious highlight sees the police investigating growling coming from behind a bush, only to release it's only a drunk - doesn't explain why he's growling though! There's also an ultra-cheesy effects shot of a giant guinea pig living in a sewer, although the effects here are so poor that it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was supposed to be looking at. The small, B-movie cast is headed by action hero David Warbeck, in what I believe to be his first outing in an Italian horror film, and as usual he's the best thing in the film, putting in a solid performance. Janet Agren is ineffectual and has bad hair as the heroine, who inexplicably cares for the monster even whilst he's killing people, and lower down in the cast is Franco Ressel as a victim who has his legs torn off. Not one of Ricci's best movies, but a cheesy delight for bad movie lovers and a bit of a bore for everyone else.

A laboratory experiment goes terribly wrong leaving a scientist, Professor Adams, radioactively infected with a horrible mutation effecting his whole body. Now a grotesque cannibal lurking the underground sewer tunnels of the town of Newton, the powers-that-be are planning to drop nerve bombs if the monster isn't found and killed in time, so that the viral contagion Adams is currently carrying will be contained. If this drastic decision is to be halted, Captain Kirk(David Warbeck), Adams' lab assistant Jane Blake(Janet Agren), and Newton's Police Sergeant O'Brien(José Lifante)will have to race against time to find the mutated fiend and save thousands of innocent lives. During this chase to find it, the monster is scouring streets targeting citizens, feasting on flesh, retreating to the sewers periodically to escape from harm. Rampaging through a theater, it finds a female as others flee, tearing away at her face right before Kirk is able to catch him. The monster breaks into the locked door of a Catholic church, invading a sacristy as a priest helps his choir boys find escape, murdering him as the padre defends his kids. Kirk's boss, Milton(Franco Ressel)unloads two shot gun blasts into the beast before it rips away at his leg. Even Kirk is able to unload an entire gun of bullets into the thing without downing the monster. This monster has quite a threshold, as Kirk and O'Brien flood the sewers with gas hoping to corner it after sealing off escape routes. That monster is damned elusive, that's for sure, quite motivated to keep on going, no matter the resistance it faces along the way.

The version I watched, on a 50 pack of Mill Creek films, is incredibly murky and seems to be cut. The movie's absent of gore and the monster itself is wisely hidden in darkness, with only mutated(..latex)flesh made visible as light briefly flashes on it while in pursuit of new victims to eat. I didn't think the monster is very convincing when the film finally unveils it at the end. I won't lie, this was a pain to sit through;positively boring, with an absence of thrills. If the plot were even remotely original or effective, I might've enjoyed it more. On paper, this hybrid of suspense elements(monster on the loose eating folks;threat of spread virus;possible nuking of town)should be a winner, but under the direction of Tonino Ricci, it plods along at a languid pace covering familiar ground formerly trampled on by more capable filmmakers. In the version I watched, the scenes of violence disappear from the screen as the monster often engulfs the entire frame. Even as Kirk and O'Brien survey the crime scene carnage left in the monster's wake, Ricci fails to give the viewer the gory goods. Just a sheer disappointment that, if handled by someone else, might've been better. An Italian production with the story set in England(why not Rome?).

Of the many Euro horror films I have seen over the years, Panic, from director Tonino Ricci, has got to be one of the worst. It's pacing is leaden, the direction uninspired, the acting atrocious, and the pizza faced monster so risible that it is wisely kept hidden in the shadows for almost the entire movie.

Janet Agren (City of the Living Dead, Eaten Alive!) plays lab assistant Jane Blake, whose boss Professor Adams is turned into a bloodthirsty mutant after he is exposed to dangerous chemicals. As the prof goes on a killing spree in the small English town of Newton, cop Captain Kirk (David Warbeck) tries to hunt down the rogue scientist before the whole town is wiped out by a warplane carrying deadly nerve gas.

With no atmosphere, no tension, no decent gore, and no gratuitous nudity (unless you count the vague form of a naked woman through her frosted glass shower door), Panic is a letdown on every level, except for the occasional unintentional laugh, the daftest moments including the discovery of a giant mutant guinea pig hiding under a manhole cover (no reason is given for it being there and it is never heard of or seen again), the creepy priest handing out sweets to his choirboys, a couple making out in a cinema while the worst film in the world (yes, even worse than Panic!) plays to a packed audience, the most unconvincing drunk in movie history, and the damp squib of a finale that sees the monster killed by a few blasts from a fire extinguisher (it's supposed to be a deadly toxin) which leads to the pilots of the advancing aircraft receiving a last minute message to call off their mission. 'It's all over, ahhhh ha ha ha ha!'.