Leofwine_draca 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.

TheExpatriate700 Panic is a lame monster on the loose tale that suffers from a number of flaws, ranging from obvious production goofs to a terribly paced ending. Its basic premise is that a failed scientific experiment turns a scientist into a blood drinking monster while simultaneously unleashing a deadly virus (although how the virus factors in is something of a mystery, as we see no signs of an epidemic.)The most comic aspects of the film are how its claim to be set in England clashes with the Spanish / Italian production. For instance, the police and military featured in the film wear Italian style uniforms. Furthermore, large sections of the dialogue are clearly dubbed in. These comic elements are the most enjoyable parts of the film.Unfortunately, the film's drawbacks more than match its comic value. The monster itself is poorly done, with bad make up and obvious gloves standing in for its hands. The pacing toward the climax is lethargic, so that I had to fast forward out of boredom. Furthermore, you'll be able to guess what happens several minutes in advance.

vegeta3986 I'm just going to get this out of the way first. Yes, the main hero in this movie's name is Kirk, and he's a captain in the army. So yes. they refer to him throughout the picture as "Captain Kirk". Now, to me, that's HILARIOUS. i had to rewind the movie just to make sure i wasn't hearing things. And there was even an officer named "O'Brien" later on in the movie. I'm shocked that the monster's name wasn't "Riker". But enough of the good stuff, let's dive into "Panic".This movie is another on our awesome 50 chilling classics collection at number 26. Now i took a two week break at the halfway mark, and coming back, i'm not so sure WHY i came back. OK, if you looked at the top, i gave this movie a 2. So what's the big problem with this movie you may ask? One word. PACING. This movie's pacing is TERRIBLE. this 90 minute movie has a plot that could either have been resolved in 15 minutes but it also had the plot to stage an entire 90 minute movie if they did it correctly. Sadly, here, they did not. It's really sad when i understand more of the movie from reading the one paragraph DVD sleeve in my Box set, but that seems to be happening more and more with these movies. And this movie is no exception. on the DVD sleeve it says "A British research scientist is working with various forms of bacteria when he is accidentally exposed to a deadly variety due to a lab accident." OK. there are 3 problems with that sentence. 1. This movie is Italian, not British. But all the actors are dubbed British so they put in stock pictures of England. Why? I'm not sure. 2. No, i did not accidentally type "Variety" instead of "Virus" That is what actually was printed on my DVD sleeve. and 3. IT NEVER SHOWS YOU THAT IN THE MOVIE. in the film it starts out with some rats fighting in a lab, a guy grabs his face and that's it. i had NO idea what happened. and honestly, i STILL have no idea what happened.Like i said though. This movie is S-L-O-W. it takes forever to make any point and while the movie has a relatively high body count, all kills are offscreen and in the dark. and they quickly cut away from any sort of interesting nudity. pff. this considers itself a monster mash film? There's at least 3 times in the movie where they could have stopped this monster dude but then...they didn't for some reason? and that just gives them an excuse to have lengthy scenes of them talking. um. yay? I really had to pull out the DS during this movie. it was more than i could do to pay HALF attention to it let alone ALL my attention. But i gave it a good go. i gave it 45 minutes of my undivided attention and there was so little going on i realized that i could do at least 2 more things at once and still know exactly what was going on. and you know what? i was right.The ending is extremely abrupt with no time for an epilogue and the final scene just makes NO sense. i'm not going to give the ending away but i will say 5 words. "Fire extinguisher? What the crap?" With pacing that could bore Ben Stein, characters that are less enjoyable then a Disney channel sitcom line-up, and an ending more predictable than the ending to "The Village", Panic gets 2 melty faces, out of 10

Hitchcoc Given some sort of bacteriological event, would things happen this way. It seems like they threw the baby out with the bathwater, deciding to exterminate a whole segment of a city in order to get rid of one random creature. He shouldn't be that hard to catch. This is bad enough, but it is filled with bad acting, unbelievable scenes, and a monster that doesn't really show himself until the very end. The young woman lead figures she can reason with this tub of goo. It does have Captain Kirk (no, not that one). Maybe that's it's main feature. The pacing is horrible and it drags one forever. Like so many of these films, it has either deteriorated or it never was filmed very well. Don't bother.