Panic

James Dearden, the Oscar-nominated writer for FATAL ATTRACTION and son of directing legend Basil Dearden, crafted this very effective and slick short thriller - his second after 1977's CONTRAPTION.

The film is drenched in atmosphere due to the splashes of saturated, vibrant colors Dearden lights upon the screen, the rainy streets which reflect these vivid and lush illuminations, and the eerie music that is unsettling without being overpowering.

The plot is short and to the point with small twists and turns to keep you interested from beginning to end... it's not a plot that is startling original - it's all based on the fear of hitch-hikers that seems to plague many horror and suspense films - but it's told with style and gusto.

However, the most interesting aspect is that this short film would later be re-made in 2001 as LEFT TURN by Sean Ellis, the Oscar-nominated writer-director of the short film CASHBACK (2004).

The similarities are startlingly - not only is the plot meticulously reconstructed in LEFT TURN scene for scene, but the atmosphere of the film itself is reconstructed - the Mario Bava-inspired lighting, the rainy atmosphere, the British locale, the yellow rain coat of the hitchhiker, and so on.

Which one is better? The remake is certainly more stylish and more horrific - simply because it went more shock and terror - but the original is more restrained and disquieting. It most likely will come down to the taste of the individual viewer.

It would be nice, however, if Sean Ellis gave at least *some* credit (he gave none) to this film for which his remake is based upon...

PANIC (1978) is a 17-minute short horror film made in Britain. All but forgotten these days - until some kind soul uploaded it to Youtube in the form of a fuzzy, taken-from-VHS transfer - this turns out to be a chilling and highly effective piece of scaremongering.

The short-short running time excludes the necessity for boring set-up and characterisation, and instead we're thrown straight into one of those predictable but effective 'dark and stormy night' type narratives. This is in essence a phantom hitchhiker story, with the female lead driving down a lonely country road at night in a downpour and coming across an old lady who may be more than she seems.

PANIC boasts some excellent, subdued lighting and a neat twist ending which is guaranteed to provoke plenty of summers. The acting is understated and the cast includes later EASTENDERS star Leonard Fenton (who played Dr Legg) as a policeman. Julie Neesam is fine as the woman-in-peril and James Dearden proves adept as both writer and director. This is fine stuff indeed that has much in common with the classic BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas series of the 1970s.

An atmospheric short told with economy and style, Panic follows a young couple who have an argument over the course of one evening. The young woman is upset by some irrational comments her boyfriend makes; the man, for his part, is instantly unlikeable. He seems jealous and controlling and makes silly demands, and does it in a reserved tone that characterizes him as being that much more effete. So right away, we don't really care what happens to him. The young girl, who is starting away--I think she is traveling to a photo shoot--happens to pick up a hitchhiker on this dark, rainy night. Except the old woman she picks up creeps her out by not saying much and having a menacing way about her. So the girl tricks her into getting out of the car. The woman's purse is still in the car, so she takes it to the police. While there, she calls her boyfriend and makes up with him. He agrees to come pick her up. Then, the police open the purse to see if there is any i.d. to help return the bag to its owner. It has a large knife inside. At the same moment, we see the boyfriend picking up the hither. Except that he doesn't get her out of the car in time...

The movie was remade as "Left Turn," which was almost identical, but while Panic was all atmosphere, Left Turn makes the horror explicit. I liked them both.