Panic Button

I wanted to give it a 1/2 star instead of a full star, but I couldn't figure how to do it.

The premise seemed promising at the beginning, but everything started to fall off after about 15 minutes into the movie.

The acting is terrible; the characters aren't even remotely interesting. You can't sympathize or hate(for that matter) any of the characters.

The ending is absolutely meaningless! And when the credit rolls you involuntarily spit in your soda.

British cinema used to be great, but alas; it's gone Hollywood. We're all awaiting its return.

Right, well this movie starts out by blatantly stating to be based on real events. Yeah, must have been very loosely based in such a case. Because I didn't buy into this as something that had happened, not by a long shot.

"Panic Button" is about a group of people participating in some type of event or competition set up by a social network. But as dark secrets start to surface and as the participants are given very real assignments the game changes for the worse.

Now, I will say that "Panic Button" is entertaining for what it was, a movie to entertain the viewer. It is, however, not a memorable movie, nor is it a movie you will watch more than once.

Director Chris Crow did manage to air some interesting enough aspects, such as no online privacy, the ever-present 'Big Brother', people's desperate desire to want 15 minutes of fame (which always end in shame, given the pathetic nature of reality broadcasting), and the backside of social medias. While those do make for some interesting aspects, the movie just never got beyond mediocrity.

Not a movie with a lasting impact, "Panic Button" disappears as quietly and without notice as it did getting here. A mere five out of ten stars rating from me.

That kind of movie (a bunch of people stuck in a small location) is always a gamble. Every actor has to be good, the story must be interesting and well written, the director must know where he's going. You can't hide an empty script or anything else behind some great camera work, an amazing location or a celebrity among the actors.

In that case, I have to say: well done !

It's not a great movie but it's a good one, which is impressive considering its kind and the fact that it's a low budget.

PANIC BUTTON is another low budget 'single location' thriller about a group of people trapped in one place and forced to confront some unpalatable truths about themselves. Although much is made of the plane setting, the lack of a special effects budget means that this might as well be set anywhere: a train carriage, a cellar, you name it.

The film has much in common with your usual thriller in this mould and indeed one of the cast, Jack Gordon, would go on to be in the almost identical TRUTH OR DARE (which was much better, by the way). The usual problems unfold, namely poor scripting which takes the form of unlikeable cast members you either don't care about or actively wish bad stuff to happen to.

The low budget nature of the production precludes the presence of any name actors and the best they can come up with for a lead is a former EASTENDERS actress, Scarlett Alice Johnson. None of the actors are particularly bad, but they're not great either when saddled with such underwhelming characters. I appreciate that the emphasis is on the psychological here rather than unnecessary torture porn but the running time does drag and there's not much to get excited about when all is said and done.

Despite some of the marketing, Chris Crow's zeitgeisty paranoia thriller owes as much if not more to Hitchcock's Lifeboat as it does to modern "torture porn", such as the Saw sequels. This is a slow-burning, character-based ensemble piece, tightly written and unfussily directed, which takes our web-based fears and makes them monstrously manifest; not only our anxiety about identity theft, but also touching upon our perceived anonymity, leading as it does to a sense of invulnerability - and from behind that veil, the screenwriters suggest, we are free to act upon our cruellest base desires with virtual immunity.

Inevitably, perhaps, the tension gives way to more visceral final act, but Crow's camera never lingers or leers. The 18 certificate (in the UK) seems harsh, given the recent, similarly-budgeted excesses of Tom Six and Srðan Spasojeviæ, from which this is a mercifully far cry.

One may well be left with the feeling that this is a desperately topical film, cashing in on the current trends for horror games and social networking - and this is not an unreasonable response. But there is real quality here, not least in the four central performances, superbly depicting the rapid mental decline as the dire situation dawns: that they've been given the trip of a lifetime, and it looks like it'll be the last of their lives. This descent could have been unconvincing, but as the laughter fades and the camera becomes unfixed, the effect is quite involving.

It's a pity that this kind of ingenious lo-fi horror is so often lost in the shadow of dismal Hollywood remakes. We can help right this wrong by supporting freshness and ingenuity where we see it.