‘PRAY it doesn’t happen HERE -‘
Panic is a 1982 Italian/Spanish science fiction horror film about a scientist’s experiments that transform him into a mutated monster.
Directed by Tonino Ricci (Night of the Sharks; Encounters in the Deep; The Shark’s Cave) [as Anthony Richmond] from a story and screenplay co-written by Jaime Comas Gil (The Shark Hunter; Encounters in the Deep) and Víctor Andrés Catena.
The movie stars David Warbeck (RatMan; The Black Cat; The Beyond; Craze; Twins of Evil; Trog), Janet Agren (City of the Living Dead; Eaten Alive!; The Shark’s Cave; The Killer Reserved Nine Seats), Roberto Ricci, José Lifante, Miguel Herrera, Eugenio Benito, Ovidio Taito, José María Labernié, Ilaria Maria Bianchi, Fabián Conde, Vittorio Calò, Franco Ressel and Goffredo Unger.
Plot:
In Newton, a scientist’s experiment with a deadly bacteria goes awry and leaves him horribly deformed. The monstrous man then runs amok…
Reviews:
“In the right mindset, Panic is a good deal of fun […] If nothing else, Tonino Ricci, the auteur of awful, is not only consistent in making tripe but entertaining tripe. Mildly engaging because of its silly, Z-grade quality horror, and incomprehensible from start to finish, Panic‘s sewer setting is metaphoric of its place in the Euro-sleaze pantheon.” Cool Cinema
“What we’ve got here is you basic “monster on the loose” movie, and that’s something you don’t see too often from Italian cinema of this period. That gives the movie a certain novelty value. Unfortunately, that’s about all the movie has going for it. It’s a dreary, repetitive, barely plotted mess that just seems to rotate three scenes – monster attacks, investigations, government cover-up.” Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
” …most of the movie is the police chasing around this guy covered with lesions. They spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with the quarantine of the town when we learn almost right off the bat that it isn’t anything communicable that’s killing people, but a really slow, lumbering point-of-view monster. This is a really standard sort of monster movie…” Films in Boxes
“Panic is a film too dumb to explore the politically-charged Dr Strangelove and Fail-Safe implications of its plot and little is made of a Prime Minister willing to obliterate an entire city to kill one contaminated scientist. Adams doesn’t even appear to be contagious, since none of the people he encounters become infected.” Good Efficient Butchery
“Unfortunately, it’s not nearly as exciting as it sounds, even with the occasional bloodletting, oozing, or smattering of female nudity, although the “ticking clock” of whether our heroes will be able to corner their quarry before the Army “contains” the town with an air strike of nerve gas is pretty amusing.” Horror 101 with Doctor AC
” …Panic is certainly entertaining if you’re in a very, very forgiving mood. The English dub (even Warbeck doesn’t get to use his own voice) is one of the crazier of the period, especially when it comes to the more sex-starved characters, and at least it’s a bit of a change of pace from the slasher films and supernatural gore epics around the same year.” Mondo Digital
“A poorly thought out and dully executed monster-on-the-loose picture whose monster looks like he’s about to stroke out in the last act when he’s huffing and puffing and having trouble moving around in the sewers and can barely even climb up a ladder […] Parks has no personality and no backstory to justify audience sympathy, so he just comes off as a pathetic psycho, but a lot of that could be because it looks an elephant took a dump on his face.” Monster Hunter
“A scientist vanishes: people talk about it. He turns into mutant: people talk about it. The bodies have been sucked dry of blood: people talk about it. In fact, they don’t even seem to need even that much of an excuse to talk. And talk. And talk There really isn’t much to recommend this one unless you are likely to get all excited because the hero is named “Captain Kirk.” Rivets on the Poster
Choice dialogue:
Sergeant O’Brien: “This is our case. And I want this killer in jail before those London headshrinkers start excusing him! So, get going.”
Original title:
Bakterion
Full film – free to watch online [1080p HD]:
