Panique

With an interesting story and some good suspense, this mystery/thriller works pretty well despite a lack of any particularly appealing characters. At the beginning, it sets up a complicated situation, and builds at a good pace to lead up to a tense finale. It has quite a low-budget look to it, but with a story of this kind, sometimes that actually fits in rather well.

There is a lot going on right from the beginning. In a neighborhood where a murder has just been committed, there is a young woman coming home from prison, seeking out the lover for whom she took the blame. There is also an unpopular and eccentric resident whom no one can figure out. These and other characters soon get involved in a lengthy cat-and-mouse game that keeps things interesting the rest of the way. It would be even more compelling if at least some of the characters were a little easier to sympathize with, but the story itself is enough to hold your attention. One slight drawback - not a fault of the original film-makers - is that the titles (at least on the English version that seems to be available) are very light and often hard to read, so you miss a few things, unless by chance your French is sharp enough to catch everything.

Overall, it's above average for its genre. If you enjoy film noir or older thrillers, and don't mind a low-budget style, this one should be worth a look.