Satranic Panic

Satranic Panic (2023) is an Australian picture 🇦🇺 that Intecentky watches on Shudder. The storyline follows a demon killing rock band out for revenge after one of their friends is murdered and no one takes they requests for help seriously. It's time to take matters into their own hands.

This picture is directed by Alice Maio Mackay (Carnage for Christmas) and stars Chris Asimos (Danger 5), Cassie Hamilton (Carnage for Christmas), Brendan Cooney (The Stranger), Patty Glavieux (Blood City) and Lisa Fanto (Bad Girl Boogey).

This is a movie that started with potential and about halfway through falls completely apart. The lighting, attire and style were cool. The dialogue and conversations were inconsistent, with some interactions and conversations feeling forced. The comedy was more miss than hit. The concert scenes were too long and drawn out. The CGI in this is terrible. The entire final 30 minutes is atrocious and was tough to watch the ending,

In conclusion, Satranic Panic is an absolute disaster with no redeeming elements. I would score this a 1/10 and recommend skipping it.

After the death of their friend, a couple decide to investigate the rumors of a series of demonic possession rituals being conducted by a strange cult that are at the center of what supposedly killed him and must race across the country to stop the cult's plans from coming to fruition.

This was a massively fun and enjoyable genre effort. One of the more enjoyable factors with this comes from the wild and rather fun setup that brings about plenty of genuinely cheesy fun. The idea of the friends deciding to go about on their trip to look into the true nature of their friends' death that no one wants to solve and finding the rumors about the cause being done by a demonic cult looking to summon the creatures to fix the people in their condition as a means of solving perceived mental issues offers a great time here. The central premise of the cult's presence and what they're attempting to offer makes for a great time here with the whole purpose offering a fantastic commentary on the nature of individuality and expression that comes about due to the incredibly sympathetic portrayal that comes about as everything gets connected rather nicely. What helps bring this along is the series of frantic encounters with everyone as they undertake the trip to look into the cult the more they uncover about he death. Realizing the cult is responsible for bringing about demons with the hope of riding people of their supposed mental disease, the confrontations here taking place in public locations or secluded hotel rooms offers the kind of likable setups that are full of impressive practical effects for this kind of budget as the make-up work to denote the kind of physical transformations taking place. The comedic interludes with the drag performances are a great way to add some levity to the proceedings while also continuing to tackle the sense of family that runs wild in this one, making its low-budget limitations the lone real flaw to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

A confusing release year as Shudder has it for 2024, whereas IMDb has it as the former year. The reason why this is important is because every January I try to catch up on the previous years' horror releases which is why this one ended up in my list. I probably would have skipped it otherwise, but I'm a diehard horror fan so I'll watch anything. This is, unfortunately, a poorly made indie film that is dull with questionable acting talent. This is not to say that the film is entirely bad. I quite rather like the bold color pallet by the dp and the editing. I think the best thing to mention about the film is that it is a trans and queer horror film and that's what elevates it. This is an under represented community in the horror genre and it's refreshing to see such bold efforts to fix that in 2024 (this is one of three that I viewed on Shudder recently). The general horror elements are all a cliche (but really, in what horror film are they not?) but it's the characters themselves that make this interesting and different. This film will not appeal to all 4-quadrant audiences, as it shouldn't but it does go a long way in establishing the trans and queer community as a new force with a voice in horror films and I'm curious to see what comes next.