Panic Button

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.

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.

This is a weird one to review, I mean, there's almost no blood in it and still I wouldn't advice it to kids to watch this flick. And it's easy to say that it is in the line of Saw, watch it, somebody giving orders to 4 players on a plane. It is Chris Crow his second attempt to make a full feature and for being filmed just on a plane he did a fine job. Due being less on horror I still kept watching what was really going on and I even laughed a bit with the inside joke about Big Brother.

The acting was really good and you start to know the 4 players in the beginning and you must admit that if you were in the same game you wouldn't like to reveal yourself. Everybody has his dark secrets and this is in fact were it's all about. It made me even think about the internet, it's a fact everything you do is being watched or registered on some server.

The story itself did have some twists but the end I personally didn't like. But at the end of the day, it is a suspense full thriller with some pieces of torture, I would say without offending somebody, if you can't stand the gore in Saw than watch this one.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

"Interesting" as another reviewer put it. But kind of worn out too. You wish they'd actually care about the characters they write or portray. It feels very unnatural and very cliché (especially towards the ending) and does not really get you involved. And it started out so good. You have no idea who those guys and the tension gets almost unbearable at the beginning.

But all that doesn't matter in the end. Because the movie throws any logic out the window (no pun intended) and tries to stick with a known formula. It doesn't work out that good for the movie. While not the worst movie, you have to be a fan of the genre to take the time to watch this.