Leofwine_draca A cheesy, ineffectual monster-on-the-loose yarn from director Tonino Ricci, a man who can usually be relied upon to deliver the goods in a typically low-budget, untalented fashion. Although not as much a laugh riot as his later classics RUSH THE ASSASSIN and its super sequel RAGE, PANIC is nonetheless an interesting but failed attempt by the Italians to produce a British-set horror-cum-science fiction thriller. In some ways the film is similar to the Spanish LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE - copious use of location filming in the UK adds to the impact and feel of the film but Ricci is not able to bring enough atmosphere to his settings as Grau did in his classic zombie film. To add to the similarities between the two films, Jose Lifante pops up again playing the fairly major part of an investigating policeman, Sergeant O'Brien, instantly recognisable with his pale visage and bulging eyeballs.The film begins with a poorly-edited accident at a science lab, where something happens to somebody. It's hard to tell what, because the editing at this point is atrocious, a flaw that is occasionally repeated throughout the movie. Later it turns out that a scientist has been exposed to a germ which turns him into an ugly mutant with a thirst for human blood. PANIC enters predictable B-movie territory as the monster stalks and slashes a variety of naked Italian females, who spend their time either making out in their cars or showering at unfortunate times. A pleasing amount of shoddy gore effects are splashed about, adding to the minimal enjoyment that the film offers. Lots of padding is taken up with scenes of government investigator David Warbeck (playing, get this, a character named Kirk Dude!) and his superiors searching uselessly for the deformed scientist, whilst some poor effects and a smoke machine behind an aeroplane try to convince us that the authorities are ready to drop a bomb on the town at any moment.Things culminate in a not-bad attack by the mutant on a cinema full of patrons watching an exceptionally bizarre film, which seems to involve a man riding back and forth on his motorbike whilst comedy music plays! Sadly Ricci ruins things by filming the actual attack in the pitch black, so all we hear are the noises. His money-making ploy doesn't pull off. The finale of the film involves the creature being cornered in the sewers whilst Warbeck and the police force close in, and there's a cheesy action finale in which Warbeck lets loose with a gas-gun. One highlight that the climax holds is the surprisingly excellent special effects used for the monster, basically a gruesome prosthetic pulsing mask which looks really nasty - kudos for the effects guys on their obviously limited budget.Entertainment spots to watch out for include the various monster attacks, plagued by overacting from the monster and its victims, and the gratuitous nudity thrown in at every opportunity. One hilarious highlight sees the police investigating growling coming from behind a bush, only to release it's only a drunk - doesn't explain why he's growling though! There's also an ultra-cheesy effects shot of a giant guinea pig living in a sewer, although the effects here are so poor that it took me a few minutes to figure out what I was supposed to be looking at. The small, B-movie cast is headed by action hero David Warbeck, in what I believe to be his first outing in an Italian horror film, and as usual he's the best thing in the film, putting in a solid performance. Janet Agren is ineffectual and has bad hair as the heroine, who inexplicably cares for the monster even whilst he's killing people, and lower down in the cast is Franco Ressel as a victim who has his legs torn off. Not one of Ricci's best movies, but a cheesy delight for bad movie lovers and a bit of a bore for everyone else.

Scarecrow-88 A laboratory experiment goes terribly wrong leaving a scientist, Professor Adams, radioactively infected with a horrible mutation effecting his whole body. Now a grotesque cannibal lurking the underground sewer tunnels of the town of Newton, the powers-that-be are planning to drop nerve bombs if the monster isn't found and killed in time, so that the viral contagion Adams is currently carrying will be contained. If this drastic decision is to be halted, Captain Kirk(David Warbeck), Adams' lab assistant Jane Blake(Janet Agren), and Newton's Police Sergeant O'Brien(José Lifante)will have to race against time to find the mutated fiend and save thousands of innocent lives. During this chase to find it, the monster is scouring streets targeting citizens, feasting on flesh, retreating to the sewers periodically to escape from harm. Rampaging through a theater, it finds a female as others flee, tearing away at her face right before Kirk is able to catch him. The monster breaks into the locked door of a Catholic church, invading a sacristy as a priest helps his choir boys find escape, murdering him as the padre defends his kids. Kirk's boss, Milton(Franco Ressel)unloads two shot gun blasts into the beast before it rips away at his leg. Even Kirk is able to unload an entire gun of bullets into the thing without downing the monster. This monster has quite a threshold, as Kirk and O'Brien flood the sewers with gas hoping to corner it after sealing off escape routes. That monster is damned elusive, that's for sure, quite motivated to keep on going, no matter the resistance it faces along the way.The version I watched, on a 50 pack of Mill Creek films, is incredibly murky and seems to be cut. The movie's absent of gore and the monster itself is wisely hidden in darkness, with only mutated(..latex)flesh made visible as light briefly flashes on it while in pursuit of new victims to eat. I didn't think the monster is very convincing when the film finally unveils it at the end. I won't lie, this was a pain to sit through;positively boring, with an absence of thrills. If the plot were even remotely original or effective, I might've enjoyed it more. On paper, this hybrid of suspense elements(monster on the loose eating folks;threat of spread virus;possible nuking of town)should be a winner, but under the direction of Tonino Ricci, it plods along at a languid pace covering familiar ground formerly trampled on by more capable filmmakers. In the version I watched, the scenes of violence disappear from the screen as the monster often engulfs the entire frame. Even as Kirk and O'Brien survey the crime scene carnage left in the monster's wake, Ricci fails to give the viewer the gory goods. Just a sheer disappointment that, if handled by someone else, might've been better. An Italian production with the story set in England(why not Rome?).

zombikreepingflesh I picked this up in a pack of fifty films and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was filmed where I live, St Mary Cray in the United Kingdom so had the added bonus of sight seeing around my home town many years before I was even born let alone live here.The plot is well oiled in the old 'science run amok' mode and this film is quite close to The Incredible Melting Man' in many respects only not as gory and not having the talents of said films fx crew or production (and thats saying something!)It does seem though that a few plot lines that could have made the film run better are passed over quite quickly in order to push the film along, saving grace goes to good old David Warbeck for hamming it up and putting a straight face on proceedings throughout.All in all a good way to pass an hour and a half but when the story has been done a thousand times before and after there are better offerings out there.

hae13400 Because of an accident in the laboratory of a British chemical company simply named Chemical which joins the government's so-called Prurima Plan, one of the leading researchers, professor Adams, becomes a fresh-eating monster, and attacks a local teenager couple of Betty and her boy friend, Lucas. And then, the government decides to order the RAF to use the mass-destructive weapon... Although I believe I am one of the Italian-horror-film-lovers, I have to say this Italian film is as sadly bad as the notorious MIAMI GOLEM. The story of the film seems to be trying to express the biological and/or chemical crisis of the city of Newton where the ex-professor monster is, but the film itself has no tense atmosphere from beginning to end. And the pizza-faced monster effects which created by Rino Carboni are not only simply cheap but also problematically unrealistic; at least his face seems to be too swollen to eat raw human fresh. And to make matters worse, this film has, as other reviewer already pointed out, not a few badly independent and almost meaningless scenes. For instance, in the first one third part of the film, Captain Kirk and Sergeant O'Brien find a giant pizza-faced mouse in a manhole of the old factory, and the Sergeant says OH, MY GOD! And that's all there is to it. Since then the composite-photograph-like mouse never shows up, and no one mentions it. In addition, this film has NIGHTMARE-CITY-like crazy credits; at the very ending part of the film, with the cheap TV-like music by Marcello Giombini, one can see WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN MIGHT REALLY HAPPEN...PERHAPS IT ALREADY HAS!