Panic Button (2011)

Panic Button (2011) That’s it! I’ve seen this film twice. I think that will be enough!!! 4 well-heeled individuals find themselves on board a plane, having won their seats thanks to their favourite social network called AllTogether. As happy as they should be, they had no idea that this surprise would turn into moral torture… In fact, the first forty minutes (where the pace is really good) are really good. Gripping, chilling, interesting…

But the half-hour that follows becomes too twisted, too dark and rather messy. That said, the last quarter of an hour is again pretty crazy… and just about manages to make Panic Button a good film. Still, this ending won’t be to everyone’s taste, that’s for sure!

The actors are decent and have varying degrees of talent and charisma. I didn’t know any of them, it seems to me. I don’t think even the lead actress has been in too many films. About five, if you count this one, and the four before that. She started out in soap operas and series and, apparently, returned to them after this film.

Most critics have been mixed. And this film has received ‘bloody scary’, ‘undercooked climax and frankly absurd final scene’ and ‘a lame metaphor for cyberbullying disguised as a mildly entertaining British B-movie’.

You could say that the British don’t know how to make horror, horror, thrillers like they used to!There’s a Saw quality to this film. Remember that the first film dates back to 2003. Indeed, there’s that vengeance and punishment aspect. I won’t say any more, but Panic Button is a sanctimonious and slightly pretentious indictment of social networking. It claims to be ‘inspired by real events’, but once again we don’t believe it. It’s staged in the form of an aeroplane behind closed doors. On the whole, it’s an average film, but it has some good points.

A small production (with a budget of just over €350,000: yes, that really is very little!) that came to us straight from Wales and ended up in France and Switzerland on direct-to-dvd. It’s clear that we spend an enormous amount of time every day on the Internet and on social networks (everyone criticised World of Warcraft for turning gamers into no-lifers, but Facebook had turned EVERYONE into no-lifers addicted to their fucking social network!!!) before the likes of Insta and Tik Tok came along. The quiz part of the game proves that the ‘freedom’ afforded by the internet invites us to indulge in our little foibles, whether they be behavioural (mythomania, hypocrisy, compulsive shopping, impostures, etc.) or downright perversions (paedophilia, zoophilia, snuff film voyeurism, etc.).

To their detriment, the characters soon realise that everything can be found with new technologies and that, in the end, you can’t hide completely: being forced to face your true face is more than traumatic. What’s more, we love silliness and making fun of others! That’s why stupid reality shows have worked so well for so many years… but here, it’s funny to see that we find ourselves in a trashy version of a reality show: there’s a guy who sees everything and talks to the characters in voice-over, the plane’s toilets are used as a ‘confessional’ where ‘the voice’ will give them missions to complete…

The psychopath’s head is represented by the head of a crocodile on the plane’s computer screen. Not sure the film’s title is appropriate! Not a bad film, but not great either. It’s easy to watch, the story is nice and well told. The enclosed space probably limits the possibilities for some, but personally I love the concept of films in a single room. But let’s face it, after the initial surprise, the film loses interest as it goes on.