Don't Panic (1987) User Reviews

Who the heck is Stan?

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 11 October 2014]

The '80s was the decade in which low-budget horror movies often traded logic and originality for sheer zaniness, many of them making very little sense but delivering a lot in the way of OTT effects, gratuitous nudity and a general sense of the absurd. Mexican supernatural slasher Don't Panic certainly doesn't waste any time or effort on a innovative story, its Ouija board plot device being as old as the hills, the whole 'teenagers in peril' angle being incredibly hokey; unfortunately, it doesn't quite deliver enough in the way of excessively entertaining schlock to adequately compensate for the predictable narrative.

There are few bloody kills courtesy of make-up effects man Screaming Mad George, best one being a knife pushed up through the victim's jaw into the mouth, but they're generally not creative enough to distinguish the film from countless other slashers, and with far too much time spent on developing the sappy relationship between teenagers Michael (Jon Michael Bischof) and Alexandra (Gabriela Hassle) and following a confused Michael wandering aimlessly around in his dinosaur pyjamas, the film is far less fun than it needs to be.

For me, the most entertaining moment was when the line 'Do you believe in Satan?' came up in my subtitles as 'Do you believe in Stan?, which speaks volumes about the film as a whole.

Pretty silly.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 4 June 2004]

Young Michael didn't know that by messing with an ouija board he would unleash a demon that would posses his soul and force him into the wave of terror,delivering his victims into brutal death.To prevent more bloodshed Michael must find the demon's dagger and destroy the horrendous being.Ruben Galindo's "Don't Panic" is a pretty amusing piece of Mexican horror.It offers plenty of cheese and gore.The gore effects made by Screaming Mad George are quite effective and the film has some suspenseful moments.So if you're a fan of low-budget slasher films you can't go wrong with "Don't Panic".Here is my favourite gore scene from this film:a guy has his throat slashed with a dagger.6 out of 10.

Not bad, a bit cheesy though

[Tikkin · 4/10 · 27 February 2006]

I thought this supernatural slasher wasn't too bad. There were a few effective bits, and even a few suspenseful moments. The killings with the dagger are cool, and the bit where Michael is being stalked around the hospital are good. I also got a scare from the part where Virgil suddenly appears at the back window of the car. There are too many boring parts however to make this a good slasher film. If they had used more shots of Virgil stalking Michael and added some more gore, it would have been quite good. The ending is rather cheesy.

Still it's better than many slasher films I have seen so if you're a die-hard slasher fan then seek this one out.

So bad, it's--well, not good, but kinda entertaining

[lazarillo · 6 February 2008]

This is a generally unsuccessful attempt by low-budget Mexican filmmakers to ape the "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequels, but although it is pretty incompetent it is much more lovable than most of those overblown American cash-ins. Instead of "Fredddy" we have "Virgil" who is a Roman epic poet. . . no wait, different "Virgil"--this one is basically the Devil (or something) who has possessed the best friend of the protagonist after a Ouija board session at the protagonist's birthday party , and is using him (for some reason) to kill everyone else who was at the session, including the hero's new girlfriend. So it is up to protagonist to rescue all his friends from evil. Luckily, he has a rose that has special powers because he gave it to his girlfriend out of pure love (something like that).

This movie tries really hard to be an American movie, making the protagonist a transplanted American attending an American school in Mexico City. The school has all kinds of ridiculous signs in English, like one promising to expel any tardy students! (So naturally when they're tardy, the hero and is girlfriend decide to skip school entirely which apparently is much more acceptable). But my favorite part is the English teacher who goes on and on about Percy Blysshe Shelley, of all people, who she inaccurately says went crazy (as someone who once worked as an English teacher in Mexico, my head was left swimming). There's also a scene where the protagonist starts sharing visions with "Virgil" when he kills people, so his alcoholic mom takes him to an optometrist(!) where she confesses to the good doctor, apropos of nothing, that she has a drinking problem.

Although it matches the characters lips and is pretty (unintentionally)funny, the English dub track is actually pretty hard to take after awhile. The voice of the girlfriend (played by an actress who is basically, to paraphrase "The Simpsons", the non-union, Mexican equivalent of Heather Langenkamp)is like nails on a chalkboard and it eventually drove me to watch it in Spanish, lip sync be damned! It also has some pretty promiscuous teen sex (on only the second date!), but it's strictly PG-rated sex with nary a nipple, while the violence is maybe a hard PG-13. Ironically, despite an obviously great effort to market this in the US, it got much more of a release in the UK, but thanks to recent "Horror from South of the Border" bargain box set we can finally now, uh, enjoy it north of the Rio Grande.

No panic....only chuckles!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 22 February 2005]

Ruben Galindo is one of those sneaky Mexican exploitation directors who makes quickie-movies for the the American market. The cast is filled with fresh American faces and premise as well as atmosphere are typically US high school-like. Only... the production is entirely Mexican! This technique saves the makers a few extra bucks and the fans of this type of cinema mostly don't notice the difference anyway. However, what you can't but notice about "Don't Panic" is the amateurism. The screenplay makes no sense at all as it attempts to blend the mysteries of the occult (an Ouija-board) with an ordinary high school slasher plot. A group of brainless friends summon a demon (named Virgil...not exactly a petrifying name, if you ask me) and this demon soon after possesses one of the kids. How did this Virgil ended up inside the body of the kid?? Who knows... Why does he think it's necessary to butcher everyone who joined the Ouija game?? Not explained, neither... There's no tension and no sense of humor to detect anywhere in the script. Well...at least not intended humor, because the stupidity and incompetence definitely will make you chuckle more than once! Also, if you plan to watch this film, you're better not allergic to atrocious acting. No matter how hard these teen-actors try, they have no acting skills at all. The best part about "Don't Panic" is – as usual – the gore! Screaming Mad George went nuts again and literally stuffed this film with repulsive massacre and entire buckets of blood. I'm not an expert but I sincerely doubt that an average human body contains so much blood. Oh well, if it wasn't for these gory moments, "Don't Panic" would be completely worthless. In conclusion: this probably is one of the only films ever that feature the hero (supposedly 17 years old) battling evil whilst wearing a ridiculous and utterly childish pajamas. Respect!

80 horror more often a miss

[kaefab · 4/10 · 22 December 2020]

This movie had potential but it end up falling short.

Small amount of gore, close to no nudity, and sort of your been done a 1000 times before story.

All in all a below average horror movie from the 80 don't bother

Really bad low budget supernatural/slasher mess of a horror film!

[poolandrews · 2/10 · 12 June 2005]

Don't Panic (a confusing title which means absolutely nothing by the way) starts by introducing us to Micheal Smith (Jon Micheal Bishof) who recently moved to Mexico with his alcoholic Mother (Helena Rojo). It's the night of Micheal's birthday & the last few guests are leaving his party, or so he thinks. Some of his friends have stayed behind including his best friend Tony (Juan Ignacio Aranda) & a girl from school whom he has the hots for named Alexandra (Gabriela Hassle). Tony, being an idiot, suggests that they hold a séance with a Ouija board he just happens to have, after some goading everyone agrees & the séance begins. Tony talks about a spirit named Virgil & asks him some stupid questions, everyone goes home & that's about that or so everyone thinks... The next day Micheal is late for class but everything is fine. However that night as Micheal is trying to sleep he has a vision, a vision of one of his friends named Debbie (Cecilia Tijerina) who was at the séance, being brutally stabbed to death by an unknown assailant. Oh, & for some unexplained reason Micheal's eye's turn red. At first Micheal thinks that it was just a hallucination but when he hears about Debbie's death & that of another one of his friends at the séance Peter (Mario Ivan Martinez) on the news he becomes convinced that his vision was real. While at school Micheal receives a warning in the shape of yet another vision, a warning which tells him Christy (Melinda McCallum) will be the next to die, Micheal must try & save Christy & his remaining friends who were present at the séance before this unknown source of evil kills all of them...

This Mexican American co-production was written & directed by Ruben Galindo as Ruben Galindo Jr. & is one seriously bad film. The script tries to cross supernatural thriller with stalk 'n' slash horror & it predictably turned out to be a complete mess. Don't Panic is a painfully slow & tedious film to watch with only two murders for well over an hour of it's running time & lots of boring exposition & unnecessary character development for the rest of it. The dialogue is pretty bad, the acting is very bad & the character's are awful. The film tries to conceal the killer's identity & to be fair it might work, unfortunately the version I saw revealed the killer on the back of the video box so I knew who it was all along, I doubt it would be that much of a surprise though. No explanation is given to who Virgil is, what he want's, why he's killing these specific teenagers or how he is able to possess people's bodies. Virgil is just 'there' & we have to accept it. The character's are all stupid, the situations Don't Panic depicts are all stupid & as a whole the film lacks any sort of fore-thought or intelligence behind what's going on. The ending is awful as well, both how Virgil is defeated & that sickening & tacky 'this rose will never wilt as long as there is love between us' scene. Despite what you may have read there is actually very little on screen gore, two people are stabbed which Don't Panic depicts by having blood splash over the floor & on the victims clothes, there is a fairly decent slit throat even if I wouldn't just sit impassively in a car as someone stuck their hand in through the window & sliced my throat open with a knife & a scene in which a knife (it's the same knife in all the murder's actually) is stuck into someones chin & it protrudes from their mouth. All the kill scenes are dull with virtually no build up & director Galindo fails to inject any tension, scares or atmosphere into them just like the rest of the film in fact. There isn't even any nudity either, in fact when Micheal & Alexandra have sex it is squeaky clean stuff, Galindo merely shows them kissing each other on the lips while in bed. As mentioned already in other comments the sight of Micheal running around in his babyish pyjama's is both bizarre & very silly looking. Don't Panic is technically average, the cinematography is static & flat as are the production values in general & the horrible music seems very out of place. There are a couple of scenes where a face pokes out of the TV which is quite an impressive effect. Overall there is very little I can recommend Don't Panic by as it's a pretty terrible film all round really, maybe it's good for a few laughs & a decent slit throat but that's it. One to avoid unless it's VERY cheap & your VERY bored.

The montages were a bit corny, as was some of the music selection, but overall this is a very fun and entertaining film

[kevin_robbins · 6/10 · 10 May 2021]

Don't Panic (1988) is a Mexican slasher movie that came highly recommended on Twitter recently and I found a free showing of it online using the link below. The movie is about some kids getting together to celebrate Michael's birthday. One of his friends is obsessed with playing games, especially trying out a new Ouija board he found. What could go wrong? This movie is directed by Ruben Galindo (Cemetary of Terror) and stars Jon Michael Bischof (Grave Robbers), Gabriela Hassel, Helena Rojo (Aguirre, The Wrath of God) and Jorge Luke (Clear and Present Danger). This movie reminded me of a cross between Halloween and Evil Dead. The possessed best friend was like a deadite chasing down the main character and the kill scenes were very fun. The montages were a bit corny, as was some of the music selection, but overall this is a very fun and entertaining film that is a must see for slasher movie fans. I'd score this a 5.5-6/10.

Best movie ever!

[CoasterProductions · 3/10 · 6 August 2005]

Best movie ever! That's what I'd say if I'd never seen a horror film. My God "The Dark, Crocodile, The Lamp (AKA: The Outing)" and hell even "Blue Monkey" did a better job trying to get a good scare! This one well, anyone who made this movie should take to the wood shied and put to rest! And I hope that the Director of Photography didn't get paid much. Look's like he lite it with two Mag lights in some parts and work lights in others. And now lets talk about unibrow girl... shave it! During the sex sceen you just want to tie her down and shave it off! And isn't a montage usually place toward the end... not in the first 20 min? Now for the story, there is none! Looks like they sat down one weekend and said "Hey, I have a 35mm camera for the weekend. Lets make a movie by Monday." I'm not kidding! The sound was not recorded at all for the set... ALL ADR! The only good thing is the make-up effects and death scenes. They are stylish and fun to watch. Just wish they could have been in a better movie.

Obscure Mexican Nightmare On Elm Street. Deserves a chance.

[insomniac_rod · 7/10 · 25 June 2005]

I'm reviewing this movie for the 2nd. time. After many years, I caught this movie on Mexican cable and I'm glad that I liked it better than the first time I watched it. As a kid, I hated this movie because it trashed my favorite slasher characters, Freddy and Jason.

Anywways, this is a Mexican version of "A Nightmare On Elm Street" part 1 and II and has some elements from the "Friday the 13th" sequels. Also, some little influences by "The Evil Dead".

The story follows Michael and his friends, who after Michael's birthday party decide to play with the ouija board. Unfortunately to them, an evil spirit named Virgil possesses one of them and starts a killing spree taking revenge on everyone who played with the board. Virgil makes a late appearance in the movie but manages to dispatch his victims one by one... until only Alex and Michael are left.

Could Michael stop Virgil? How is he going to use the "magic" dagger against him? (In the style of "Jason Goes To Hell"). Could it be that Virgil is really more dangerous than Freddy and Jason? Watch "Don't Panic" with low expectations and you might surprise yourself.

The movie is very cheesy, but not in a negative way. It's cheesy in an 80's manner! We get plenty of gore, some nasty death scenes, a "cool" score (I love the "Don't Panic!" song), and some creepy scenes. RYes, the "Nightmare On Elm Street" influenecs are present through all the movie. Especially from Part II: Freddy's Revenge. Michael's character is very similar to Jesse. He even has a friend who is killed in front of him and can't do anything but escape from some stupid cops. Also, Michael has this wimpy attitude but manages to confront Virgil and beware all of his friends.

The movie has this 80's feeling that we all love. This is the typical slasher flick from the 80's that spent more budget on the visuals. The f/x are cheesy but worked for me. The gore is great! (Check out a death scene similar from Dario Argento's "Opera").

The acting is way all over the top but still works for this kind of movie. Bishof delivers a good performance, Gaby Hassle delivers a cute, solid performance. She's way too pretty to be around all the gore. Virgil is a mix of looks; he has the looks of possessed Ash from "Evil Dead II", but the make-up of his face is almost the same as Freddy Krueger! Although he isn't as annoying as Freddy. He just keeps repeating "Do You believe in Satan?!". But it isn't as annoying as Krueger's one liners. His demise is very gory and great. Lots of blood through his mouth!

One of the cheesiest scenes in slasher history is when Michael goes to Alex's house, becomes mad, and starts shooting! Horrible acting in that scene by the way. I liked the ending which is very "moving" and has an extremely cheesy line that references one love scene: "As long as love exists between you two the rose shall never wither.". The scene happens when Alex is in the graveyard...

This movie took the right influences and ripped them off in almost a cynical way but still this movie is cheese for the please. Watch it if you can find it, although it will be very hard , as far as I know, it's currently out of print. Or maybe you can find it with the title "Dimensiones Ocultas". "Don't Panic" is a pleasant surprise and deserves a chance. Probably one of Mèxico's best Horror/Fantasy movies. Yes, this is quality here but still is entertaining!

Don't Panic!! It'll be over soon...

[natashabowiepinky · 1/10 · 5 October 2013]

This is one seriously bad film. But on the plus side, it's one of the funniest, most watchable bad films I've ever seen. Unfortunately, my rating scale does not account for such minutiae, and I have to assume it was designed to be an entry in the 'horror' genre. And by that definition, it's beyond the pale. Having said that, if you want to see a bunch of actors stitched up to say and do things which will haunt them for the rest of their days... Well, my friend lets catch the last train to crazyville.

There's this Ouija board, see? And some Mexican friends who somehow thought it would be a lark to try out American accents, give it a go. Needless to say, they unleash DARK SPIRITS THAT THEY CANNOT CONTAIN. But first, we have a love montage of our main protagonist going out with a girl he's known for all of a few hours. They try on stupid hats, go for a pedal-boat ride and hold hands on the boardwalk, while a cheesy 80's pop song blares out. This is far more horrifying than anything that follows.

After all that romance crap is over, we FINALLY get to the good stuff... the lead character running around in his dinosaur pyjamas at night to warn someone at a hospital they're about to become brown bread. The truth is, one of his buddies at the satanic ritual the other night was possessed by a renegade spirit, and is now wearing a stupid mask and speaking with A VERY DEEP VOICE. The soul of the individual who was taken over now dwells in a television set, and relays information through a static screen in which his face appears, which is a bit annoying when you want to watch Corrie. Our hero is the ONLY ONE who can make sense of all this mumbo-jumbo. Everyone thinks he's nuts, though. Just because he crawls around on his hands and knees, makes stupid noises while pulling faces and rips all his posters off the wall. How on Earth did they reach that conclusion? So, all who were present at the seance get killed one by one courtesy of THE DEVIL IN DISGUISE (Thanks, Elvis). so they all stumble straight into his grasp every time, like they've had a lobotomy. Maybe they did in real life too, to sign up for this dismal nonsense.

Ultimately of course GOOD WILL ALWAYS TRIUMPH OVER EVIL, though our permed hero has to sacrifice himself to save THE WOMAN HE LOVES. (You know, the one he met just the other day) Arr, shucks. Not to worry though... before he shuffled off this mortal coil, he was given a rose... and as long as that rose is in full bloom, he will always be with her. Said flower is as dead as he is at his funeral right at the end, but it comes back to life again just as his beau chucks it into his grave to prove that THEIR LOVE IS ETERNAL. Then, as she smiles, her hair in blown back by an invisible breeze. The ending credits roll. I am not making any of this up.

What this review fails to do, is encapsulate just how dreadful the acting is, the fact that no-one behaves like any human you've ever met throughout, and the completely pathetic attempts at scares. Sure, we can laugh. But someone GREENLIT this script. Someone PAID people to make it. And when it was over, someone saw it and thought it was FIT FOR RELEASE. The mind boggles... 1/10

Absolute bonkers majesty

[BandSAboutMovies · 10/10 · 30 October 2019]

It appears like director and screenwriter Ruben Galindo Jr. wanted to make his own version of A Nightmare On Elm Street but somewhere along the way he decided to he'd like to make a Mexican version of an American teen sitcom, too. Honestly, if you told me Ruben came from another dimension, I'd believe you just as much. This is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen - I've watched it three times just to try and get my thoughts together - and if you take a look through the films on our site, you can see that that is no idle boast.

Our hero Michael is going through some stuff. His parents are fighting so much that his dad sends him and his mom to Mexico City, where his mother decides to drink herself into oblivion. While trying to fit into his new school, he turns seventeen and his friend Tony gives him an Ouija board.

Now, unbeknownst to us, the viewers, Michael and Tony had a past session go wrong with an Ouija board, so this really was a bad idea. Virgil - what a name for a slasher villain - is released and begins killing people.

Now, up until this point in the film, this has felt like a teen coming of age movie, filtered through the lens of a Mexican filmmaker trying to create a movie that would make sense for American audiences. But just like how huge chunks of The Last American Virgin seem to make no sense to Western eyes, this movie also feels like it was beamed down directly from space.

How else do you explain the fact that our hero - who appears to be in his late 20's playing a high schooler - wears dinosaur pajamas for nearly the entire film? This isn't some Troma movie trying to play it all for laughs. This is a serious movie with such lunacy inside it that you can't take it seriously.

It does, however, have awesome special effects courtesy of Screaming Mad George, including a face that emerges from a TV years before The Ring and huge chunks of gore, like a person stabbing through the chin and the blade emerging inside their mouth.

This film was a total surprise and delight to me. I'm shocked that Mondo Macabro or Severin hasn't picked this up yet, because this is the kind of movie that would sell for them. I found it heartwarming just how insane and inane and odd this all was. Now pardon me, I'm about to watch this movie for the fourth time.

Silly nonsense.

[jvontheprowl · 6/10 · 17 May 2021]

First, worth watching just for the bizarre nonsense of the entire movie.

Pretty much about an idiotic weirdo, 17 year old, that suffers from montageitis and wears dinosaur pajamas while running around like a loon trying to stop some weirdo that likes to throw foam blocks about. Mix that with every mess of an event is just plot convenience after plot convenience.

I've been to Mexico D. F. a few times and not once offered Ice Cream for breakfast or watched the 24/7 Ron Cobb channel.

This movie is a bad movie. It is the type of bad that it becomes a fun watch for how many times you will laugh at the bizarre moments in the movie from the beginning to the weird ending.

He runs around the city in dinosaur pajamas. The cops should have locked him up just for that. Where did they even find a set, grown-up size?

No point

[hellholehorror · 2/10 · 10 November 2022]

Oh my god was this movie really bad. This is best avoided. I don't see the point of this film at all. If you speed it up a bit it becomes a little more watchable. The acting and crew work is truly terrible. There is no story to speak of and the violence just involves throwing fake blood at the 'actors'. There is just no point to this rubbish. It's a really poor attempt at making a film. It doesn't help that the film is really ugly to look at and listen to, it's not even entertaining. Sometimes bad films are entertaining but this doesn't even achieve that status. Do not waste your time watching this!

NOT SO BAD

[PIN1988SP · 6 August 2003]

I thought it was a low-budget horror flick. Well,I was wrong because it`s a no-budget kind of film. Anyway,let`s just say it`s not as bad as it seems. SCREAMING MAD GEORGE(make-up wizard of "SOCIETY","BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR",among others)did the visual effects here. The story(which was told in a better way in "LONG TIME DEAD")centers around a bunch of teens playing with this ouija board. Through this they invite a supernatural killer known as virgil. Director RUBEN GALINDO tries hard to shock audiences but it doesn`t go beyond what we`ve seen already before.

DEDICATED TO HORROR GEEKS ONLY(i`m proudly one of them).

Unibrow anyone?

[dizznmo · 1/10 · 19 April 2021]

Omg, rediculous you bad and don't know how anyone was the least bit entertained? The protagonist's girl friend looks like a werewolf with that God awful unibrow! I know bushy brows were in during the 80's but hers is so bad it's all I could focus on🙄

Is this a comedy??

[matthewstanton123-857-954811 · 4/10 · 30 August 2022]

I really dont know how to take this film, At first i thought it boring and badly made and i was thinking that i may switch it off at any moment but as i got into the movie i thought it was quite witty and all the badness was done deliberately.

Micheal has children's pajamas on for most of the film and some of the cast look like freaks, i know it the 80s but come on ...monobrow on a teenage girl (no offence ment ) there is also a poster for JPS cigarettes in the school canteen.

The few deaths throughout are decent enough but nothing great and there is no nudity .

The dubbing is ok but some sound effects are missing .

All in all and entertaining Mexican film but nothing id like to watch again.

What was up with those pajamas???

[vernonsteve · 3/10 · 24 January 2024]

Okay, so I watched this movie this morning as part of Joe Bob Briggs latest Last Drive In marathon on Shudder.

What can I tell you?

I mean, in the words of George Takei, "Oh, my!"

First off, let's tackle those pajamas I mentioned in the title of this review.

We're talking two-piece elasticized jammies, with dinosaurs on the shirt part.

This is on an eighteen year old kid, who wears them in public and rides around on his bicycle while wearing them.

According to Joe Bob, the pajamas were part of the wardrobe that the actor playing the eighteen year old kid (Jon-Michael Bischof) brought along with him during his casting call. I think he bought them at a Woolworth's outlet, although I'm kind of wondering if he didn't just swipe them from a twelve year old.

Honestly, that's pretty well all I can tell you about this flick.

It's a group of teenage kids who buy a Ouija board for the main character's birthday.

I mean, what group of kids chip in on a Ouija board?

After they use the board a demon named Virgil - (and what demon in their right mind is going to name himself after a 70 BC Gaulish poet, anyway?) - who decides that because the teenagers dared fondle his Ouija board, spilling tequila on it, deserve to be killed in classic occult slasher style.

So that's it, basically.

This is an occult slasher movie.

I gave it three stars.

Two of those stars were for the masterfully gory make-up techniques of Screaming Mad George.

I would have given one more star if the murders had been a little more creative than just dagger slashing.

Oh yeah, where'd that magic dagger even come from, anyway? I think the demon used the magic dagger in the earliest killing and left it for the hero in dinosaur pajamas to find and use.

Mind you, even if I gave one more star, I'd just have to take it away for that Hallmark romance freeze-frame finishing shot.

I mean, this was supposed to be a horror movie, wasn't it?

Watch it if you feel you have to, or if you're attempting to pay penance for some darkly evil sin you may have committed in a previous existence.

Forgettable

[mindyannfraizer · 5/10 · 18 December 2021]

A teenager playing with a ouija board unleashes a blood-thirsty demon who begins killing his friends. It's a mostly forgettable Mexican horror film, but not as terrible as it could have been. It sits right in the middle.

Sibilance check?

[tadcreepy · 4/10 · 16 May 2021]

Not sure if there's a way to add extra sibilance to a track, but the sound engineer sure seems like he knew how to add extra 😂 The looping cricket sounds didn't help the obnoxious audio either.

Very lame acting.....which was the only thing that made it watchable.....cuz it was hilarious!

Don't Panic (1987)

[jonahstewartvaughan · 8/10 · 2 March 2023]

Vinegar Syndrome Cuts #11

Don't Panic (1988)

(8/10): Believe me when I say, it's bad, but with VS that's pretty much par for the course but like many of their releases, it's a special kind of bad.

Don't Panic is a Mexican Nightmare on Elm Street knock off that is a mess but is so weird that it makes me miss the days of ripoffs, as it was a time where when they rip something off the end product can be so radically different than what the source material was that it's almost unintentionally original in its own right.

Anyways it follows Michael, a poorly dubbed character who is celebrating his 17th birthday and his friends get him a ouija board and then after some drinks and a bit of peer pressure he uses it and unknowingly awakens some kind of evil force that possesses his friend and aims to kill the others.

It's complete with a love interest with a unibrow, background music/romance music that sounds like it's either from an eighties commercial or a seventies lifetime show like Little House on the Prairie.

Our protagonist also spends a decent portion of the movie in dinosaur pajamas and if you know your eighties horror well you'll notice a scene where they're watching Cemetery of Terror, another eighties Mexican horror film to also get a release from VS.

The plot completely goes off the rails by the end as I do not know what happened and I was watching it so, what the hell...

Overall, it's a subpar slasher with decent enough gore when you see it, meh on makeup effects but is so bizarre that it can ironically make for a good time.

Mexican Nightmare on Elm Street?

[bettybenzone · 5/10 · 14 December 2021]

Don't Panic borrows elements of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Witchboard, and a few others to create a mostly forgettable, but sometimes entertaining slasher film. There's an innocent game involving a ouija board that ends up unleashing an evil spirit that possesses a teenager and causes a series of gory murders. That's about it, but the film isn't too long, so it's tolerable.

Forget about Virgil!

[Insomniac_moviefan · 17 July 2002]

The tagline of this movie is : Forget "Forget Freddie and Jason. Virgil's the newest nightmare in town". It sounds like there's a new killer that everyone should be afraid of!. When you see the cover of the movie, you realize that Virgil is a total loser! The movie is not scary, but it's your average slasher. Terrible make up, stupid situations, and a lame killer make this an avoidable film at all costs.

I admire producers that are ambitious when making a film, but the ones of this were more than ambitious, they thought they could create a scarier and meaner killer than JASON or FREDDY. Sadly, (and predictably) they failed.

A hugely enjoyable Mexican teen horror blast

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 9 March 2008]

Nice guy Michael (winningly played by the affable Jon-Michael Bischof) gets an Ouija board as a gift for his 18th birthday from his smartaleck best buddy Tony (the solid Juan Ignacio Aranda). Michael summons the lethal and evil spirit of Virgil, who takes possession of Tony's body and starts bumping off Michael's friends. Writer/director Ruben Galindo, Jr. trots out all the expected endearingly hokey 80's teen fright feature clichés: we've got a couple of false scares, a corny lovey dovey montage set to infectiously bouncy 80's rock music, a generic spooky'n'shuddery ominous score by Pedro Plascencia Salinas, a tasteful make-out scene, and even the always amusing psycho in the back seat of a car bit. Moreover, the basic plot blatantly emulates the second "A Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, the pace really kicks into gear and rarely lets up after the rather leisurely opening third, the 80's clothes and hairstyles are hilariously hideous (Michael's silly blue pajamas are especially sidesplitting!), and Galindo, Jr. gleefully pours on the blood by the gallon with several pleasingly brutal murder set pieces. Additional accolades are in order for the mostly sound acting from the personable cast. The stunningly gorgeous and adorable Gabriela Hassle in particular impresses with her warm and charming performance as Michael's sweet gal pal Alexandra. Screaming Mad George's funky special effects and the reasonably polished cinematography by Miguel Arana and Daniel Lopez both hit the spot as well. A fun little flick.

Endearing... very endearing!

[RareSlashersReviewed · 1 February 2004]

Part A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, part HALLOWEEN with a little bit of THE BOOGEYMAN thrown in for good measure, DON'T PANIC is a successful crossbreed of those styles which makes for an entertaining ninety minutes of classic slasher frolics.

In the outset we meet Michael (Jon Michael Bischof), the star of the movie who's recently moved down to Mexico with his alcoholic mother away from his unsympathetic father in Beverley Hills. He's celebrating with his newly found friends, which include Tony (Juan Ignacio Aranda) - a smart-ass wise cracker - and Alexandra (Gabriella Hassel) whom he has the hots for. It's Mike's seventeenth birthday and as a present the gang have got him an Ouija board (a great gift usually.if people want to get possessed or die!) and even though at first he refuses to take part, the gang force him to join in on one of their séances. They all gather round in a circle and join hands around an eerie looking candle lit table as Tony attempts to call up a medium known as 'Virgil'. He isn't very talkative but lifts up the arrow to point it at Mike in a threatening manor (ooooh, creepy!). All of a sudden, the door flies open and in bursts the birthday boy's inebriated mother who soon sends the group packing and Mickey to bed! Soon after that night Michael begins to have strange dreams that an unseen psycho holding an ancient dagger is viciously murdering his friends. When it's revealed that the teens are actually being bloodily butchered, he begins seeing premonitions of someone warning him who is next on the killer's list. With this knowledge, he is forced to attempt to save them from the maniacal assassin. But who is it that is slaughtering the hapless group and what are their motives?

About two weeks before I saw this, I watched the more recent British slasher LONG TIME DEAD. It looks as if this may well have been the inspiration for that flick because the two plots are almost interchangeable. Director Ruben Galindo Junior - who was also behind the 1985 addition CEMETERY OF TERROR - has done a good job in making this an enjoyable thriller with some decent supernatural elements that make a refreshing change from movies such as GIRLS SCHOOL SCREAMERS, which attempted the same sort of thing but drastically failed. Don't expect great performances, because you certainly won't find any here; but what it lacks in thespianism it makes up for in storyline and originality.

This was the full-uncut copy that I recently purchased on the UK 'Dark vision' label and it includes some tacky but effective gore to boot. In one murder, some guy gets stabbed in the chin with the giant dagger and it protrudes through his mouth! That's probably the best of the bunch and it even manages to look pretty authentic! There are some interesting chase sequences included too, the one in the hospital being vaguely reminiscent of HALLOWEEN 2 with the killer stalking in traditional slow-mo Michael Myers manner and the downbeat ending truly is unexpected for a film of this genre.great! You wont get bored whilst watching either and in some parts it even borders on becoming pretty exciting. The director gives us the chance to play whodunit for the first half, but doesn't waste time overdoing the investigative factors.

Although this is a decent flick, it doesn't manage to escape from being extremely cheesy just like so many of its genre counterparts from this period - the late eighties. For example Jon Michael Bischof spends three quarters of the runtime in a pair of groovy pyjamas, anyone can imagine how embarrassing that must've been for him in his movie debut! They could have at least given him a stylish set of jim-jams to run around in! Also watch out for a whole lot of incredibly silly dialogue and some unintentional tongue in cheek humour. Michael and Alexandra - the third rate Jamie Lee Curtis of the flick - head out on a date in the beginning and although the things they get up to are cheestastic enough, nothing can best the advice that Tony gives Michael when he returns! He tells his buddy that if he really loves her he should 'give her a rose', but not just any such flower, it must be 'the magic rose'! He then walks over to a giant bowl in his room (!), places a towel over the top, removes it and then he pulls out just one single thorn covered stem and offers it to the confused looking character! I mean, what is this guy? Is he some sort of undercover Casanova? Why has he got a bowel filled with roses in his room? Like I said, the cheese is spread thick and fast throughout the feature!

It's been a little while since I've watched a slasher that I've truly enjoyed! DON'T PANIC may not be overly scary, but it's been put together with thought and it adds supernatural touches to the age-old slasher clichés better than most. It may not be groundbreaking but it's pretty entertaining in that 'so bad it's pretty good' kinda way! Yeah, I recommend this and it's set me on my so far, pretty unsuccessful search for CEMETERY OF TERROR!