PANIC **** U.K. 2014 Dir: Sean Spencer 85 mins
PANIC sees us following David Gyasi’s music journalist character Andrew Deeley as he searches for a girl called Kem across London. You see Deeley has been cooped in his apartment for months after a brutal attack at a gig. Spending most of his days reviewing music and looking through his binoculars out across to the building opposite where Kem lives, reminiscent of REAR WINDOW.
As you can imagine his days are lonely and being afraid to go outside he calls up an escort called Michelle. After their 5 minutes of fun is over, Michelle uses the binoculars and sees Kem being beaten by a guy. Of course Deeley wants to call the police but Michelle doesn’t want any involvement. As the days go by he decides he will try and find out what has happened to Kem and turns detective. With pure luck he goes to the building opposite and just manages to find Kem’s apartment, bearing in mind he has never been here before. This is a bit of a stretch your belief part of the plot but we can forgive. Seeing that the place has been trashed and there is blood he fears the worst, but what begins as a simple case of trying to locate a missing girl soon sees Deeley having to deal with the dark underbelly of people smuggling in London. Director Sean Spencer has crafted a film that carefully blends the struggle of mental health and a mans desire to save a woman in his feature film debut. In a world where what goes on in the capital of a country gets brushed under the carpet, Spencer through PANIC brings to the surface sex and people trafficking as witnessed by Gyasi’s character. Gyasi is superb throughout and you can really feel his emotions as his search for Kem becomes more of a struggle for him to deal with. This is an intense British thriller that will keep your adrenalin pumping right to the final moments
Review by Peter ‘Witchfinder‘ Hopkins