Panic Button (2011) Scarlett Alice Johnson, Jack Gordon, Michael Jibson, Elen Rhys Movie Review

Panic Button (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Jack Gordon in Panic Button (2011)

An Unsocial Network

Having each won a competition four strangers; Jo (Scarlett Alice Johnson), Max (Jack Gordon) Gwen (Elen Rhys) and Dave (Michael Jibson) find themselves on a private jet for a trip of their lifetime. But to be on the plane they have had to relinquish their mobile phones so that they participate in the in-flight entertainment which they discover is less than entertaining when they are forced to take part in a series of twisted games about themselves and what they do online in order to not just save their lives but those of their loved ones.

A private jet provides the claustrophobic setting for low budget British horror movie "Panic Button" a movie which quite early on establishes itself as a twist on "Saw" as we have four people forced to play a series of twisted games where it appears that each have something to hide. So yes "Panic Button" is familiar but it also tries to be clever in using the confines of a plane to create atmosphere whilst also trying to be clever by throwing in a social media twist with whoever is behind the games having learned things about each of them off of their social network profiles.

The trouble is that "Panic Button" is low budget and as such we not only have a completely unfamiliar cast but also a movie which lacks that extra bit of production which money can buy. It makes "Panic Button" a movie which is kind of intriguing because of the premise but doesn't always do a good job of keeping hold of your attention. In fact if "Panic Button" had been made 5 years earlier I could imagine is having been picked up by a bigger studio and turned in to a big budget movie but with "Saw" having paved the way for this it ends up just a movie in the same sort of manner as it.

What this all boils down to is that "Panic Button" is an entertaining movie with in fairness an entertaining idea going on even though parts of it are familiar. But as a low budget movie the production struggles to completely capture your attention.


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