User reviews

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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?

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!

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).

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🙄

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!