Panic Button

Released – 27th August 2011

Directed By – Chris Crow

Starring – Jack Gordon, Michael Jibson, Scarlett Alice Johnson, Elen Rhys

Certificate – 18

Reviewed by – Lewis Filer

“Have you read the terms and conditions?”

We all see this question on a daily basis when online and on social networking sites. But does anyone actually ever read the terms and conditions of any websites that they join?
The answer is “No” because none of us do and we can all admit that.
Panic Button plays on this fact and shows us just how ignorant we are to the finer details of social networking and the extreme amount of personal information we share online.

The film follows four strangers, Max (Jack Gordon), Dave (Michael Jibson), Jo (Scarlett Alice Johnson) and Gwen (Elen Rhys).
Chosen from an online social networking site “All2gethr.com”, to compete in a competition to win some fabulous prizes, the four board an airplane where over the course of the flight, they will be quizzed on information that they have all shared online.
As the questions get more and more personal and events start to take a more sinister turn, the group must work together at all costs to escape with not only their own lives but the lives of their online friends too as they face an onslaught of threat, violence and the discovery of aspects of their own selves that would do just about anything to stay alive.

I’d never heard about this film until recently but i am so glad that i did and that i took the time to sit down and watch it. For a film that i have seen no promotion or advertising for, i feel very happy in the fact that i have found an actual gem. From start to nail-biting finish i was hooked. 
I am an avid social networker myself and found this film to be both brilliant and terrifying because it hits so close to home. Thinking about it, anyone who uses any form of social networking will find this film unsettling.

The cast are exceptional at displaying the correct emotions and feelings that their characters are going through as their personal information is used against them, and the increasing  terror of the seriousness of the consequences their actions have brought on them. The story that unfolds over the course of the film is nothing short of brilliant as piece after piece of the puzzle slowly fit together to form a clever, well thought out yarn that unnerves and shocks the viewer.

Panic Button is a sharp, chilling tale that exposes the darker side of social networking, the danger of sharing personal information online and the horrifying lengths that someone could go to with access to this information.

Now will you read the terms and conditions?