Don't Panic (1988)/Shudder/Brief
This was one of those films in the 80s (you see it from Italy sometimes, while this time it was Mexico) where Mexican actors portray American characters. The Mexican title for the film is Dimensiones ocultas. It was released on Shudder just recently, and the premise intrigued me. Another one of those "Ouija conjures a demonic evil that must be vanquished or else" kinds of horror films. Witchboard (1986) wasn't too long before this film. Director Rubén Galindo Jr. definitely got Rob Zombie happy with the blood. Not quite as Sam Raimi happy, but Galindo Jr. still splashed blood all over the place, visions seen by curly-blonde Michael (Jon Michael Bischof), in dinosaur PJs, with auburn eye contacts, fingering his temples from the agony of them. Michael's buddy, Tony (Juan Ignacio Aranda), brings a Ouija board to his seventeenth birthday party, summoning "Virgil", a demon that takes over his body. Michael, because he also touched the planchette, when Tony summons Virgil, can see through Tony's eyes when killing their friends. The friends who were there at the time the Ouija board conjuring took place are targets. Okay, I took care of the synopsis as best as possible. There is some extra story involving Michael's divorced parents (the mother an alcoholic), Michael's gradual romance with Alexandra (Gabriela Hassel) that hits a rough patch when he starts seeing his friends die through those auburn eyes, Michael's tumultuous relationship with a school adversary (Roberto Palazuelos) often cursing him out (and eventually kidnapping him, with shotgun in possession), Michael's school drudgery thanks to the visions, and Michael interrupting the dinner of Alexandra's parents as Tony has pretty much eliminated all their friends. Director Galindo Jr. sure loves to stage Michael running. Michael does a lot of running. The director also has Tony worsen each time he's seen again...the skin aged and wrinkled, eyes and teeth worse for wear. There is this dagger that pops up with Tony as he stabs his friends while possessed, later established to be a weapon that can be used on him...now why would the demon use a dagger on victims instead of just an ordinary knife when that very dagger could kill him? In the film, Tony loses the dagger and never recovers it when it is on the ground...why would Virgil in Tony's body not keep that close to him always? Or, better yet, why would Virgil not just hide the damn thing? Bizarrely, Tony speaks to Michael through white noise of television signal, telling him that the dagger is Virgil's kryptonite. I mean, again, why wouldn't Virgil hide the very weapon that would defeat it? There is a hilarious fit/tantrum Michael throws in his room, where he tears off the posters (of cars, put up all over his room), tosses off collectibles and items from shelves, stands, and dressers, while shouting that he isn't crazy...it's epic. And the final fight when Tony is pinned down under a massive stone in an industrial warehouse, instead of using the dagger to stab him, Michael not only hesitates but he drops the damn thing on the floor! So when Virgil causes Michael to levitate from the ground, eventually dropping him when Alexandra buries the dagger into Tony's body, he has no one to blame but himself! For how the filmmakers try to Americanize the Mexican cast, this 80s campy gem will be a time capsule of a different era. The wardrobe choices and hair styles are just so wonderfully of that period, too. This is a fun trip back, really. The plot is just absurd, and the Ouija board only really makes an appearance at the very beginning. My favorite sequence could be Michael trying to save Palazuelos' sister, a nurse in a hospital, with the staff and security doing everything in their power to make sure not to even humor the kid. Instead, he begs and pleads to no avail. He even tried to tell her brother over and over with no such luck. That poor girl was shit outta luck. **/*****
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