December 2009: Ataque de Pánico!

This month’s short film, Ataque de Pánico! / Panic Attack, has been chosen less because the film is spectacularly original—which it isn’t—than because it comes from Uruguay, one of my favorite countries, and features the total destruction of that nation’s capitol city Montevideo, which is also one of my favorite cities. (I was there most of November, which explains why there were so few entries in this blog last month.)
According to the BBC, Ataque de Panico! was made by Federico Alvarez with a budget of around 300 dollars and then placed on Youtube, where it quickly caused waves and garnered interest—so much interest, in fact, that Alvarez has supposedly now been contracted by Sam Raimi to make a full-length science fiction film with a budget of 30 million dollars. One hopes that the feature-length film will have a bit more depth than just robots attacking Uruguay, but no matter how it turns out I already know I’ll be going to see it. (Uruguay is not the most productive of countries when it comes to films, so I pretty much see anything from it if given the chance.)
In any event, even if the film plot to Ataque de Panico! is a one-liner (“Alien robots attack Montevideo”), Alvarez shows a fine directorial eye in this little short and at least serves the events in a thrilling and eye-catching manner, building the suspense and terror to the only truly logical outcome possible.