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Horror was given a little gift just over a decade ago when director Fede Álvarez burst onto the scene with 2013’s Evil Dead. In the years since, he’s become one of the genre’s most exciting mainstream directors, with Álvarez set to unleash Alien: Romulus on the world later this summer. Ahead of that, the filmmaker has shared a remastered version of his 2009 short Panic Attack! that is largely responsible for him having the career that he has today. If you’ve never seen it, it’s well worth a watch. If you have seen it, this remastered version makes it worth watching all over again.
14 years ago I made a short movie with $300 and a lot of help from friends and colleagues. It forever changed my life and opened the Hollywood doors. Here it is, remastered and upscaled. Check it out!
“Panic Attack!” (Ataque de Pánico!) remastered https://t.co/8ZqhE33A5b pic.twitter.com/gZPp8Rb6oK
— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) June 18, 2024
“14 years ago I made a short movie with $300 and a lot of help from friends and colleagues. It forever changed my life and opened the Hollywood doors. Here it is, remastered and upscaled. Check it out!” Álvarez said on Twitter.
Before making it in Hollywood, Álvarez was a commercial director working in Uruguay who had experience in visual effects as well. He put those skills to use in crafting this extremely low budget short, titled Ataque de Panico!, aka Panic Attack! To say that it is impressive for being made on a several hundred dollar budget would be a dramatic understatement. It has a bit of a Pacific Rim vibe to it, albeit with a more overtly bleak overtone. Robots and spaceships are attacking Earth with no explanation. There is only death and destruction. It even ends with a scene that calls to mind Independence Day. Again, it is wild that the best points of reference here are hugely expensive blockbuster films.
After Álvarez uploaded the original short to YouTube in 2009, his life changed as it racked up views. He ended up signing a deal to turn the short into a feature with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, earning a $30 million budget. That ended up morphing into him directing the Evil Dead remake. The rest is history, as that film was a huge success that paved the way for him to make Don’t Breathe and The Girl in the Spider’s Web, in addition to writing and producing 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Speaking to the BBC in 2009, the director explained that his life changed in mere days.
“I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios. It was amazing, we were all shocked.”
Next up for Álvarez is the aforementioned Alien: Romulus. It will be the first entry in the franchise since 2017’s Alien: Covenant, which is no small thing. It was also originally supposed to go directly to Hulu but Disney had a change of heart and fortunately decided to give it a theatrical release.
Check out Panic Attack! in its entirety for yourself below. For more, be sure to check out our list of monster movies that won’t give you nightmares.
