The Panic

Kleid (Savor) and Mutti (Parasomnia) inject topical commentary into an artistically striking if narratively uneven survival horror story. Beneath the New York City streets, a subway car crashes, forcing the survivors to band together and find a way to the surface. The group represents a cross-section of contemporary America, including a left-wing activist on her way to a protest, a right-wing man in a MAGA hat, a medical student conveniently on hand to stitch up injuries, and a homeless man who’s been living in the tunnels. Despite agreeing that the “predicament outweighs the politics,” they fight among themselves as viciously as external threats that range from panic-maddened cannibals to an army of rats. The narrative jumps around in time, doubling back to cover different characters’ viewpoints and to dig into their backstories, which proves disorienting. The efforts to make the 9/11-inspired plot feel relevant to present-day politics are sometimes distractingly on the nose, with characters pausing in the rubble to debate over BLM, antifa, and Covid-19. (Though the horror of a fellow subway rider taking off a mask after the train has literally crashed does strikingly evoke early pandemic times.) Mutti’s art, delicately lined and deeply shadowed, lends personality to the characters and a sense of claustrophobic terror to their ordeal. It all works best when it shrugs off headlines to focus on the disaster story and the characters’ human reactions. This worst-case scenario experiment will please thriller fans who can look past its preachy bits. (Dec.)