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Panic Beats
[Mondo Macarbo]
1983; color
Directed by Paul Naschy
Starring: Paul Naschy, Julia Saly, Lola Gaos, Silvia Miró, Paquita Ondiviela, Manuel Zarzo & José Vivó
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Falling somewhere above low budget, yet obviously done on the cheap, Panic Beats is an interesting entry in the weird world of Paul Naschy. This is yet another film he not only wrote but starred in and directed as well, which might be the most major of it's flaws. (I know it's just supposition, but if he'd handed the directorial reins over to someone else, maybe that person could have brought a more impartial outlook and been able to get better results.) Naschy stars as Paul Marnac, a descendent of Alaric De Marnac, the penultimate evil character in the highly entertaining Horror Rises From The Tomb (which is probably my favorite Naschy film), which he made ten years earlier. Marnac's wife has a heart condition and her doctor recommends he take her to his country house to relax and get her strength back. This fits nicely into Paul's plans because, as it turns out, he actually hates his extremely rich wife and wants to kill her. (And thus, obviously, get all her money.) Playing on a local legend involving the ghost of Alaric De Marnac rising from his grave every hundred years to kill all Marnac women living in the house (conveniently built on the site of his old castle), he enlists the help of his young servant girl, Mirielle, and they execute their plan to perfection. Unfortunately, Paul doesn't quite know what he's bargained for with Mirielle, who turns out to not only have a rather notorious past of her own but a rather bloodthirsty eye on the prize. (That prize being Paul's newfound riches.) To that end, she not only has no problem killing off her own elderly aunt (a longtime employee of the Marnacs) literally with her bare hands, she makes the on-the-spot decision to take a hatchet to Paul's longtime secret girlfriend when she shows up at the country house rather unexpectedly. Paul actually takes this all in stride and later, while in the tub, comments to her that they're made for each other because each is so evil. Her response to this is a simple 'Fuck you!' which she immediately follows by tossing an electric heater into the bath and electrocuting him. After his funeral, where she plays the part of the grieving servant / girlfriend she prepares to leave (and await the fortune she's in line to receive) but before she can is paid a visit by the actual ghost of Alaric De Marnac, who extracts familial revenge in an appropriately bloody fashion. Panic Beats is definitely not one Paul Naschy's best efforts, yet it's not for completists only; I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point for those who are new to his films, but I definitely wouldn't pass it up either.
—the Kommandant
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