Blind Panic is the debut feature film of director Mark Willis and producer Matthew Mawkes. The film came about when Mark and Matthew decided to fulfil a long-held dream of making a quality genre movie in their own backyard. Needing a low-budget idea, Mark came up with a story about a man on home detention, while Matthew hatched a story about a blind woman trapped in suburbia. The ideas merged and Blind Panic was born.
Blind Panic was funded by a Kickstarter campaign and filmed on a shoestring budget in Wellington, New Zealand, over 21 days, in April-May 2017. It then took several years of editing and re-shoots to turn Blind Panic into the crime thriller Mark and Matthew originally envisioned. The project also faced a major set-back with the tragic killing of Mark in May 2023. Fortunately, Mark was able to sign off a cut of the film before his death.
This has been a filmmaking journey with ups and downs like no other. But the final product is a crime thriller Mark would be proud of.
Blind Panic will make its world premiere at the Terror-Fi Film Festival in Wellington on 31 October 2025. It will also screen in Auckland and Christchurch before receiving international distribution.
