Panic Room 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.5

Panic Room 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

"Get the f*** out of my house!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 13, 2025

A re-examination of Panic Room is long, long overdue. A taut, expertly crafted home-invasion thriller with one helluva bleak streak, Panic Room was initially greeted with little more than a shoulder shrug and a critical "meh," a sentiment some film fans have echoed for decades. Why? The simple answer I suppose is that more was expected of wunderkind filmmaker David Fincher, whose previous efforts -- Se7en, The Game and Fight Club, quite the trio -- challenged everything from genre to screenwriting to culture writ large, leaving a more straight-forward flick like Panic Room the red-headed stepchild of the brood. But watched in a vacuum (or today, without so much fretting), free of expectation, you'll find a far more rewarding experience than you might remember. There's no big plot twist. No shocking reveal. No artistic flourish beyond what's necessary. It's minimalism done right, with surprisingly tight plotting, characterization and storytelling, not to mention a killer cast and plenty of thrills packed into what might could have easily been a forgettable genre pic. But in Fincher's capable, obsessive-compulsive hands? *Chef's kiss*

"I wish I could put my kid in a place like this. Not that I didn't try. Just sometimes things they don't work out the way you want them to. Wasn't supposed to be like this. You weren't supposed to be here."

When Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) moves into a freshly remodeled, four-story New York brownstone on the Upper West Side with her teenage daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart), she expects little more than a respite from her rough divorce and a chance to lick her wounds. That's upended, though, when three men -- security company employee Burnham (Forest Whitaker), violent criminal Raoul (a frightening Dwight Yoakam) and Junior (Jared Leto), the grandson of the brownstone's previous owner -- break into her house, searching for bearer bonds locked inside a safe installed in the home's impenetrable panic room. Unfortunately, the panic room is precisely where Meg and Sarah hide when they first realize what's happening. What follows is a terse game of cat and mouse; the trio of thieves desperate to get into the panic room, Meg and Sarah desperate to survive the night and make it out of the panic room in one piece. Oh, and just to make things that much more complicated, Sarah turns out to be diabetic and her insulin is sitting snuggly in her bedroom. What's a loving mother to do?

Part of the fun of Panic Room, especially on multiple viewings, is unpacking exactly what drew Fincher to the project. Much has been made of layers within layers to the story (God bless Reddit), and I'm no more immune to the trend than anyone else. Personally, my pet theory is that the three thieves are representations of the different kinds of stereotypical masculinity that emerge throughout a traumatic threat to manhood, e.g. a heated divorce. There's Raoul, the rage and volatility of a cornered predator and abusive partner; Junior, the manchild's impulsivity and fear of repercussions and consequence; and Burnham, the battered, remorseful provider whose moral failing is an attempt to free himself of stress and strain. So much is made of divorce in the film, why not? The devil is, of course, in Fincher's details. Meg wasn't raised with a silver spoon, making her fight a rediscovery of long-lost survival skills. Sarah is her mother's daughter, unimpressed with her father's wealth and excuses. Even dear ol' dad, Stephen (Patrick Bauchau), is dragged into the film, beaten within an inch of his life by Raoul, his judge, jury and perhaps self-executioner. It fits as well as any. But it's a lovely rabbit hole no matter the pet theory, and one I highly recommend pursuing.

More to the surface, performances are exceptional across the board, Conrad W. Hall and Darius Khondji's claustrophobic cinematography and use of CG-aided camera moves are masterfully executed, and Howard Shore's creeping dread of a score is oh so effective. It's Fincher that stands tallest, though, crafting so much out of so little. Smart, savvy direction is merely the beginning; it's the shot composition, impeccable timing, and sense of reality injected into every encounter and tit-for-tat maneuvering that makes for such a strategic game of chess between mother and thieves. Yes, the ending still comes as something of an anti-climax (for no discernable reason). And yes, the sudden shift to a sunny happy ending remains jarring. But abrupt falling action is hardly the stuff of a bad ending, and there's enough power to Burnham's quandary and arc to provide some meaning and resonance.

Panic Room 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

First things first: yes, the 4K Blu-ray release of Panic Room absolutely obliterates the DVD that came before it. (That's right, even though it's 2025, this edition marks the film's high-definition debut.) Three cheers for Fincher and Sony. It's also worth noting that this director-approved 2160p video transfer (and subsequent 1080p/AVC-encoded standard BD version) features a new 4K scan of the original negative. The only caveat? Quite a few shots and sequences look as if they were originally mastered in 2K, which isn't a problem so much as a warning for videophiles to adjust expectations a bit. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice clarity takes a dip here and there, although I never found it to be a distraction or anything amounting to an issue. In fact, the only issue I encountered was the sense that some of the shots had been artificially sharpened a touch too aggressively, despite having little evidence in screen captures to back up that assertion. Regardless, Panic Room looks fantastic from start to finish and rarely disappoints. Colors are largely icy and subdued, so there isn't a huge subjective uptick in quality between the Dolby Vision-bolstered 4K image and the standard 1080p picture, as should be expected. Contrast often allows for the appearance of more natural lighting as well, though that's hardly a problem. Detail is quite good, with crisp edge definition and an array of nicely resolved fine textures. Pores and skin subtleties pop, small touches like scars and burns look suitably painful, and shadow delineation is excellent. Moreover, I didn't catch sight of any significant blocking, banding or other such nonsense. The encode is roomy and near flawless, lending itself to what might have been tough and tricky cinematography.

Panic Room 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Oh, what a perfect movie for a Dolby Atmos experience. As the camera swoops from floor to floor, so too does the entirety of the soundfield. Footfalls thud above and below. Hushed decisions are made from within the panic room based on poor video feeds and muffled noises alone. The grinding and tearing of tools scream as they rip apart walls. The faint hint of an ambush lying in wait is all we get before a trap is sprung. Every speaker seems primed for suspense, and better yet, delivers. Directionality is eerily precise and all too effective. I jumped a number of times, and my skin crawled at countless others. So effective were the directional effects, channel pans and LFE output that I was drawn deeper and deeper into the track, immersing far beyond what my senses told me was comfortable. And then, good God, something like the ignition of propane or the grabbing of a gun or the turning of multiple tables and boom... suddenly all that tension erupts in glorious fashion. Short version: I had a blast with Sony's Dolby Atmos track. Dialogue is clear and intelligible throughout, prioritization is spot on, Shore's score creeps from scene to scene with sinister intent, and every beat of the mix seemed designed to lure me further into its frightening playground. This one is top tier demo material. Enjoy.

Panic Room 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Three Audio Commentaries (Disc 2, HD) - Three audio commentary tracks are available: the first with director David Fincher, the second with Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam, and the third with writer David Koepp and a special guest.

• Pre-Production (Disc 2, SD, 86 minutes) - A string of featurettes and interactive DVD-era extras circa 2002. "Prep" is broken down into "The Testing Phase" and "Safe Cracking School," while "Previsualization" includes "Creating the Previs," "Previs Demo," "Previs Demo with Commentary," "Habitrail Film" and a "Multi-Angle Featurette."

• Production (Disc 2, SD, 62 minutes) - "Shooting Panic Room" is an almost-hour-long production documentary detailing the shoot from start to finish, with "Make Up Effects" adding a touch of information that, for whatever reason, wasn't simply edited into the main doc.

• Easter Eggs (Disc 2, SD, 10 minutes) - "Real Safe Rooms" and "Breaking the Mirror."

• Visual Effects (Disc 3, SD, 82 minutes) - A series of 21 comprehensive fx featurettes with Panic Room visual effects supervisor Kevin Haug and visual effects coordinator Leslie McMinn. The only downside is that all of the DVD-era featurettes are presented in standard definition. Segments include "Introduction," "Main Titles," "Through Bedroom Door," "The Skylight," "The Big Shot," "Through the Railing," "Giant Dust," "Through Wall and Floor," "The Hose," "Propane Gas," "The Explosion," "The Flashlight," "Slow Motion," "X-Ray Floor," "Safe Shavings/Digital Squibs," "CGI Gun and Cell Phone," "Arm on Fire," "CGI Propane Tank," "Headwounds," "Fluttering Bonds and CGI Leaves," and "CGI Fire."

• Scoring (Disc 3, SD, 10+ minutes) - Multi-angle scoring sessions conducted by Howard Shore. Sessions include "Main Titles," "Sealing the House," "The Phone Call" and "Altman."

• Sound Design (Disc 3, SD, 15 minutes) - A conversation with sound designers Ren Klyce and David Prior.

• Digital Intermediate (Disc 3, SD, 11 minutes) - Post-production supervisor Peter Mavromates discusses color timing, color correcting and creating a digital intermediate for the film.

• Super 35 Technical Explanation (Disc 3, SD) - Text-based featurette.

• Sequence Breakdowns (Disc 3, SD) - Last but not least, four sequence breakdowns: "The Phone Jack," "End of Junior," "Hammer Time" and "Burnham Surrounded."

• Trailers (Disc 3, HD/SD, 4 minutes) - The film's SD teaser and HD theatrical trailers are included.

Panic Room 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I can't believe it's taken this long to bring Panic Room to high definition but what a debut it is. Excellent video, outstanding audio, and hours upon hours of special features. How could you possibly go wrong? This one comes highly recommended.