New Year's Evil

... and thus I give it a 7/10 rating among its genre, that being the slasher/horror films of the 70's and 80's. This is not a 7/10 when you compare it to an A-List film from the same year such as "Raging Bull". The worst of these slasher films are practically biology lessons as hot to trot teens in some remote location find themselves being bumped off one by one by some unknown lunatic with a literal ax to grind. These films are boring and predictable. That's where this one is different, even with a cast so anonymous you have to wonder why they bothered giving their characters names different from their actual names.

The primary character is a red-headed buxom D.J. who looks north of 30 but MUST be north of 35 since she has a grown son, which she ignores completely and probably has for a long time - she is very self involved, and tonight on New Year's Eve she is supposedly going to get her big break if she can pull off hosting a rock and roll New Year's Eve celebration. It's a phone in show, and at 9PM she get's a phone call telling her that this is EVIL and he has just killed someone close to her and intends to kill someone every hour on the hour until midnight - when he intends to kill her.

At first our self-involved D.J. blows this off as a crank, but when the calls keep coming and bodies start piling up, she and the police become increasingly concerned. You see the killer right from the start as he runs around L.A. killing random strangers in rather novel ways, but the twist in this film is you have no idea who he is and why he has a bone to pick with the D.J. The killer has his own problems along the way, and this film gives you a good idea of just how rough L.A. was even 35 years ago, as the killer runs into some characters who are as bad as he is, and plus there are more of them.

On the dance floor of the New Year's Eve rock show, the dancers are shown moving like mindless zombies among the fog. These guys and gals do not look like Rotarians, so when the police say rather late in the film "I wouldn't be surprised if he walked right up on the dance floor and killed you", I had to wonder - how do you know he isn't already there? There is plenty of suspense right up to the end that still leaves you hanging, and I recommend it if you are a fan of the low budget horror genre. So transport yourself back to not a simpler time, but a different one - when phones still had cords, when there were still drive-in movies, when people still smoked in public places even in California, and when electronic devices were large enough to be shorted out with a screwdriver rather than being controlled by one self-contained microchip.

A madman vows to murder someone at the stroke of midnight in each time zone in 'New Year's Evil'. Roz Kelly plays a 'Blaze', a famous punk music icon who is hosting a New Years Eve bash at a large hotel. During her television broadcast that night, a callers phones in and says he will kill someone each time the clock strikes midnight around the world. So that means that every hour on the hour, someone is getting killed. This isn't a whodunit slasher film, we know the killer's identity from the start. The movie follows him around as he stalks various women in Los Angeles, making sure he records each murder on a tape recorder. He calls Blaze after each murder and plays the tape leaving her frightened. Eventually, he makes his way to where she is at the hotel leading to a bit of a disappointing ending.

Call me crazy, but I really enjoyed this film. enjoyed it so much so, that it's become a tradition to watch it during the holiday season. I've always loved holiday horror, and 'New year's Evil' delivers. It is full of eighties cheese; the lights, the music, the hair - all of it. And the plot is actually interesting AND original! Having him murder at midnight in each time zone was smart, and it set 'New Year's Evil' a part from other forgettable slashers made at this time. The stalking scenes with the killer was done well too. He disguises himself before each murder, and makes his way around LA to different places (a bar, a drive in movie theatre) to collect his next victim. Some of the scenes with his next victims are pretty tense, and you feel for the women.

Where 'New Year's Evil' fails is with the killer's motive. They give a lame explanation, and I think the whole movie would have been better with a different motive. There is also the sub-plot with Blaze's son, who is clearly deranged. It is never fully explained what is wrong with him. Oh and the ending was sort of disappointing too. But other than that, this is a holiday horror film that all horror fans MUST check out at least once!

Happy New Year! :D

7/10

I just wanna point out that this is the year 2022, and in all horror circles this is considered a cult classic. The music alone is worth a watch. People that review these movies need a revoke on their horror card.

This film is one of my favorite slasher flicks.It,s not really gory but it has some great murders,especially Louisa Moritz,s death.It was hysterically funny.I have to say that what made this slasher flick better than most was the excellent performance of Kip Niven as Evil.He played the psycho part very low key, until midnight, and then he was frightening and threatening.The look in his eyes actually gave me an eerie feeling.He was a good looking guy on the outside but totally sick and evil on the inside.In a way Roz Kelly had it coming with her selfish,self centered attitude where she even neglects her own son.I thought a few of the murders were inventive and I would definitely recommend this movie for a late night when you just want to relax and be entertained.

Punks lead us to the biggest New Year's bash going on to bring in 1981. Roz Kelly plays Diane Sullivan or Blaze who is going to be the host for the New Year's Eve party in Los Angeles. Three other time zones are linked in to the party from New York City, Chicago and Aspen, Colorado. A dark and mysterious stranger (Kip Niven) calls the show and tells Blaze that he will kill at the stroke of midnight, then leading to the cops trying to catch the madman before he kills in each time zone.

I enjoyed the movie even though there was no question as to who the killer is, but there are a couple twists later in the movie, that yeah I could see coming, but I still enjoyed it. I thought Niven did very well as the homicidal maniac and makes me perhaps want to watch it again sometime. The acting in general was I thought above what you see in average slashers. In addition I thought the music was very good by bands like Shadow and Made in Japan. Catchy title song with same name as movie as well.

Must say the ending was sort of setting up for a sequel and it never came. Not sure if the writers set it up for a sequel and the movie did not perform well enough at the box office to have a sequel made. Anyways, you may find it passable entertainment if you give it a chance.