Reveillon Maldito

Yet another entry in the "psychotic killer on the loose" genre. The premise of this one is somewhat original, but apart from that it has nothing else to distinguish it from dozens of similar films, so you're just sitting there waiting to see how it will tie everything up in the end. It does come up with an unexpected, out-of-left-field plot twist, but the "motivation" part is fumbled. Still, if you're tolerant of low-budget early-80s thrillers, you'll probably have an OK time. (**)

My, this has always been one of my faves of the genre. It is really quite ridiculous, but fairly 'twisty' for a run-of-the mill slasher. Kip Niven is in my opinion, very good as the killer who switches personas to fit in different environments in order to kill on his timetable. Grant Cramer, who was destined for nothing more than soap fame, has a handsome yet creepy face, especially after he forces that red hose over it. Roz Kelly does look truly unattractive - but then look at her audience! Those 'LA punkers' bobbing and weaving in the audience are unintentionally reminiscent of George Romero's creations...check out their 'dancing'!

Yet I have always found the best part of the film to occur in the beginning, the first time the killer calls into the radio show. He announces that his name is "Evil" in a very odd voice courtesy of a voice manipulation machine. He is dead serious, and Roz on the other end is slightly chilled, but tries to play along: "Yeah, you're bad, you're real bad." At which point he cuts her off, still deadly serious: "NOOOO! Just EVIL!!!" It's truly hilarious if you appreciate that sort of thing.

Enjoyable for the genre.

... 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.

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.

A rock show host dubbed Blaze gets threatening phone calls during her New Year's Eve gig. The caller informs her that he'll murder a different person each time the clock strikes midnight in one of the four continental U.S. timezones, and odds are that she'll be his final victim.

One of the few slashers to have eluded me over the years, it was nice to finally scratch this off the list. It's far from a top-tier effort in the sub-genre, however. The killer, played by Kip Niven, isn't the least bit threatening. He only dons a mask towards the end of the film, so he doesn't have that to fall back on either. Also, too many scenes of dancing punk rockers and filth masquerading as music for my taste. Now, there are some quality stalk and slash sequences. Most notable is one victim's unpleasant surprise in a garbage dumpster. We also get a hefty helping of cheese, mainly from the killer himself and Blaze's dopey son. The bit with the former dealing with angry bikers at a drive-in is gold.

Overall, I was entertained, but it's not exactly good. Not even close.