New Year's Evil (1980)

Running Time: 90 minutes

Release Date: December 26, 1980

Review by: Stacey

"Don't dare make New Year's resolutions...unless you plan to live!" A tagline I can get behind!  New Year's resolutions are for the birds, anyway.  Instead of telling yourself that you're going to start working out more or hating people less (that's going to be a hard one for me), why not ring in the new year by escaping a crazed killer calling himself "Evil"!?

 

New Year's Evil follows punk rock & new wave radio host, Diane "Blaze" Sullivan (Roz Kelly), as she holds a televised New Year's Eve celebration with her fans.  Diane receives a call from someone calling himself "Evil" warning that in each time zone, at the stroke of midnight, he's going to kill one "naughty girl", with the final kill being Diane herself.

 

A pretty cut-and-dry slasher, New Year's Evil couldn't find as much success as other slashers that were released in 1980 (and there were PLENTY), especially one of the most famous ones, Friday the 13th.  Usually lost in the pile of holiday-themed horror films, NYE holds a special place in my heart for taking place on a holiday that is known for renewal and fresh starts rather than maniac murderers, and for the awful-ly good sountrack and deliciously shiny 80's attire.  I mean, I guess the other holidays aren't known for slicing and dicing either,  but you get what I'm saying!

 

Unlike your typical slasher, there wasn't really a mystery factor in terms of who the killer was.  You know from the get-go and you got to tag along with him on all his kills, which weren't anything special or gory, for that matter.  There was nothing really frightening about the killer either, actually, but he also didn't do much to make himself not look like a creepy asshole.  I'm not going to victim blame some fictional character buuuuut he already looked like a dude whose car you shouldn't be getting into.

 Aside from the creepy creeper, Roz Kelly as Diane was the only truly exceptional character in the film.  Punk rock/new wave queen?  I'll believe it for a bit.

 

I mentioned the music earlier, and that's really New Year's Evil's saving grace (aside from the whole plot device of killing at midnight on each time zone).  A variety of punk, hair metal, and new wave music was played by the bands while intermixed with the awkward sounds of the zombie-like audience's dancing/shuffling feet.  Someone couldn't have taken that sound out?  C'mon now.  I'm also pretty sure there was a randomly thrown in blues song performance by one of the bands, and all I could think was that this is an audience most performers would kill for; they loved every damn song no matter what genre was played.  According to the soundtrack info, the music was played by two bands: Shadow and Made in Japan.  I need this on ~vinyl~ ASAP.

  All inappropriately placed music and creepy fake mustaches aside, New Year's Evil is a bit of a personal gem for me.  It encapsulated that 80's vibe and delivered a pretty wacky holiday slasher that deserves an annual viewing.  Best paired with a glass of champs and your finest iridescent get-up.

3/5 funky shits going on

 

 Check out the trailer!