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Film: New Year’s Evil
Year: 1980
Director: Emmett Alston
Writer: Leonard Neubauer
Starring: Roz Kelly, Kip Niven and Chris Wallace
Review:
This was a film that I got turned on thanks to podcasts. I don’t believe this was on the shelves at my local video stores. It went on a list of films to check out and I’d guess that podcasts that are bigger fans of slasher films were the ones that brought this up. It did come out early into the slasher boom, around the same time as Friday the 13th. This was selected for review on Side Quest Podcast, since neither of us had seen it and we like these more obscure films.
Synopsis: during a New Year’s Eve celebration, a Los Angeles disc jockey receives a phone call saying that when New Years strikes each time zone, someone will be murdered - and she will be the last one.
We start this off in the hotel room of Diane Sullivan (Roz Kelly). She is the DJ from the synopsis. She is preparing for a televised show on NYE. They have correspondents in New York City, Chicago and Aspen, where she is in LA. Her assistant is Yvonne (Alicia Dhanifu) and she’s getting things ready like her outfit and trying to contact her husband, Richard. Diane is annoyed as it seems like he’s holed up in Palm Springs and can’t be reached. Also in her room is her son, Derek (Grant Cramer). He brings her flowers and he has good news about an audition he had. She is too wrapped up in what she’s doing to notice and it visibly upsets him.
The show goes on and we see someone attack Yvonne. We then see a person come to a sanitarium. This person goes by the name Evil (Kip Niven). Before going in, they called into the program and told Diane of their plan. They are using a voice changer that makes them sound robotic. It is here that Evil poses as a doctor, claiming they were sent to help out with the patients on this holiday. Instead, they lure a nurse named Jane (Taaffe O’Connell) to hook up and stab her to death with a switchblade. As midnight on the east coast approaches, that’s the time he does this and records her dying breaths. He calls Diane again, playing that recording for her.
Evil then goes about finding more victims and it isn’t always easy. The next one brings her friend along. It is from there that Evil upsets a group of bikers who give chase. His careful land plans get complicated. They end with him going to the hotel where Diane is performing and staying. Lt. Clayton (Chris Wallace) is in charge of keeping her safe, after murders are discovered in conjunction with what Diane has said. The truth of the character calling himself Evil is much closer to Diane than she realizes.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this is an interesting slasher film to come out early into the boom like I was saying. This is inspired by Halloween in that we know who the killer is. We see the killer’s face immediately after that first call. We don’t know who they are until the third act, outside of calling them Evil. I did guess who the killer was after the first couple of kills. They don’t do a great job at hiding it, but it is interesting that there is one other character who I thought might be involved. It is just interesting seeing a film like this that came out early in the run doing something like they are. Less of a whodunnit and more of a why are they killing as well as will they succeed?
Now that I have that set up, let me delve more into what I judge slasher films on. They either need to have great characters or kills. I’ll start with the former here and looking more at the killer, their rationale for doing what they are does make sense. They are blaming another character, which is a classic idea. Their plan is also interesting about killing someone every hour to coincide with the New Year in each time zone. I originally thought they were going to kill someone in those specific zones. They are operating around LA, which makes more sense logistically. I love the idea of doing it across the United States, but it just isn’t feasible. I was also telling my wife that there’s added tension here as we see things work against Evil where his plan might fail. I found my anxiety going up in those moments so credit to the filmmaking for getting that reaction. Niven also plays this maniac well. Seeing him be ‘normal’ at different times also worked. There are still those glimpses that add to it.
Then let’s discuss our lead character a bit, Diane. What is interesting there is that it sets up early on that she is selfish. Her son wants to tell her about something big in his life and she’s only concerned about her show. I get that sometimes we have tunnel vision, but that bothered me and made me not like her. I wonder if that is something they were going for? It does make sense that this killer is after her. Credit there to Kelly to get a reaction out of me. I’d also say that the victims from there have their own distinct personalities. I appreciated that. There is also the Derek character. Seeing how badly he’s hurt by his mother was a good touch. It also adds a layer to that character so credit to Cramer.
Let’s then go over to the other aspect which would be the kills. This is where they are lacking a bit, but since we’re still early into the history of these films, they weren’t going over the top yet. There is a decent range of kills so I’ll credit it there. We have a knife, suffocating and even using an elevator. I’ll give credit to the creativity. They do cut away and I’m guessing that is to avoid censorship. They also probably weren’t able to make them look realistic. The after effects we see are fine. I’ll credit the cinematography and framing here as well. All that is left then is the soundtrack and design. I do love this cheesy 80s theme song. The rest of the music is punkish in nature. It is fitting for the show that Diane hosts. The voice changer for Evil is a good touch, which makes me think it may have inspired Scream.
There isn’t much more to go into so in conclusion, this is a solid early slasher film. It doesn’t necessarily fall into all the tropes we will see as these movies go on. I do like being inspired by a holiday and the killer using that into his plans. The acting here is good from our leads, Kelly and Niven. The rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed. There isn’t a mystery as to who the killer is, but more about why they’re doing what they are. I can work with that. This is made well enough. I would like to see more of the kills, but what they give before and after is fine. Not great, but definitely if you’re diving under the main titles, this is an interesting one to check out.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10