New Year's Evil

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.

It was about here when they were running out of decent holidays to exploit for cheap-o slash-and-dash flicks like "New Year's Evil". What next - "Groundhog's Day: Buck Teeth of Death"?? Oh well, it has distraction enough in seeing Pinky Tuscadero, the stud from "Hardbodies", that blonde from TV's "We've Got it Made" and Kip Niven from... well, whatever the heck Kip Niven was in, it couldn't be as bad as this. Seems ANOTHER killer (Niven) is loose on ANOTHER holiday killing MORE women (big surprise?) and all roads lead to the New Year's party host (Kelly) whom he phones after killing another person in another time zone. Why call her? If you last that long, you'll see the connection. And not just that - the killer wears a Stan Laurel mask. Yes, that's what I wrote: a Stan Laurel mask. You know, Laurel and Hardy? Is Stan Laurel scary? Only during New Year's, I guess. But the scariest thing about this is the punk music. THIS IS NOT PUNK MUSIC. This is music done by song writers for Cannon Productions (another bad sign) who THINK they know what punk music sounds like. It's really just pop music played at top volume with a few discordant notes strung through it. Any real punker would laugh his way through the music scenes, guaranteed. I didn't laugh, though. I was too busy feeling suckered-in by another flick I mistakenly thought showed some promise. Why do I keep doing this to myself? One star. If you make only one resolution this or any year, make it to NOT watch "New Year's Evil". Believe me, it'll be an easy resolution to keep. TIDBIT - Mad killers always take up two parking spaces.

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.

This is one of my favorite bad 80's slasher flicks with bad acting and an even worse script. Diane Sullivan, aka Blaze, a television vj hosts a New Year's Eve rock concert. When she isn't working her middle aged, unattractive self onstage, a psycho is calling her everytime he kills someone when New Year's strikes in each US time zone. The director has no desire to hide the killer's face, it's his motive for killing that's the mystery here. If you can't figure out who he really is, you'll be kicking yourself for not figuring it out earlier or because you actually sat through New Year's Evil in its entirety. The average viewer will hate this movie because it is inept, not scary, or bloody or exciting. Lovers of bad 80's slashers can sit back and enjoy this silly horror flick which boasts bad acting, non-believable situations (killer vs. bike gang), and an array of ugly, comical characters (Grant Cramer of Killer Klowns as one of them). If anything, its most redeeming feature is a typical 80's heavy metal theme song that you can rock out to at least three times during the film! (e-mail me if you know where I can find it!)

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

Call me evil, but this movie after a long anticipated wait trying to see it and I must say that this film came off as horrible instead of horror. New Year's Evil is another in a long line of slasher movies based around major holidays. New Year's Eve is on its way and a famous punk rock star will host television's late night countdown full of music and partying. Blaze AKA Diane Sullivan (Roz Kelly) host the party, and a number of local bands plays throughout the film at it. Most of them are pretty awful. The only one worth noting will probably be Shadow due to it's heavy soundtrack. The hard rock/punk soundtrack based around the theme song to the movie, get old after a while. All is going well until Diane receives a phone call from an odd sounding stranger claiming his name is Evil, who announces on live television that when the clock strikes twelve in each time zone, a 'Naughty Girl' will be punished (murdered),then the killer signs off with a threat claiming that Diane will be the last Naughty Girl to be punished. How on earth does a killer travel through every time zone in time while killing and avoiding police. It's near impossible. The killer known as Evil sounds like the dark side of Fozzie Bear.You would think that a voice changer would actually change the person's voice instead of forcing him to talk like Frank Oz. The acting is horrible no matter what. The studio crew takes safety measures and heightens security, but a number of victims are piling up. The film has some of the most unintentionally funny Slasher-movie kills, I've seen in a while. The killer has to be the luckiest killer to ever get the chance to kill people. The actor who's playing the killer, Kip Niven, thinks he's doing this big theatrical part, but he's too nerdy to pull it off. His body is tiny, and teeny and yet he can kill women larger than he is. He happens to be in the area where his target victims are and it gets worse: according to the movie, he didn't plan this. Yeah, he was planning to kill some people, but the manner in which he killed victims was completely thought-up on the spot. Something tells me the killer in this movie was part of an Improv Troupe at some point in his life. Every single killing seems likes it edited.There is a lot of logistics problems in the kills in this film. I smell lack of good writing here. The killer records his victims as he murders them and calls back the station each time playing the tapes back to prove he's serious. There are many suspects ranging from crazed fans to someone much closer to Diane, but the only feature the killer has is a mask. The Richard Nixon/Ed Sullivan mask is probably the scariest part of the whole movie. With a sort of 'Maniac' approach to the story, we know who the killer is all throughout the movie and follow his progress as he moves from victim to victim. The ending has a twist that I saw coming from a mile away, so I don't know what all this fuss is about eluding to some 'great twist ending.' The jump scare is just bad, it's literally cheap and laughable enough. The killer pointlessly posed the bodies (in ways that have nothing to do with New Year's Day or New Year's Eve, the whole theme of the movie). The results are as inept and artless as can be expected. Disappointingly, they are not inept in an entertaining manner. New Year's Evil ends up being one of the most lifeless, dull films that the Cannon Group ever produce. Watch it at your own risk. The fact that you're immune to higher-quality mediocre movies just means that you have a higher tolerance for bad movies now. Thank god a sequel wasn't made

"New Years Evil" is about a woman named Blaze whose presenting the countdown a new years bash at an extravagant posh hotel a show with call ins and rock bands playing through the late night, where she gets phone calls from a deranged man who tells her that he's gonna kill women at in each different timezone locations throughout the city and he makes pretty good on his promise too and calls Blaze immediately after he snuffs his victims so he can replay the scene of the crime via an archaic looking tape recorder. This takes up a lot of Blaze's time (as does her hilarious banter with an investigating cop), so she ends up ignoring her son even more as he begins to reveal a very sinister side of himself. Well, sinister if pulling a pink stocking over your head is scary. As the clock ticks down to midnight Pacific Time, Evil joins the party as he tries to take Blaze down in all her flaming glory. Okay before I saw this movie, mostly every review that I read for this was actually quite bad, but again like other holiday slashers I really wanted to see this and when I did, I actually quite liked it. Okay this movie isn't exactly brilliant, though the murders are quite tame as is the acting. The killer's voice when he says "Just call me Eevill" was funny as hell, he sounded more Kermit the Frog than menacing and Kip Niven who plays him was quite charming one of the only believable performances in the film. Roz Kelly who plays Blaze the final girl doesn't quite shine, I found her unlikeable but her outfits were a hoot as were the cheesy rock bands that played in-between each murder, obliviously just there to pad out the running time. And to be honest the son's little psychotic act was strange and over the top, I found a bit pointless as it wasn't explored enough during the movie. The climax was disappointing as there was no chase scene between Roz Kelly and Kip Niven, she just played the helpless victim and plus I found the plot twist rather unsurprising, I basically figured it out anyway. But all in all this movie wasn't half bad and definitely another highlight in the ever brilliance of holiday slasher genre such as (Halloween, My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday To Me, Black Christmas, The Stepfather, Mother's Day and etc.

It's New Years' Eve, and D. J. Blaze Sullivan (Pinky Tuscadero, a.k.a. Actress Roz Kelly) is hosting a night long dance party / concert celebrating supposed "new wave" music. Somebody else is celebrating, but in their own macabre way: a dude named EEE-vil (Kip Niven, "Damnation Alley") is calling Blazes' show and following through on his threat to murder someone every time the clock strikes midnight in a time zone. The clueless cops can't do much to stop him, as he goes through one masquerade after another - pretending to be a doctor, a priest, a business agent - while in the act of slaughtering unfortunate women. "New Year's Evil" was an early production for producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and their Cannon Group company; written by Leonard Neubauer and directed by Emmett Alston, it's mostly good for the laughs it provides. "Evil" speaks through a voice modulator and it's a hoot when he calls Blaze, remaining deadly serious while his voice sounds so funny. The movie has some fun bits, such as "Evil" having a surprise in store, inside a dumpster, for a young lady. Also, it's interesting the way the movie focuses so much on its killer, not bothering to obscure his face, and following him just as much as it follows the activities of Blaze. It's quite amusing when "Evil", while in his priest garb, incurs the wrath of some bikers and is forced to abandon his mode of transportation. Also entertaining are the hilarious extras in the dance sequences, busting some of the most lethargic and priceless dance moves one is ever likely to see. In fact, all the extras and bit players in this thing are worthy of chuckles. Adding a creepiness factor is Blazes' oddball son Derek (Grant Cramer, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"). Co-starring are Chris Wallace ("Don't Answer the Phone!") as the not terribly efficient police detective, and lovely ladies Louisa Moritz ("The Last American Virgin") and Taaffe O'Connell ("Galaxy of Terror") as victims. Niven is a standout, giving his all to a killer with a thin, not very convincing motivation. Kelly's character is clearly not meant to be sympathetic, but it would help if she weren't so damn annoying in the role. The music is insidiously catchy, especially that title theme song which we get to hear a couple of times. The finale, however, falls short of being really satisfying, at least in terms of the killers' comeuppance. Overall, this is a fairly underwhelming slasher, with limited gore and no nudity, but it is good for some entertainment value. Six out of 10.

One positive thing I can say about this low-budget slasher movie is that the production values make it look slicker and more expensive than others of its ilk. Other than that, I am hard-pressed to say anything else positive about it. It's obvious who the killer is after the first few minutes of the movie have gone by, so there's no mystery as to his identity, and little more regarding his motives. There's also very little story surrounding this slasher - most of the movie is actually made up of musical interludes consisting of VERY BAD music (though I admit I got a chuckle out of the poor choreography of the audience members.) As well, the movie ends with some glaring unanswered questions. For one thing, the killer has his focus on specific victims, but one of the identity of his victims (the woman who he picks up at the bar) is never revealed. As well, a potential victim that he plans to kill (but never gets around to doing) remains anonymous as well. Other aspects of the movie (such as the son of Roz Kelly's character) seem very unfinished as well. I have to wonder if there was a longer cut that explained a lot of this stuff... though since it would make the movie longer, it might have made the movie more of a chore to sit through.

New Year's Evil (1980) * 1/2 (out of 4) Silly entry in the slasher cycle has a psychopath (Kip Niven) calling into a female DJ (Roz Kelly) and telling her that he's going to slaughter someone in each time zone for the New Year. Since we're in California the police have a short amount of time to try and capture him before he strikes midnight on the West Coast. Yes, here's yet another Friday THE 13TH clone that was rushed into production to try and eat up some of that slasher cash and this one here comes from the one and only Cannon Group. This must have been the last "themed" slasher of 1980 as it was released right before the holiday in the title but it's probably also one of the dumbest. This is certainly far from a boring movie but the only thing really going in its favor is the silly factor, which is thankfully bad enough to where you can get some pretty good laughs out of the film. Unlike some of the horror films from this era, this one here at least lets you know who the killer is and we pretty much follow him around throughout the movie. His murder sequences are just so stupid that you can't help but laugh. Just check out one where he shows up at an asylum saying he's the new nurse. This is his first night on the job and he shows up with a champaign bottle, seduces a sexy nurse and soon begins to have sex with her all within five minutes. This is followed by an even dumber sequence where he gets into it with some bikers and has to hide out in a drive-in where he's able to kidnap a young woman who was in the back of a car with her boyfriend. The murder sequences are all very silly and contain very little in terms of gore. In fact, the majority of the kills are off screen so those seeking blood are going to be disappointed. I found Niven to be pretty good in the lead role as he manages to bring out several personalities in the killer. Kelly is pretty boring in her part as are the majority of the supporting characters. Of course there's a big twist at the end but it's not nearly as effective as I'm sure everyone was hoping for.