Directed by Emmett Alston New Year’s Evil takes place during
(you guessed it) New Year's Eve (and New Year's Day hence why I thought I should start the challenge/ year with this one first) during a live televised show called, Blaze’s
Countdown which celebrates the music of that year with callers, calling in the Hollywood Hotline nominating their favorite songs (Think Top of the Pops meets Telethon) the show
features various punk/ new wave groups and their fans dancing to their hits, (personally
I would rather watch this show than Jools Holland’s Hootenanny!) and features
such bands as Shadow and Made in Japan (Shadow play the title song New Year’s
Evil twice!). The show’s punk rock presenter Blaze (played by Diane Sullivan) receives
a phone call from man calling himself Evil disguises his voice with a “Voice Processor”
announces that each time the clock strikes midnight in each time zone, a
"Naughty Girl" will be killed declaring that Diane herself will be
the last Naughty Girl to be punished. The studio calls in Lieutenant Ed Clayton
(Chris Wallace) a man who doesn’t care much for the punk/new wave scene who
rather unsympathetically resents having to “pick a phone freak from this bunch!”
but agrees to tighten security never the less as, Evil delivers on his promise and
starts killing women on the hour (playing tapes of the killings over the phone
to taunt Blaze) building up to the climax of the film, which I will not spoil
for you.
While researching this film I read that movie critic, Gene
Siskel called it "a hideously ugly motion picture” I must disagree with
that, although perhaps not the most original concepts the movie does do one
thing differently by showing us the killer right from the start, instead hiding
his identity and motive from us which is revealed as a twist at the end, in my opinion
the film could (almost) pass as a Thriller, If it hadn’t been for the Friday
the 13th style "chi chi chi ha ha ha..." effect, set up for a
sequel and use of a Stan Laurel mask which is genuinely creepy! It’s not
brilliant, but it’s not bad. It’s just a good old fashioned slasher that's worth a look.
Happy New Year!
© Arfon Jones 2019. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.
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