If you are looking for a horror film to watch to ring in the new year, New Year’s Evil may be for you. That is also going to be dependent on how much you enjoy ’80s tropes, as this film tries to check all of the boxes. The synopsis goes: “During a New Year’s Eve celebration, a Los Angeles disc jockey receives a phone call saying that when New Year’s strikes in each time zone, someone will be murdered – and she will be the last one.”
Starring Roz Kelly as Diane the disc jockey, New Year’s Evil kicks off with a bang. There is a rocking theme song, stereotypical 80’s punk gang types cruising the street, and of course, a killing. One thing that you will notice in this film is switchblades. They were pretty much a staple of every ’80s street thug, and this film is no exception. The switchblade is prominent in this film, and even the comb version makes an appearance.
As for the quality of the film, New Year’s Evil is about what you would expect from a film made in 1980. Cheesy acting, cheesy writing, and the traditional ’80s gimmicks, but it’s actually not bad. We always try to take the time period into consideration when reviewing older films and think about how we would rate it based on 1980s standards. In that sense, it is actually pretty solid.
The plot revolves around this celebration in which a live concert is happening, and people can call in to give their opinion about what song was their choice for the best song of the year. There were some odd things in these celebration scenes like the bands going from punk rock to some slow jam blues, people stage-diving onto a concrete floor, and one of the bands playing the theme song for the movie. The songs weren’t actually all bad, though. This film also had one of the best combovers in horror that we have seen to date.
One of the callers is using a voice modulator and calls himself “Evil” in a scary voice and tells Diane that he’s going to do some killing at midnight and that it will be someone close to her. She carries on the show, and he calls back periodically throughout the night to scare her and play recordings of his killings. The party still goes on, though, and Diane doesn’t want it to stop.
Overall, New Year’s Evil is a pretty decent film for what the standard was in 1980. If you enjoy ’80s horror, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a typical “killer making phone calls” type of film, but also one that you could see later films like Scream being at least somewhat influenced by given some of the similarities that we can’t really explain without spoiling it. If you are looking for a horror film to watch on New Year’s Eve, we would definitely recommend New Year’s Evil. You can watch this on Amazon Prime for free if you have it.
