New Year's Evil

The '70s and '80s saw quite a few holiday-themed slasher flicks.  One that I find to be quite a lot of fun to watch, especially on its respective holiday, is New Year's Evil.  It may not be the most groundbreaking film, but I think it manages to give its audience what it wants and does it with style.  Also, there are some minor departures from the standard slasher formula.

DVD Edition
 

Let's start with one of the biggest differences from most slashers: you see the killer right off the bat.  Usually, you don't know who the killer is until he/she is unmasked right before the big final chase and face-off.  In this one, you know who he is the whole time, as he does not wear a mask (at least not until very late in the film).  Of course, you don't know his name or his relationship, if any, to the other characters in the film and he does put on some basic disguises in the film.  Still, his face shows up onscreen and you know he is the killer, so there are no scenes where you wonder if one character or another is actually the killer and his/her motive for doing something is actually a cover for killing somebody.  For example, two characters break off from the rest of the group to check out some room in a house.  Are they going some place private to bang each other's brains out or is one of them the killer trying to get the other somewhere secluded before bashing that person's brains in?

Another difference is that the film focuses on older characters, to an extent.  The main target for the killer is a woman who is probably in her 30s or even early 40s.  There are younger characters, as well, such as the various punk/new wave people that populate much of the movie, which largely revolves around the main character's New Year's Eve television broadcast, a call-in music show featuring a few different punk/new wave bands playing.  This movie is certainly dated, but in a good way, in my opinion.

I could go on a bit more or even a lot more, if I wanted to, but it is New Year's Eve.  So, track it down on VHS or get the special edition Blu-ray or even the on-demand DVD edition, if you like slasher flicks.

Put simply, I think this is a good movie to play around 10pm or so on New Year's Eve, so you get through the movie and still have time to see the new year in and watch the fireworks going off.


Happy New Year



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