Review: Bloody New Year (1983)
Directed by: Norman J. Warren
Starring: Suzy Aitchison, Nikki Brooks, Daniel James
Written by: Frazer Pearce, Hayden Pearce, Norman J. Warren
Music by: Nick Magnus
Country: United Kingdom
Available on: Blu-ray (Vinegar Syndrome)
IMDb
Bloody New Year (1987) was the last of the major New Year’s Eve horror movies I hadn’t seen, about a group of would-be partiers stuck on a haunted island who must face off with evil zombie ghosts, as well as local hooligans who look like extras from The Slaughtered Lamb. This is an odd fucking movie. To begin with, it takes forever (insert guy from The Sandlot saying “FOR.EV.ERRRRR” here) to get going. The first 35 minutes or so are painfully dull. But just as I was getting ready to turn it off, a badly made up zombie showed up, attacked someone using its glowing claws, and zip-zooped away through a ceiling vent like it was a zombie-sized balloon that suddenly sprung a leak. From there, it gets really weird, with Evil Dead POV from the evil’s perspective accompanied by stock audio of a studio audience politely laughing at a sitcom joke, sudden indoor snowstorms accompanied by cat noises for some reason, exploding houses, abdomen punch-throughs, 720-degree head twists, killer stair banisters, among other shenanigans — all of which occur in broad daylight. The whole thing looks like an episode of Are You Being Served? and features an inappropriately bombastic but kind of charmingly gothic score. For the life of me, I could not figure out the geography of the island the characters were trapped on. Their surroundings seemed to randomly change every 5 minutes. The movie has early, early Peter Jackson vibes, but it’s not nearly as funny or gory as Bad Taste, unfortunately. Additionally, I’m not sure this movie really qualifies as a New Year’s Eve flick, but it has a really left-field backstory for why things in the movie are happening and I dug that. All in all, this movie kind of surprised me by not being at all what I was anticipating. I did enjoy Bloody New Year an unexpectedly large amount when it finally got going, but man, you have the trudge through thick doldrums before the entertainment eventually shows up.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10