Remember your New Year’s? It was almost three weeks, ago, I know. I had meant to watch this back then, but…

So, Netflix angers me from time to time. It usually happens when I plan out movie schedules for myself. I do this so I’m never searching for something when I’m ready to watch. Yeah, I’m so awesome. Anyhoo, I have been planning to watch New Year’s Evil ever since I saw it was available on Netflix streaming back in October. I knew it would take me a few days to watch (that’s just how I watch movies during these trying times), so on December 30th, I popped my popcorn, grabbed my box of Gobstoppers, but on my jam-jams, told Sam not to bother me for 91 minutes, fired up the iPad, maneuvered my way to the Netflix app, searched for New Year’s Evil, and… nothing. Nothing. Nothing? Nothing! NOTHING!! This has happened before, but this time was the last. Netflix seems to love pulling movies from their library without warning. What’s up with that? So, long story short (too late), I decided to try Amazon Prime since they had New Year’s Evil. So, yeah, it’s taken me nearly three weeks to watch this holiday slasher epic… If it wasn’t for Downtown Abbey, I probably would’ve had this in the bag first week of January. Sorry it’s a little late…

There’s this guy. He looks like an extremely normal dude, normal 1980 haircut, normal demeanor, could possibly even be some office executive that wears a suit every day. Except he’s not so normal, because he murders women every hour, on the hour, for every time zone (at least a few of them), on New Year’s Eve. The whole time, though, we know he’s coming after this one lady who is hosting a live New Year’s show on tv. So, there’s some build up, using each successive murder to get closer and closer to the end. This is the structure of the film, and after each kill he gets on the phone and calls this lady (using a weird voice disguiser) and tells her, in so many words, you’re next! Well, the ending seems inevitable, but there’s a decent twist with 20 minutes left. Then it ended pretty well, and even set itself up for a sequel, which, I do believe there is a string of…

I really liked this film, actually. It had a great progression of the story, Amazon (or someone) did a great digital transfer, there was good music (punk AND disco!!), and great 80s nostalgia (track suits, lots of make-up, big hair, a drive-in movie theatre, and mustaches). The score was interesting, and upon some investigation of when the movie was released, I believe the composer ripped off the Friday the 13th score. Friday the 13th was released in May 1980, while New Year’s Evil was released in December of the same year. I didn’t think the movie was that scary and any suspense was lost because the killer was shown from the very beginning, and he wasn’t scary at all like most 80s slashers were. I’d definitely make this a New Year’s staple, for sure, though!

Horror, 6/10. Script, 7/10. 80s nostalgia, 10/10. Overall, 8/10. Deuce says check it out! Available on Amazon Prime. NOT Netflix.