Bloody New Year (1987) Academy Entertainment/Horror RT: 94 minutes Rated R (strong violence, language) Director: Norman J. Warren Screenplay: Frazer Pearce Music: Nick Magnus Cinematography: John Shann Release date: October 22, 1987 (US, DTV) Cast: Suzy Aitchison, Nikki Brooks, Colin Heywood, Mark Powley, Catherine Roman, Julian Ronnie, Steve Emerson, Steve Wilsher, Jon Glentoran, Val Graham. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
One of the drawbacks of exploitation cinema is that titles can sometimes be misleading. Take the British horror movie Bloody New Year. Based on the title, you might deduce that it’s a holiday-themed slasher similar to New Year’s Evil. You’d be wrong. Although it features a group of teens as its protagonists, it isn’t a crazed maniac with an axe coming after them. The deadly danger they’re facing is more on the supernatural side. Let me tell you, things get pretty weird for these young Brits (plus one American).
A day at the beach turns into a living nightmare for two couples- Rick (Powley) and Janet (Brooks), Tom (Ronnie) and Lesley (Aitchison)- and their friend Spud (Heywood) when the guys rescue American tourist Carol (Roman) from a gang of ruffians at an amusement park. To evade the toughs, they go out to sea on their boat which promptly runs aground forcing the youngsters to abandon ship. They swim to an island- Grand Island, that is- where they stumble across a seemingly abandoned hotel decorated for the holidays. Did I mention it’s summertime? Well, it is.
Weird stuff starts happening almost immediately. It’s the usual supernatural clap-trap; ghosts appear, objects move by themselves, TVs and movie projectors start on their own, music suddenly starts and stops, etc. The events take a fatal turn when a character from a promo reel steps off the screen and kills one of them. Next, one of the couples is attacked by a fishing net and a moss-monster in a cottage near the hotel. And so on and so on.
For the record, all the paranormal activity is a result of the island being trapped in a time warp. It’s always New Year’s Eve 1959 in this place. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it does enhance the weird vibe that resonates throughout Bloody New Year. If I’m being really honest, a lot of what happens in the space of the movie’s running time makes no sense. Somehow director Norman J. Warren (Inseminoid) manages to work demonic possession into the mix. I can accept the idea of hauntings and time warps being connected. That’s kind of what’s going on in the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, one of the main influences on Warren’s movie along with The Evil Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Purple Rose of Cairo and House (the 1977 Japanese horror film NOT the one with William Katt). How do demons factor into it? I don’t know and I’m not sure Warren does either. It’s just one more bizarre aspect of this bizarre movie.
Bloody New Year is a low-budget effort with cheesy special effects, sketchy acting, silly dialogue and a plot that defies explanation. It’s also a great deal of fun. Where else are you going to find a table monster, a walking pinball machine, an evil fishing net adorned with sharp hooks (all the better for face slashing), a cooking pot with a hunger for human victims, an indoor snowstorm and clips from the campy 50s horror movie Fiend Without a Face? It has a number of cool scenes, some of which even border on creepy. Take the scene where one the couple runs through the woods while a laugh track plays somewhere out of sight. I can believe somebody somewhere has had this exact nightmare. In another scene, a possessed victim slowly twists the head off one of the ruffians who inexplicably show up on the island to exact their revenge. The goofy look on the ruffian’s face is priceless.
My one gripe about Bloody New Year is that it’s not as bloody as the title promises. It has a couple of bits that could be considered gruesome, but nothing over the top or extreme. This is especially disappointing in the scene involving an outboard motor and a character trapped in quicksand. That should have been the money shot, but the camera cuts away before contact is made. Some would say this is a dick move on the director’s part.
Despite the misleading title (in more ways than one), Bloody New Year is a bloody good time if you like your scary movies extra weird. It’s campy to be sure with a lot of cheesy rock music, courtesy of Cry No More, on the soundtrack. Is this not part of the appeal of cheap 80s horror flicks? It is. While I don’t think it’s a great film by any stretch of the imagination, Bloody New Year is goofily entertaining and entertainingly goofy. Watch it in the right frame of mind and you just might be surprised.
