New Years Evil

Approaching the new year of 2013 and saying goodbye to a so-so 2012, I thought why not welcome it in with a viewing of New Years Evil (1980), an early slasher that isn’t particularly graphic as customary with the genre, but it has various novelties that might interest fans of the decade anyway. A psychopath, with a peculiar interest in a self-absorbed, success-obsessed radio host hoping her New Years punk rock bash can draw media credibility and television stardom, forewarns her that he will kill people and eventually her. Kip Niven is the handsome, charming wack-job, who uses phone booths and a mechanized sound device to hide his real voice, calling “Blaze” (real name, Susan Sullivan (Roz Kelly)) off and on before and after murders, heading into the New Year of different time zones as the clock strikes 12 Midnight.

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Personally, I thought this idea, while a little different than the typical slasher plot (the typical slasher plot hadn’t quite built its foundation yet, though), was rather implausible (it would take some effort to kill different people in different time zones at exactly the time he so proclaims) but possible. One thing’s for damn sure, New Years Evil has a dark side to it and the pursuit of stardom causes repercussions to several in Sullivan’s life, including her pill-popping, mentally-disturbed sun (he puts a stocking on his head and pierces his ear until it bleeds down his face), Derek (Grant Cramer) and the husband who is supposed to be high/drunk in Palm Springs.

During the height of punk rock—that particular music and culture epitomized in the attendance of Sullivan’s wild and crazy crowd congregating enthusiastically around the stage—New Years Evil is a time capsule of a certain era that might bring the film a cult status. I actually recorded and watched this in 2011 when Turner Classics’ TCM Underground showed it in a double feature with Christmas Evil (1980). I was compelled by its depiction of a time in New York City and other places we find Niven, disguised in various roles, a doc at a psych ward (he kills a nurse he seduces), a Hollywood businessman (meeting a bubbly, easily-persuaded, squeaky-voiced, dimbulb cutie at a disco bar, having to figure out how to bump her off (eventually suffocating her with a plastic bag) and shake her tag-along gal pal before doing so), and, strange of all, as a priest (he plows into some bikers and must elude them, attempting to hide himself in a drive-in while a Blood Feast trailer is playing!), finding a suitable victim smoking grass and getting her breast fondled.

It is vitally important that he kill them just as the countdown to Midnight commences, recording each victim while she dies, and playing it for Susan. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be, though, to locate himself across country and get to NYC just in time with one major target left to execute.

How Niven gets to NYC (through hitchhiking, probably the most absurd part of the storyline; this was just a bit too hard for me to swallow) might be sketchy but his true identity as it relates to Susan is one of those “Woah” twists that is a bawdy way for him to slip in and threaten her life when it would be difficult otherwise (the cops quarantine the building so no one can leave or enter). I thought Niven’s child-like accusations towards Blaze, speaking as an immature brat having a tantrum (saying things like “That is not nice!” & “You castrated me!”), was hilarious. He was once in a sanitarium (*Surprise!*), and had been “short-changed” during the year, and, the dismissal of his son’s successful audition, based mainly on the focus of her own ambitions for celebrity, was the final straw. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be an early 80s slasher unless Niven got to go full-tilt boogie. Chaining Blaze to the bottom of an elevator was a nice touch, I thought. Niven, to his character’s credit, is rather handy with the electrical system of an elevator, getting in a gunfight with the police as it freefalls with Blaze crying aloud in terror as a potential *smash hit* seems viable. I think the glossy cinematography (if you can see it enhanced on Turner Classics if they were ever to show it in the future, do so because it is an improvement over a less-than-polished VHS presentation), is a plus in this movie's favor and Niven may the most unlikeliest nutcase in slasher film. I mean position him next to Joe Spinell; quite a contrast, eh? Maybe, that's in Niven's favor, though. Rozy did nothing for me personally, but it is her character that really turns me off so her terror (not that successfully conveyed for my liking) didn't necessarily leave a lump in my throat. The way she treats her son, practically ignoring him as her big show is about to happen, actually doesn't cast her in a very positive light. This can be a detriment to a slasher film...if we don't give a shit about the lead female star of the film, then his catching/terrorizing her fails to impact. That said, I do think this movie does deserve a re-evaluation from slasher fans. I would love to see conversations on it by those who love the genre.