New Year's Evil (1980) - Behemoth Piece

 Included with fresh thoughts on the film are old user comments from December 24th when I watched "New Year's Evil" along with "Christmas Evil" (1980) in a great double feature on Turner Classic Movies.

I really want to actually watch this film some time on December 31st. Either I'm at some party or watching the Twilight Zone Marathon. While I'll never champion "New Year's Evil" as some dandy of a slasher film, I do consider it fun, in a time capsule sort of way. I was putting together a few comments for Letterboxd, but as always I started to go a little long and decided to add the complete long-form review of early morning January 7th on the blog. 

User comments:

I was very fortunate, unlike a lot of my 80s peers, to see "New Years Evil" on Turner Classics this morning (honestly, I think this film is best viewed after Midnight) instead of some terrible, badly beaten up VHS copy that would be incredibly difficult to find unless you were willing to fork of 60 bucks like some desperate slasher fans might. Some might say that this is the way to view any slasher for the first time, but a clear picture really maybe helps one appreciate the print for some of the stylistic touches that are here even if the more titillating and gory details the genre is known for are absent. I think at best, "New Year's Evil" will be considered by genre aficionados as a middle-of-the-pack slasher.

I do think, even if it is ludicrous and implausible, the plot gives us a novel premise: the psychopath who taunts the host of a New York New Wave radio New Years studio show about killing a woman every Midnight across the country in different time zones, leaving her as his last victim. I can't really swallow the premise that Niven can get from Florida to NY (driving through several time zones throughout the country) in like a couple hours, while getting into disguises, setting up murders, carrying them out, escaping, and making it to his destination with only a few hitches along the way. I do consider an interesting premise which strays from the typical formula something somewhat noteworthy.

I think Kip Niven, his handsome and friendly looks, is actually a wise casting choice because you can see how he might trick females by gaining their trust. What I found fascinating by this movie compared to countless others is that the lead protagonist, Roz Kelly's music personality/celebrity, Diane Sullivan, isn't a sympathetic figure in the least. She's self-absorbed to an extreme degree, only concerned with her own success, worried about how this New Year's Eve music show will benefit her own career (completely ignoring her son's announcement of getting a lead role on a television show, just ruining a moment of pride for the kid, further illustrating how wholly involved in only her own world this bitch is), and even as the killer phones in his crimes, she's worried about how they will infect the show. I will be honest: the ending, where she is bound to the bottom of an elevator where it appears she will be squashed ("Get smashed."), I was rooting for her demise to be epic. If only they had gone that route, I would bump up my rating for "New Year's Evil". I just flat hated her, I won't lie. Every time she's on screen, I just despised her more, I won't lie.

Anyway, the film goes back and forth between Niven stalk and hunting girls while the high rise studio rock show with Roz worrying about dying as kid punks with an "F-U" attitude bump and grind in a mosh pit where they seem to be spaced out on coke or pills, in a zombie-like state bouncing off each other. The film actually opens with a group of punk rock fans, dressed the part, and sold out to the lifestyle, including ugly behavior to anyone who drives by their open convertible. As a 80s artifact (if you were of the mindset that NYC was becoming a cesspool, this movie probably gave you ammunition), I think this movie will be of interest. Grant Cameron, as Roz' pretty son harboring issues with Mommy, has some great scenes if you like seeing one of the beautiful people going off the deep end after dropping three pills, pulling a stocking over his face and rambling demented things, eventually jamming an earring through his ear. The violence is rather underwhelming--the usual switchblade slash-stab off-screen jazz--but the way Niven gets into killing his girls adds some impact to them just the same. I have to say, Niven makes this film for me; it could've been so much less tolerable.

 Letterboxd:

LA slasher, with Kip Niven (his face never concealed, using a voice modulator, wearing disguises such as a glued mustache and brown coat, orderly uniform, and priest collar and black dress) as the Time Zone killer, moving through the area, selecting attractive blonds to stab with his switchblade knife (though, one of them he suffocates with a marijuana baggie!), carrying out each when another time zone in the States strikes Midnight into the new year, 1981. Niven's wife is a music personality for Hollywood Hotspot, looking at this night as a big career boost since it will be simulcast with punk/new wave bands working the show. Their son (Grant Cramer) seems off-kilter and practically unhinged, not taking too kindly to her disregard to his news of a big part (to him) in an upcoming movie. Niven calls in as EEEEVVVVVILLLLLL, disguising his voice, to Roz Kelly, preparing his wife for when LA rings in the new year. Chris Wallace is the detective with police at the hotel where Roz' show is telecast from, not especially fond of the kind of audience that favors the music she plays.

The film's novelty, to me, is its unique slasher idea of using time zones for the killer to operate as his particular MO until his prime target fits the Midnight he ultimately aims for. The shit-eating-grin mask at the end is rather unnerving because it is so obnoxious with its smile. Rigging Roz to a chain and tormenting her through the use of an elevator takes a lot of work but Kip sure seems to be enjoying himself while it lasts. Grant Cramer as the broken son, squeezing red panty-hose over his head and piercing his ear while ripping apart roses for his mom, is quite effective if a bit WTF creepy.

The LA locations in 1980, including the Van Nuys Drive-in, among others, with the punks zombie dancing in a mosh pit while Roz, in her tight "rock chic" dress and exploding red hair, hosts with some cheesy slang is probably why the film is a lot of fun to me. As a slasher, the violence is not distinguishable and Niven isn't really scary, which was probably the point. He doesn't really look imposing or threatening. The ladies, except the cute blond letting her boyfriend feel her up in the backseat at the drive-in, never seem to consider him terrifying, if right the opposite. The bikers chasing after Kip, dressed as a priest in his Mercedes, at a Drive-in is a highlight. One suspense sequence I find effective is when Kip chases after the teenage blond into a school yard as she hides under bleachers while he uses his knife to unnerve her.

I guess I return to these films because I really feel as if I was dropped in a time long far gone. I wish I could get the New Year's Eve viewing of this. It never seems to work out.

Some extra notes:

I guess you call Kip Niven the Time Zone New Year's Killer. Using a voice modulator, Niven not wearing a mask so there never is any obscuring of what he looks like, and while in California, he chooses various female victims, charming them in "disguises", surprising them unexpectedly, making sure to take them out one by one at the time zone schedule every time 1981 hits, I think this particular slasher premise, at the very least, is unique enough. 

I think, for me, this is a timepiece that I get a kick out of. The drugged-out zombie mosh pit of punks and Blaze's fans falling down and somewhat bouncing about, the music of the film's title, and general feel just lands me right in the early 80s culture of that era.

Roz Kelly and that tiny, petite frame fits in this tight "rocker chic" mini-dress while her unstable son (her career clearly comes first as she barely hears what he's saying about landing a role he's proud of in some B-movie) pulls a red stocking over his head and pierces his ear, ripping apart roses he got for her in celebration of her Rockin' New Year's Simulcast Bash, going live across three time zones. Niven makes up the third part of this dysfunctional act, seducing and stabbing a nurse at a sanitarium,suffocating a bubbly blond (who talks about all the different spiritual and philosophical methods for achieving satisfaction in life, much to his aggravation) with a marijuana baggie (!), pulling the bubbly blond's very quiet friend who attended a club party with her into a garbage bin to stab her, a biker is stabbed when confronting Kip in the Drive-In, and nearly a teenage blond who was with her boyfriend in the back of a car making out.