Bloody New Year

Bloody New Year (1987) is a British horror film 🇬🇧 that I recently watched on Tubi. The story follows a group of teenagers who stumble upon a remote island and discover a hotel still decorated for a New Year's Eve party-despite it being the middle of summer.

Directed by Norman Warren (Pray, Gunpowder), the film stars Suzy Aitchison (Clatterford), Nikki Brooks (Jupiter Moon), Steve Wilsher (The Mad), and Mark Powley (Bronson).

The film had a distinct vibe that reminded me of the Necronomicon. While the makeup effects for the possessed were only average, I enjoyed the way they were presented-it made for an entertaining watch. While Bloody New Year isn't a perfect film or a genre classic, it has enough charm to warrant a viewing.

I'd give it a 5/10.

This is a certified bad movie classic!

This is a very good example of a movie severely lacking in a multitude of ways but where the filmakers tried their best at making a movie. Knowing behind the scenes facts about how the movie was made and the ultra low budget, gives me a lot of respect for it and the everyone involved.

If you too are interested you can watch the dead meat video on it. Its great

Even though the movie isnt that great it still has some great weird moments that make it worth it watching

And id say i got something more after watching the movie than i lost watching it. And when it comes to quality bad movies that is essential.

And even though its funny bad, it still has that important soul to it.

I struggle rating this because its a very guilty pleasure type film, where the film has so many shortcomings that have become part of why i love it so much. That pretty much goes against the standard film review rules, so im not gonna break those. However the film is very enjoyable especially with friends and especially when tipsy.

Anyone expecting Bloody New Year to be a cheesy slice of seasonal slasher fun will no doubt be sorely disappointed: despite having a title that conjures up images of a bloody Father Time slicing New Years revellers in half with his massive scythe, the film is, in fact, a supernatural horror that shamelessly rips off Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead whilst throwing in as much random nonsense that it possibly can.

After running into a spot of bother with some nasty fair-ground thugs, a group of teens set off in their sail boat, only to encounter more trouble when a collision with a rock forces them to abandon ship and swim to a nearby island. There, they discover a strange, seemingly abandoned hotel adorned with New Year decorations (despite it being mid-July), and encounter the restless spirits of the hotel's inhabitants, who have been trapped in limbo since 1959 thanks to a government experiment gone wrong.

This logic-free plot allows for a scatter-shot approach by director Norman J. Warren, who gives viewers everything from traditional transparent spooks to a possessed bird-shaped Newell post (!) in the process. Other bizarre occurrences include a murderous sheik emerging from an old black and white film, a killer fishing net, a monster that emerges from a table-top, walls that come alive, an indoor blizzard, and a collection of Evil Dead style zombies. As well as borrowing the look and sound of Raimi's 'deadites', Warren also adopts his directorial techniques, with the camera rushing around the hotel and through undergrowth towards the terrified victims.

The cast are, as expected, rather dreadful (although Nikki Brooks as Janet is cute), the gore is extremely cheap looking, and the special effects range from the inventive to the downright pathetic, but Bloody New year is such a ridiculous and completely surreal experience from start to finish that It actually proves to be pretty enjoyable; after all, any film with malevolent kitchen utensils can't be completely worthless.

"Bloody New Year" follows a group of young adults who wind up stranded on an island through unusual circumstances. They seek shelter in an abandoned hotel there, which after all doesn't seem quite abandoned; decorations from a New Year's Party abound, as does a Christmas tree-but it's summertime. Soon enough, they find themselves the target of horrors beyond belief.

This offbeat British slasher flick is actually more of a haunted house movie than it might appear; the film starts in a beachside amusement park, and the horrors the characters experience in the hotel after mirror the terrors of the carnival funhouse. The fun of the film is that danger lurks around every corner, and something utterly fantastical, lethal--or a combination of both--is lying in wait.

Where "Bloody New Year" falters is in its pacing and the way in which it deals out information. The middle section of the film is weighted down by a series of bizarre incidents and murders that defy logic, and these episodic scenes come one after the other without a shred of insight or explanation. By the time the film winds down to its conclusion and an explanation is offered, it's almost difficult to care. Despite this, there are some fun set pieces, hokey special effects, and a handful of well-crafted sequences that mirror elements of "The Shining."

Overall, "Bloody New Year" is really not the sum of its parts, but it's an amusing oddity by and large, whose main problem is that it alienates its audience for the majority of the runtime. The final reveal is ludicrous, but ludicrous in a way that seems to fit with the rest of the picture's modus operandi. A goofy, unconventional offering, but don't expect a straightforward slasher, because what you get is more "Scooby Doo" than "hack-and-slash." 6/10.

If "Terror" was Norman J Warren's take on "Suspiria", then "Bloody New Year" is surely his version of "The Beyond". After a slow start, it changes from a British teens at the seaside affair, all big dippers and frustrated love triangles, to a delirious zombie movie - "Quadrophenia" crossed with Lucio Fulci.

Considering the extremely low-budget, this is a creditable piece of filmmaking, with Warren achieving some neat shock effects. The young and unknown cast acquit themselves reasonably and there is some groovy organ music to spice up the final reel mayhem. The unexpected arrival of the fairground yobs adds to the fun.

I do have two questions though! Norman is such a nice man so why does he go in for ultra-downbeat endings? And is there really a time-warp island,complete with drooling zombies, living lifts and ambulatory fishing nets,within sailing distance of Barry Island Funfair? Has the local Tourist Information Centre been informed? (Wait a minute, that's three questions).