New Year's Evil

This Golan-Globus production is a bit slicker than most non-major-studio slashers of the era, and the polish helps it move along painlessly--except for the onscreen victims of course. Roz Kelly plays an obnoxiously self-absorbed radio celebrity hosting a New Year's Eve "New Wave" bash--we get a lot of generic rock music located somewhere between lesser 70s power pop and 80s lite metal. (The musicians in the presumably fictitious bands playing probably grew their hair out and tried to be "the next Poison" a few years later.) Before her hosting duties begin, she gets a call from an anonymous, vocally distorted man who insists she call him "Eeeeeeeevillllll" and says he's going to kill on the hour each other before midnight, at which point it will be her turn. Trouper that she is--or perhaps just too abrasive to care--our protagonist goes on with the show, while the killer gradually approaches the venue, killing people on the way.

The story is pretty thin, such as it is. There's a late hint of something unsavory going on between the heroine's son and husband (it's unclear whether he's the boy's father), both of whom have cause to hate her guts, but the film doesn't have the nerve to really "go there." It aims mild satire at both the Hollywood and punk scenes, but those caricatures are too familiar to be effective. Roz Kelly was said to be a piece of work offscreen--she acknowledged she was known as "pushy," which is maybe what got her sacked from her most famous role on "Happy Days"--so this role seems tailored to her as a glam, flashy but unsympathetic entertainer who is oblivious to others (even at her own peril) and bosses everybody around. The villain's "scary voice" on phone calls is ridiculous, his dialogue worse, his motivation flimsy, but then you don't go into a movie like this one expecting much psychological depth.

Despite the fair number of deaths, none of them are particularly memorable in deed or staging; the only good idea is a climactic scene in which someone is very unhappy to find themselves dangling from the bottom of an elevator as it rockets up and plunges down the shaft.

In short, more watchable than some more poorly-produced slashers of the time, but just OK, with both a protagonist and antagonist that are a little too effectively annoying as personalities.