It's New Years' Eve, and D. J. Blaze Sullivan (Pinky Tuscadero, a.k.a. Actress Roz Kelly) is hosting a night long dance party / concert celebrating supposed "new wave" music. Somebody else is celebrating, but in their own macabre way: a dude named EEE-vil (Kip Niven, "Damnation Alley") is calling Blazes' show and following through on his threat to murder someone every time the clock strikes midnight in a time zone. The clueless cops can't do much to stop him, as he goes through one masquerade after another - pretending to be a doctor, a priest, a business agent - while in the act of slaughtering unfortunate women.

"New Year's Evil" was an early production for producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and their Cannon Group company; written by Leonard Neubauer and directed by Emmett Alston, it's mostly good for the laughs it provides. "Evil" speaks through a voice modulator and it's a hoot when he calls Blaze, remaining deadly serious while his voice sounds so funny.

The movie has some fun bits, such as "Evil" having a surprise in store, inside a dumpster, for a young lady. Also, it's interesting the way the movie focuses so much on its killer, not bothering to obscure his face, and following him just as much as it follows the activities of Blaze. It's quite amusing when "Evil", while in his priest garb, incurs the wrath of some bikers and is forced to abandon his mode of transportation. Also entertaining are the hilarious extras in the dance sequences, busting some of the most lethargic and priceless dance moves one is ever likely to see. In fact, all the extras and bit players in this thing are worthy of chuckles. Adding a creepiness factor is Blazes' oddball son Derek (Grant Cramer, "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"). Co-starring are Chris Wallace ("Don't Answer the Phone!") as the not terribly efficient police detective, and lovely ladies Louisa Moritz ("The Last American Virgin") and Taaffe O'Connell ("Galaxy of Terror") as victims. Niven is a standout, giving his all to a killer with a thin, not very convincing motivation. Kelly's character is clearly not meant to be sympathetic, but it would help if she weren't so damn annoying in the role. The music is insidiously catchy, especially that title theme song which we get to hear a couple of times. The finale, however, falls short of being really satisfying, at least in terms of the killers' comeuppance.

Overall, this is a fairly underwhelming slasher, with limited gore and no nudity, but it is good for some entertainment value.

Six out of 10.

New Year's Evil: Directed by Emmett Alston and written by Leonard Neubauer and Emmett Alston

Welcome to 2019. Twenty years from 1999. Fight Club is now a 20 year old movie along with American Beauty. What better way to ring in the new year than an 80s slasher movie themed after the holiday! I'm thinking a masked killer stalking a new year's eve party and offing them one by one. Nope. It's not that movie at all. It tries something else entirely. It shows you the killer right from the get go. The killer is the main character. It felt like a comedy where this killer was going through a wacky night trying to achieve his goal and having obstacles thrown in his way the entire time. It's Adventures in Babysitting or the Hangover but with a serial killer at the center. It's insane.

What's even more insane than that is the fact that this movie was made and released the same year as Friday the 13th. There wasn't a whole bunch of slasher films at this time. I think the formula might not have been established at this time. This could be the reason it deviates and tries this bat crazy insane movie idea. They sure weren't trying to make it scary. There was no suspense. There were no surprises. It doesn't even try to go in that direction. I'm not even sure it knows how much of a comedy it actually is.

It could go for the gore factor but it doesn't. The aftermaths of the kills are theatrical and shocking in a silly sense. I'm not sure it's trying for those clever kills either. It also has no clue what punk rock is. It dresses extras up how you imagine punk rockers should look like. It then plays the goofiest 80s music it can find to have them having a seizure on the dance floor. It's like a cartoon slasher. He plays around with an elevator using a screwdriver. It's all over the place.

This is a fascinating film in its own right. It fails miserably as a horror movie. It fails as a comedy which I'm not sure its intent was. I have no idea what they were thinking but damn it's so bizarre. I have to recommend it on that alone. I give it a C.