Horror fans who delight in the cheesy and the silly may find a fair bit to appreciate with Norman J. Warrens' "Bloody New Year". Don't go into it expecting anything resembling a coherent plot, but be prepared for a lot of insane nonsense.The story has three young couples up to a whole bunch of tomfoolery at a carnival who afterwards find themselves shipwrecked on an island. This island features a hotel that not only is celebrating Christmas in July, it's celebrating Christmas circa 1959, and is eagerly anticipating 1960.Among the assorted crackpot ideas Warren and screenwriter Frazer Pearce throw at the wall are snow indoors, invisible pursuers, a furiously moving camera seemingly inspired by "The Force" from "The Evil Dead", a "table monster", and lots of hilariously, endearingly tacky special effects. The good thing is that Warren and Pearce do seem to be just having fun with the genre because this whole production has a heavy tongue in cheek feel. Now, some people may find this simply *too* cheesy and *too* silly, but others should find themselves smiling if not laughing outright.The first 15 minutes quickly establish the irreverent tone, and the filmmakers do achieve and maintain a certain loopy charm and a "Just what the hell is going on?" sensibility. The actors do an impressive job of keeping poker faces throughout, and they're all reasonably appealing, although there will undoubtedly be viewers who will get sick of all the screaming that Janet (Nikki Brooks) does. One of the best routines involves some appearing and disappearing sets of footprints.These 90 minutes of off-the-wall antics don't quite fly by, but enough amusing stuff happens to help people pay attention. The music, by Nick Magnus and a duo dubbed "Cry No More", merely adds to the appeal. All things considered, this is an interesting effort among Warrens' filmography.Six out of 10.

Man, this one is a must see to believe. First this, I search youtube on a regular base to find some old school horrors and then I will search the Web to locate them. As noted on this issue it was possible to track it down but it isn't that cheap anyway. Redemption had it out on DVD but is now an OOP. So VHS was the way to catch it. I found a version with a pop up VHS box. Just like the limited blu ray edition of Jennifer's Body. It isn't easy to find it without damage but it arrived here from the UK in perfect condition. Even the quality of the tape is excellent for a VHS from the 80's. It's just like it never been watched and that's what happened to this turkey. Oh there are funny moments in it but for a flick from the eighties no titties are shown let's even say, no underwear is even shown. Not that it has to be shown but it is stated that almost all flicks from that era have some nudity. Made at the fall of the slashers and even made at a period when all public holidays have there horror edition, remember, all fools day, silent night..., mother's day...it had to be good to be remembered. But it is a fact, it is remembered but in a bad way. Oh sure, the makers of this flick were addicted to the genre and have been putting every effort in it to make it a great flick but they failed. First of all, the storyline isn't original anymore. Again being on an abandoned island were bad things are happening, but this time it isn't a killer on the loose, this time it is a haunted house , scary isn't it? The movie starts of pretty well with the girl disappearing into a mirror but then it falls apart. We are watching some scene's at a fair but here things go wrong for the youth but also for the movie. It takes too long and it is childish. The bad people aren't believable and if I ever come in front of them well I wouldn't run away. Anyway, when they arrive on the island they hide in a hotel. From then on there is one thing on your mind, they tried to make an Evil Dead replica. You see a normal face, she turns away, her voice changes and then she's possessed and her face has changed, in a terrible way. And by that I mean the make up. Man, it's just like she woke up from a hangover vomit all over her face. You must see it to believe it. Sure, this is a low budget all the way. The only thing worth noticing is the turning of the head. But ghosts appear with a fade in and disappear with a fade out. Jesus, it's the eighties not Nosferatu. The blood never flows, only in the beginning when one of the bad guys is hit by, euh, the feet of an Elephant of a merry-go-round. At the end of the day, it was one to watch. All influences are in it, Evil Dead for the most part, Exorcist, Friday The 13th (the life boat on the end) but still it failed to give you the creeps. It sure is watchable, but watch it for the effects. Bloody New Year? Naaah. Cold Turkey yeah!

If my personal resolution for 2008 would to avoid watching worthless, crummy and totally retarded horror movies, I already would have sinned with "Bloody New Year". This is quite an incoherent and severely unsatisfying hodgepodge of potentially interesting story ideas, truly poor scripting work, horrible acting performances and a painful shortage of gore. I expected a holiday-themed slasher storyline (in the likes of "Happy Birthday to Me" or "Silent Night, Deadly Night"), but instead this film is a bizarre type of ghost story/demonic possession tale. Six hugely irritating teenagers intend to spend their summer vacation quarreling with carnival carnies and taking boat trips too far off the safe English coasts. Their boat hits a rock and the sextet washes ashore an island where everything is decorated to celebrate New Year's Eve of 1959. From this point on, a whole series of ridiculous and laughable UN-horrific events takes place, including the ghostly appearances of housemaids, murderous fishing nets coming to life, distant buzzing and laughter can be heard all over the island and the teenagers gradually turn into a bloodthirsty demons with rotting faces. There's no waterproof explanation for the events, but the script repeatedly hints that the crashing of government plane, carrying a top-secret experiment, on the 31st of December 1959 caused the island to be stuck in a time warp. Still that doesn't explain how pool tables come to life or why soup kettles develop murderous tendencies, but who cares? The island setting is atmospheric and the time warp concept is admirable (particularly with the New Year's celebration), but the overall execution is very weak. None of the characters are sympathetic, so you really don't care whether they all live or die, and there's zero tension throughout the entire film. "Bloody New Year" is overlong even with a running time of barely 90 minutes and the total absence of graphic gore & nudity are unforgivable. Damned, this is an 80's movie starring 6 dimwitted teenagers AND it's directed by UK's shlockmeister Norman J. Warren! The least I expected from the creator of such rancid nonsense as "Prey", "Inseminoid" and "Satan's Slave" was a bit more mindless violence and/or sleaze. One to avoid.

had potential but does not deliver well its a good idea it just gets too cheesy for its own good and suffers from a dull first half and has a lackluster plot and shoddy acting and the ghosts are highly unconvincing with weak make up effects just horrid avoid. * out of 5