Brightlyme
i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.
ClassyWas
Excellent, smart action film.
Manthast
Absolutely amazing
Coventry
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.
callanvass
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
Backlash007
Bloody New Year is a very strange British ghost story. It starts with an incredibly upbeat and silly tune that will no doubt be stuck in your head for days and then some amusement park hijynx. This goofy stuff leads you to think it's a goofy movie. It actually picks up and gets interesting when our gang of characters reach the haunted hotel. Bloody New Year is hokey at times and the acting is sub-par, even for the genre. There are some good gags featuring an elevator and a cinema that really work. There's excellent use of reverse filming as well. Quite surprisingly the hotel was not built above an Indian burial ground-it's the result of an experimental aircraft. Like I said, it's hokey, but at least it attempts to be original. It's not The Shining, but it's not all bad either. It just feels like a Scooby Doo episode.
brandonsites1981
Teenagers seek shelter in an isolated hotel that is stuck in a time warp. They then notice weird things going on and the walls moving and that is when they start seeing ghost & zombies, who first stalk then kill the kids. Not very memorable, but with a fair amount of suspense and a better then usual premise. Rated R; Nudity, Sexual Situations, Violence.
