New Year's Evil (1980)

My quick rating - 4,8/10. I vaguely remember seeing this about 4 decades ago. I'll see how it holds up LOL. Not very well. The story works for the holiday. A random killer calling himself "evil" phones into a local punk rock?? show threatening the host (Roz Kelly which I recognized as Pinky Toscadero if you are old) with killing someone at midnight for each timezone across the country. But instead of possibly one of the many slashers that arose around this time, I believe this one slid in right before the formula had altered into the slasher gore that Friday the 13th was known for. Instead this is really more of a thriller in how it plays out. There is the threat of the killer and his execution is quite amusing but not really effective for horror. Most of the acting is about right for the time but now seems quite silly. Some of which are way over acted to the point of irritation for the short amount of time on the screen. Director Emmett Alston never really seemed to get his footing with this one and judging by his filmography didn't really attempt the horror after. Still by title alone this one immediately comes up for the New Year but really is more just a piece of nostalgia and not a good piece of cinema. And if you saw my profile pic, this creepy-looking mask was not used much and only was a part of their "twist" later on. Too bad since it was about all I remembered and didn't realize how little it was used.

#thriller #jackmeatsflix