‘Bloody New Year’: A Holiday Horror Gem That Does a Lot with a Little [The Overlooked Motel]
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I usually champion what I consider ‘well-made’ movies on The Overlooked Motel. But today, I am breaking from that unwritten rule and spotlighting a film that doesn’t get everything right, yet still manages to be a farcical good time. Bloody New Year is a seasonally appropriate selection filled with imagination. It delivers a surreal narrative brought to life with no shortage of ingenuity.
What is Bloody New Year About?
The film follows a group of young friends who find themselves marooned on an island after their boat bottoms out on a nearby rock. They take up residence in an abandoned hotel that is literally trapped in a bygone era. Eventually, the pals learn they’re stuck in a time loop, complete with zombie-like creatures that materialize out of the woodwork. With their boat destroyed, the teens have no obvious means of escape. Their only hope is to keep the monstrous creatures at bay and hope that a sea-faring vessel eventually comes to their aid.
The setup is simplistic, yet effective. Grounded, but imaginative. Though it doesn’t get everything right, the film is obviously a labor of love. Viewed through that context, you may just find yourself having fun with it. At the very least, Bloody New Year is a better movie than I could make for south of $100,000.
Making the most of a shoestring budget.
Director Norman J. Warren and his effects team make the most of a limited budget by making everyday items seem surprisingly sinister. A scene featuring a self-propelled vacuum cleaner chasing the cast down the stairs is far more effective than it ought to be, and likely required nearly no monetary resources to execute. Additional standout sequences lensed on the cheap see characters coming out of both a mirror and a movie screen. If you look closely, it’s a simple editing trick. But Warren uses such a trick effectively to get the job done.
An ingenuity-filled exterior sequence in the woods outside the hotel works to turn the camera into the monster. Cinematographer John Shann makes the camera an invisible presence chasing a couple around the island. Once again, it’s a cheaply executed technique, but it does the trick. Some may accuse this scene of taking a page from Sam Raimi’s playbook. But Warren uses the technique in a decidedly different context that keeps it from feeling like a cheap imitation of Evil Dead.
Rather than expending valuable resources on set building, the filmmakers made use of preexisting structures and locales. The production repurposes Friars Point House on Barry Island (in South Wales) as the fictional Grand Island Hotel. An existing location may not allow room for as many cameras. But Warren gets the job done in the space provided.
The action unfolds at a breakneck pace.
Warren keeps the action moving quickly so as not to let the camera dwell on crude renderings too long. That keeps the audience from getting overly critical and the punchy editing also lends a frenetic quality to the proceedings that adds to the mounting sense of tension.
The island setting is a great backdrop for the proceedings to unfold. The notion that the friends are stranded there after their boat bottoms out makes for a believable reason for the core group to stay there after things take a dark turn. The idea that they have no obvious means of escape keeps viewers from wondering why the characters don’t just leave.
Warren utilizes a mixture of needle drops and a chilling instrumental score to set the mood. Cry No More’s “Recipe for Romance” plays several times throughout. The lyrics are upbeat and quirky but as they begin to accompany more sinister happenings, the musical stylings take on a far darker connotation. The juxtaposition of that poppy sound with the violent visuals starts to feel taunting and sadistic.
Bloody New Year has its fair share of shortcomings.
As for the film’s shortcomings, the acting is a little stilted, which is what you might expect to see in a TV movie from the ‘80s. And as is often the case in films of this ilk, the acting becomes more believable as the terror mounts. It’s easier to convincingly convey unspeakable terror than to merely act natural. That’s presumably because there’s more nuance to a grounded performance than there is to playing a character who is running scared.
Another minor qualm I have is that the film attempts to explain how the time loop was created via a grainy broadcast on a black-and-white television set. The cutaways slow the pacing a little and demystify the central evil. I often prefer a mystery that doesn’t feel the need to explain itself and that’s usually, well, more mysterious. Generally speaking, the less the audience knows about the antagonistic forces at play, the more profound the effect.
All things considered, Bloody New Year is an imaginative effort that makes the most of a minuscule budget. If you enjoy a surrealistic cinematic nightmare, you may just have fun with this one. At the very least, it’s a solid alternative to New Year’s Evil.
Where can I watch Bloody New Year?
If you’re keen to scope the flick, navigate to Tubi where you can find Bloody New Year streaming for free (with ads) as of the publication of this post. If you are a champion of physical media, you will want to track down the Indicator release. The Indicator Blu-ray is region-free and contains the best available transfer of the film, restored from a 35 MM print. Previous releases were presented in 4:3 aspect ratio. Oof.
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