Review of New Year's Evil

New Year's Evil - 1980 ( This Film Rates a C+ ) On New Year's Eve, some creepy guy who calls himself "Evil" and disguises his voice and calls a live New Year's broadcast at The Hollywood Hotel telling the over glammed looking host (Blaze) that he is going to comit murder at midnight. He will kill one for each time zone as it struck midnight. Of course, she is freaked out by this call and her manager minimizes its severity. Meanwhile, at the Crawford Sanitarium a young nurse and "new hire" start drinking champagne and making out. The "new hire" repeatedly stabs the nurse at midnight and has recorded the incident. He then calls Blaze back and plays the recorded incident for all to hear promising more kills. As a side story, Blaze blows off her teenage son multiple times during the beginning of the film and the son seems to be having a breakdown in the hotel room. He believes he has a mental illness. It could have been played out a little more to enhance this story line. Meanwhile, the killer continues to seek out, mutilate and kill vulnerable females. Ultimately, He is able to get into the New Year's Show even though no one is allowed in or out by a police order. His ultimate goal is to kill Blaze at midnight. The identity of the killer is pretty obvious right from the beginning so there is no real surprise when the killer's identity is revealed. The kills are pretty boring, lack true horror intensity and are without much gore. The climax is a little long, does have some mediocre build but is rather clumsy. Classic 1980's punk/glam rock soundtrack. How can you not love the song called "Dumb Blondes". The interludes of the crowd dancing at the live show are some of the worst dancing I have ever seen. The acting is ok, nothing that detracts from the film itself. Was the feral cat really in the garbage dump as the killer was mutilating a woman at 44:30? The cops are pretty dumb throughout the film and show no excitement or urgency even after finding two dead bodies. The mention of Eric Estrada made me laugh a little and having Blood Feast (Not HGL) and Blood Bath trailers playing at the drive-in theatre was pretty epic. There are brief amounts of T but no A. Overall this is a decent film but is more of a thriller than horror. It certainly has its fair share of charm when viewed on New Year's Eve.