Bloody New Year (1987)

[drownsoda]

Coldn't find a thread for this, so figured I'd start one. I ordered me two Vinegar Syndrome titles tonight, this being the one of them. I had never heard of it before and was sold once I read the plot synopsis. Any fans? Haters? Lovers? I'm very curious. The screencaps from VS look amazing when compared to the screencaps from some apparently rough VHS masters.

[bigG71]

Has anyone's copy actually shipped yet?

[Katatonia]

Originally Posted by bigG71

Has anyone's copy actually shipped yet?

Mine shipped yesterday with my January package.

[drownsoda]

Originally Posted by bigG71

Has anyone's copy actually shipped yet?

I got a notification on Saturday that mine had "shipped," though it was just confirmation that the tracking label had been printed. It was mailed on Tuesday I believe due to the holiday.

[TwiStedByDeSign86]

Love me some Norman J Warren on blu.

[oilers73]

Originally Posted by drownsoda

Coldn't find a thread for this, so figured I'd start one. I ordered me two Vinegar Syndrome titles tonight, this being the one of them. I had never heard of it before and was sold once I read the plot synopsis. Any fans? Haters? Lovers? I'm very curious. The screencaps from VS look amazing when compared to the screencaps from some apparently rough VHS masters.

If you like extremely awful dialogue, you are going to love this!

[Nosferatu31]

My copy arrived today from VS.

[Evileye]

Bring on INSEMINOID please VS. Another fun one from Norman.

[horroru]

Originally Posted by Evileye

Bring on INSEMINOID please VS. Another fun one from Norman.

I just got "Blood on Satan's Claw" in from Amazon UK and it has the trailer for INSEMINOID on it - right as the trailer opens I was thinking holy crap, there's NO WAY this would fly in 2019!

[drownsoda]

Received my copy today from Vinegar Syndrome--got here from the east coast quickly. Gonna give it a spin tomorrow night. Can't wait.

[The Great Owl]

After rescuing an American tourist from a group of nefarious carnival workers at a seaside fair, five British teenagers take off in a small boat and end up stranded on a remote island, where they take shelter in a seemingly deserted hotel that is inexplicably adorned with Christmas and New Year's decorations in the middle of summer. The clothing and artifacts in this abandoned building are distinctly retro, and a random television is showing a newscast from New Year's Day of 1960. These unwitting guests soon see ghostly reflections in mirrors and strange faces staring at them through the windows from outside. During the gruesome hours that follow, they will be eliminated one by one at the hands of mysterious entities that appear to come out of the walls themselves.

The 1987 British horror film, Bloody New Year, was the final feature-length directorial effort from Norman J. Warren, whose previous genre outings, Satan's Slave (1976), Prey (1977), Terror (1978), and Inseminoid (1981), set new B movie standards due to their blend of otherworldly visuals and graphic violence. This time around, the filmmaker channels the gothic-meets-gory aesthetic of titles like Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead, and combines it with the slasher ethos of the Friday the 13th franchise. The end result has an “everything but the kitchen sink” effect, not unlike what one might experience while walking through an elaborate haunted house attraction during Halloween.

I think that Bloody New Year is a blast, and that it has the perfect combination of cartoonishly visceral mayhem and genuine eeriness. I have always loved horror movies that take place on islands, because the isolated settings work dark wonders all their own. The actors in this feature are not exactly Academy Award caliber thespians, but they all convey an inherent likability, mostly because we the viewers are rooting for the characters from the start as they rescue the American girl and narrowly escape the amusement park during the initial scene. The special effects are crude, but always convincing. One particular highlight involves a wooden stairway bannister that miraculously changes into the head of a deadly snake. I also get a kick out of a sequence where one unfortunate protagonist is trapped in an elevator.

New Year's Day has always been my least favorite day of the year, because, although I am an introvert who dislikes crowded bars, price-gouging cover charges, and excessive alcohol, I always feel as though I am a social failure if I stay at home during the holiday. Here is a tip of the hat to this Warren film that, if nothing else, conveys the sheer hell of spending an eternity trapped in such a celebration.

If the song, “Recipe for Romance”, by Cry No More is not going through your head for at least the next 24 hours after seeing this movie, then you are already dead.

As with the other Warren titles, Vinegar Syndrome gives us an everyday-is-a-holiday gift in the form of a technical presentation that pulls out all of the stops, although the only surviving source material is a damaged print. There is an early boat scene where the shortcomings of the source print are apparent, but I stopped thinking about the look of the film altogether once the plot picked up some speed after the arrival on the island. Our only extra is a commentary track by Warren, who has mixed feelings about this work, but his anecdotes are informative and pleasing.

[Zillamon51]

I'm always looking for new-to-me holiday horrors when the seasons roll around. I'll have to try to remember this one!

[BobSimms]

Just finally watched this movie. I have the Indicator Bloody Terror box set. It is easily the worst of the 5 films. As incoherent as TERROR—actually more so—but even sillier and with worse acting.

Was the song that the “Fifties” band was playing onstage supposed to sound like the Fifties? Because it sounded exactly like the Eighties. Given the ineptness of the rest of the movie, I’m going to assume it wasn’t an intentional incongruity.

Disappointingly awful stuff. At least SATAN’S SLAVE and PREY are both pretty great.