NEW YEAR’S EVIL

(director/writer: Emmett Alston; screenwriters: Leonard Neubauer/from a story by Leonard Neubauer & Emmett Alston; cinematographer: Edward Thomas; editor: Dick Brummer; music: Laurin Rinder; cast: Roz Kelly (Diane Sullivan), Kip Niven (Richard Sullivan), Grant Cramer (Derek Sullivan), Chris Wallace (Lt. Clayton), Louisa Moritz (Sally), Alicia Dhanifu (Yvonne), Jed Mills (Ernie), Taaffe O’Connell (Jane), Teri Copley (Teenage Girl), Anita Crane (Lisa), Jon Greene (Sergeant Greene); Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Menahem Golan; MGM; 1980)

“Offers gore and no more.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Though technically sound, it’s a dreck slasher film modeled after Halloween. Director Emmett Alston (“Force of the Ninja”/”Tigershark”/ “3 Little Ninjas and the Lost Treasure“) offers gore and no more. It’s basedon a story by Leonard Neubauer & Emmett Alston. It was made by Israeli-born, US-based producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, known for making crap and living up to their rep with this piece of crap.

While celebrating New Year’s Eve from coast-to-coast on her punk rock LA-based TV show, self-absorbed disc jockey Diane Sullivan (Roz Kelly) receives calls at midnight in the four time zones across the country from a a psychopath who identifies himself as Evil to inform her of the latest murder victim. He further shakes Diane up by playing the recorded screams of each victim and saying he will lastly kill someone close to her. Lt. Clayton (Chris Wallace)investigates the killing spree.

Warning: spoiler to follow in next paragraph.

The killer turns out to be Diane’s husband Richard (Kip Niven), who believes his wife has become so absorbed in her own celebrity that she is ignoring their son Derek’s (Grant Cramer) modest achievements and wishes to kill her before she destroys their son. To further ruin the pic, there’s an implausible twist ending that has the father dead and the son now putting on the killing mask.

REVIEWED ON 6/6/2012 GRADE: C-