New Year's Evil (1980) on Netflix
Disc jockey Diane Sullivan, known as Blaze to her fans, hosts a New Year's Eve countdown. A caller named Evil promises a killing at midnight in each time zone, with Diane last.
- Netflix1.6/5
- IMDb5.0/104,600 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes14%
Trailer
Plot summary
Diane Sullivan, a punk and new wave disc jockey her fans call Blaze, hosts a late-night New Year's Eve countdown celebration from a Hollywood hotel, carried on television and local radio. A stranger telephones the studio, gives his name as Evil, and says he will kill a woman as midnight arrives in each United States time zone, with Diane, in the Pacific zone, saved for last. Her son Derek comes to the studio and his mother pays him little attention. The crew adds security around the broadcast.
Cast
- Anita Craneas Lisa
- Jennie Franksas Nurse Robbie(Jennie Anderson)
- Alicia Dhanifuas Yvonne
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about New Year's Evil (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Cannon Group obtained a waiver to make New Year's Evil during the 1980 actors strike. Kip Niven, cast as the killer Richard Sullivan, called it his first leading part and his first sustained villain role, remarking: "I could work while many others couldn't."
- Shadow, a long-haired touring band from Kennewick, Washington, heard about a casting call for a new wave punk band to play live in a film, cut their hair, auditioned, and won the featured-band role out of fifty bands.
- The title song "New Year's Evil" was written by Roxanne Seeman and Eddie del Barrio after music supervisor Rex Devereaux sent a spec call for an original theme to be played live by the film's punk band; del Barrio wrote the chords and melody on a synthesizer, then gave Seeman a rough mixdown to write lyrics to.
- Cinematographer Thomas E. Ackerman shot the film using one of the last Cinemobile production vans, which kept all camera, lighting and grip gear on one vehicle with an on-board generator; he called a single Brute arc his only "big gun" for night exteriors.
- Shadow's "New Year's Evil" and Made in Japan's "The Cooler" were pressed as 7-inch promotional singles and sent to 500 US radio stations. A full soundtrack record announced in the film's closing credits and poster never came out; MGM finally put the title song on streaming platforms in March 2020.
