Welcome to the Grand Island Hotel, where FIEND WITHOUT A FACE plays at the theatre, a magazine proclaims Michael Landis was in I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, and the music is by Cry No More.THE horror film output of Norman J. Warren was cheaply derivative and mundanely surreal. Starting when both Hammer and Amicus were already past their death throes, Warren's take on SUSPIRIA created the surprise hit TERROR, a catalogue of genre cliches and Dario Argento-inspired sequences which basically views as a highlights package. Yet this is nothing compared to BLOODY NEW YEAR, a dire patchwork in which the filmmaker fully subscribes to Argentoesque nonsensical plotlines and riffs on a number of other hits (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and the demonic cacklings of THE EVIL DEAD in particular).
High in concept but very low in budget, an aircraft carrying a Government-funded experiment crashes on an island, causing a time displacement permanently fixed between 1959 and 1960. American Carol (Catherine Roman) is visiting England and killing time by being harassed by some hoodlums at a funfair. Rescued by five strangers, the group go sailing in a boat owned by Rick (Mark Powley), but run into trouble when tiresome lothario Spud (Colin Heywood) steers them onto rocks. The gang wade ashore and discover the Grand Island Hotel (actually Butlins Barry Island), which appears deserted and festively decorated even though it is July. With a disappearing chambermaid and only fifties-style party clothes found in the rooms, the visitors are soon entangled in more bizarre events.
June Whitfield's daughter Suzy Aitchison
becomes an imitation EVIL DEAD "Deadite."
It is not clear why a rip in time causes such relentless, unconnected mayhem. Amongst other attacks, the cast are subjected to a killer vacuum cleaner, flying kitchen utensils, a haunted snooker table, deadly fishing nets, a seaweed monster and an indoor snowstorm (Janet (Nikki Brooks) also grapples with a reptile-shaped bannister end cap). To add to their problems, Lesley (Suzy Aitchison) transforms into a pasty-faced ghoul with a New Wave hairdo. The haphazardness is made worse by the acting, and only Roman gives anything you could call a performance. But as the whole film takes place in the light of day, BLOODY NEW YEAR fails to generate any atmosphere; the bustling funfair and disparate island too abstract for an involving experience.