If you’re at least a little bit like us it’s only natural for you to try and find a nice New Year themed B-Horror movie to watch on the New Year’s eve. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many of those, those in the “nice” category even less. But, sometimes you just have to make do with what you have.
We spoke to some length about our opinion on British Horror (Don’t Open ’till Christmas) still you can’t fault them for trying. This final film of the B-Movie alumni Norman J. Warren combines the 80’s style Holiday Horror with the time loop theme that’s actually quite popular today. The result is shall we say- underwhelming although there is some fun scenes throughout . Let’s dive in!
“Teenage” friends Lesley, Janet, Spud, Tom and Rick (all in their 30’s) are spending the day at a seaside Luna Park. There they end up rescuing an American tourist Carol. They should have figured out things are about to go wrong when fortune teller starts screaming at them but they had no idea what’s going to happen next. Then they run into a gang of local hooligans and running from the them they randomly take a boat out to sea, only to lose their way and end up stranded!
Just look at him go!
Things just get better from there. On a seemingly deserted island they stumble upon an old hotel, but it’s too devoid of any sign of life. Not long after apparitions start appearing around the hotel. First sign that something is not quite right is the band appearing and disappearing from the hall. But things get really serious with flying Arab Rudolph Valentino- lookalike coming out off the big screen. Stupid chick (Janet?) starts running and ends up caught up in a net .
One by one teenagers fall and some of them even come back as some kind of zombies.
Soon Carol and Rick are the only remaining and the ghosts of the 1959 party appear and explain that the hotel is stuck in a timewarp due to some scientific experiment gone wrong (somehow than includes an airplane crash?) leaving the guests trapped forever the ghostly state- running again and again in a loop.
Charming young lady!
Verdict: If you happen upon an old Hotel with New Year’s Eve decorations just run the other way (especially if it’s on an a deserted island)! Warren intended the film as a throwback to 1950s B movies with the film set on an island trapped in a time warp but the result looks almost like someone randomly tried to reproduce The Shining from memory using couple of his friends and the local ruin of a building. And the general sleaziness of the picture and the crazy effects are more reminiscent of the Italian exploitation cinema than of something out of UK.
All in all don’t repeat our mistake and watch this movie tonight- you can do so much better!
Worsemovies 