Bloody New Year

[Rev+]

This is a 1987 film that somehow passed me by, despite it being right in my wheelhouse.  A Barry Island blockbuster, it's both completely shit and completely effective.  The influences are obvious, but it gets something about nightmares that Freddy missed:  they're nonsensical.  Nothing connects.  It's a terrible film, but it features odd moments like the laughter sequence that are odd enough to stick in the mind.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1TPL4ZqL50

This is the second in an endless series of threads about ropey films I've found on Youtube.  I refuse to change.

[St_Eddie]

Bloody New Year. What a great film.  It really encapsulates the frustration of a New Year, doesn't it?  You wake up in the morning with a hangover,  you've got to read all the papers, the kids are running round, you've got to mow the lawn, wash the car, and you think 'bloody New Year!'.

[fatguyranting]

Found this a few years back and it instantly took me back to jugs of tea on the beach, chips with sand in them and long waits for the jungle cruise just below the vastly over rated Barry Island log flume. Watch in wonder as a dummy representing an African native creakily tries to escape an animatronic crocodile hidden just below the muddy water littered with rusting coke cans. 50p left? Fuck it, I'll spunk that on the Wacky Goldmine, even if the interior does smell like piss. Happy days.

[another Mr. Lizard]

I've bought two copies of this on Blu-ray in the past few months (Vinegar Syndrome and the upcoming Indicator box set of Norman J Warren movies). I know Norman very well, having attended film festivals with him over the years. I also knew the guy who plays the table monster - Paul Barrett, who died recently, and who used to be Shakin' Stevens manager in Shaky's early days and was also the dad of techno artist/producer High Tension. I'd guess that Paul was heavily involved in getting all of the 50s revivalists into this for the Dec 31st 1959 scene. I edited a book all about 80s British horror films five years ago and am working on an expanded version at present - the book carried two very positive pieces on Bloody New Year from different contributors. Having said all of that, I'm no great fan of the movie, but I do admire its invention and its parade of weird happenings (the 'sheik' character jumping off the cinema screen, the snapping Emu-like carving on the bannister, the aforementioned table monster, etc).

[fatguyranting]

Mr Lizard- have you had a chance to read David McGillivray's autobiography yet? Ploughed through it last night and it's brutally honest and self lacerating and covers his 70's exploitation work in detail. I'd recommend it.

[another Mr. Lizard]

Just got my copy yesterday, will get stuck in this weekend. Very much looking forward to it. I got an invite to his launch party but it would have meant a 250-mile round trip from home, one event too many in what has been a busy few weeks. David accompanied Norman to a film festival I helped to run in Derby a couple of years ago (screening his short film Trouser Bar) and was typically great fun.