A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

British teens escape a near altercation with three thugs at a fun park, take a little ride on the sea, and wind up on some island when a rock puts a hole in their boat. This island has a Grand Island Hotel, seemingly a ghost resort decorated for New Years 1960. At first we the viewer are witnesses to the strange shenanigans that go unseen by our cast..a magazine, after being read, closes on it's own, or pool balls, once scattered across a billiards table returning to their proper positions. Then, a maid pops up literally out of thin air to do a little clean up before leaving the film. A movie character(..a sheik) literally leaps from a projected movie to maul one of the gang. A fishing net wraps around one victim attacking her! A table cloth turns into a monster to strangle a victim(..I swear to God, I'm not making this up!). Our cast often see the reflections of ghosts when looking into mirrors. A dead downed pilot, often hinted at rustling in the bushes, is about to speak to one of our female characters when his head explodes into a cloud of dust after being hit from behind by another fearing for her life. Plates are scattered in a kitchen on their own with our cast members trying to duck. One of the cast is turned into a zombie with a silver face, while another speaks with a demonic voice while chasing a victim who screeches in horror as she runs for her life. An elevator wall "grabs" a victim. Bushes move with the sounds of invisible people as foot prints become visible on sand chasing two of the cast. Film from a movie projector trips a victim. When one of the characters, whose turned into a zombie, is shot in the stomach with a rifle her stomach explodes. The animal wood carving of a staircase bites into a victim, with a seemingly impenetrable grip as she tries to break free. Those murdered, by whatever this crazy force on the island is, turn into zombies so you have two survivors not only fighting against the supernatural, but the walking dead popping up to terrorize them. The three thugs follow on boat to finish what was started at the fun park, with each dying in one gruesome way or another. One gets boiled in a pot, one gets his head twisted completely around not once but twice, and another is thrown through a wall.I've read that it was writer Frazer Pearce and director Norman J Warren's intent for this to be a "time warp terror tale", but to me it was just one surreal set-piece after another. The last two remaining survivors find out through one ghoul, "taken by the island", that a plane containing a device which could reshape time and matter, crash-landed resulting in the madness taking place. Anyone who enters this "time warp" are slaves to it's power. I felt myself that this explanation was merely an excuse for Warren and Pearce to embellish their wild desires for mindless carnage placing the characters in a series of oddball scenarios leaving the viewer's mouth open in shock, bewilderment, giggles & kicks. All I can say is expect the unexpected, and I dare you to try and make sense of it all.

If my personal resolution for 2008 would to avoid watching worthless, crummy and totally retarded horror movies, I already would have sinned with "Bloody New Year". This is quite an incoherent and severely unsatisfying hodgepodge of potentially interesting story ideas, truly poor scripting work, horrible acting performances and a painful shortage of gore. I expected a holiday-themed slasher storyline (in the likes of "Happy Birthday to Me" or "Silent Night, Deadly Night"), but instead this film is a bizarre type of ghost story/demonic possession tale. Six hugely irritating teenagers intend to spend their summer vacation quarreling with carnival carnies and taking boat trips too far off the safe English coasts. Their boat hits a rock and the sextet washes ashore an island where everything is decorated to celebrate New Year's Eve of 1959. From this point on, a whole series of ridiculous and laughable UN-horrific events takes place, including the ghostly appearances of housemaids, murderous fishing nets coming to life, distant buzzing and laughter can be heard all over the island and the teenagers gradually turn into a bloodthirsty demons with rotting faces. There's no waterproof explanation for the events, but the script repeatedly hints that the crashing of government plane, carrying a top-secret experiment, on the 31st of December 1959 caused the island to be stuck in a time warp. Still that doesn't explain how pool tables come to life or why soup kettles develop murderous tendencies, but who cares? The island setting is atmospheric and the time warp concept is admirable (particularly with the New Year's celebration), but the overall execution is very weak. None of the characters are sympathetic, so you really don't care whether they all live or die, and there's zero tension throughout the entire film. "Bloody New Year" is overlong even with a running time of barely 90 minutes and the total absence of graphic gore & nudity are unforgivable. Damned, this is an 80's movie starring 6 dimwitted teenagers AND it's directed by UK's shlockmeister Norman J. Warren! The least I expected from the creator of such rancid nonsense as "Prey", "Inseminoid" and "Satan's Slave" was a bit more mindless violence and/or sleaze. One to avoid.

Reasons this is the best movie ever made... 1.It was made in the 80's 2.The film feels so lonely 3.The last surviving guy and chick both die and they are not the average teens in love couple. 4.The Music rules (Recipe for Romance has been stuck in my head for the last five years. 5.It's not mainstream 6.The zombies look so crappy that you have to laugh. 7.It's my favorite movie 8.The gang that hunts the kids down is a very good plot choice 9.It's Australian 10.No American could ever make a film this good These are the reason this movie rules. If you can think of any others just post me a message. I love this film and want to start a club for it our something Rock on

Five shipwrecked teenagers, find shelter in an isolated hotel that is stuck in a time warp and plagued by zombies. Not awful, but not good. Film features decent enough effects and has some good creative moments and is scary and exciting at times. Premise is kind of weird though. 6 out of 10.