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About the movie "New Year's Evil"
NEW YEAR'S EVIL ( Director: Emmett Alston, 1981)
Pinky Tuscadero goes slasher! Happy Days' Roz Kelly stars in this unpleasant psycho film as a divorced D.J. hosting a punk-rock New Year's show. A crazed maniac calls her on the phone, vowing to claim another victim at midnight in each American time-zone, with Kelly scheduled for 12 am Pacific. Kip Niven co-stars with Chris Wallace, Grant Cramer, Teri Copley, Jed Mills, and Taffee O'Connell.
'New Year's Evil' was released in 1981 and featured 'Shadow' performing as a punk band at a
New Year's show. Their music can be heard throughout most of the movie. Here is a list of songs performed by Shadow in the movie:
New Years Evil ( Title Track )
Simon Bar Sinister
Cold Hearted Lover
Night Driver
Temper Tantrum
Headwind
When I Wake Up
The only surviving original recordings from the movie are the title track, "New Years Evil", and "Simon Bar Sinister. But, included here are some live and studio recordings of the songs that were performed in the movie.
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New Year's Evil.mp3
Shadow - New Years Evil
00:00 / 02:35
This song was performed by Shadow as the title track for the movie, "New Years Evil". The song was written by Eddie del Barrio and Roxanne Seeman. This recording was digitized from the 45 rpm record that was sent to radio stations throughout the U.S.
Recorded at Salty Dog Studios in Los Angeles, California.
Simon Bar Sinister.mp3
Shadow - Simon Bar Sinister
00:00 / 02:53
Simon Bar Sinister was on the B-side of the "New Years Evil" 45 rpm record .
It was also recorded at Salty Dog Studios in Los Angeles, California.
Cold Hearted Lover.mp3
Shadow - Cold Hearted Lover
00:00 / 02:43
One of Shadow's first songs. Recorded at the recording studio at Eastern Washington State College in Cheney, Washington sometime late '74 or early '75.
Night Driver.mp3
Shadow - Night Driver
00:00 / 02:48
Originally recorded on a 4 track tape recorder at Mom's Saloon in San Diego, CA. during a daytime rehearsal. Ray Leonard and Cliff White took the original 4 track tape into the studio and added guitars and better vocal parts.
VHS Front and Back Covers
If you've never seen the movie, here is a video of the Theatrical Trailer.
A Few Web Reviews
Review by: Mrs. Norman Maine / July 28th, 2001
Roz Kelly is Diane Sullivan, a Casey Kasem type disc jockey known as Blaze. She's hosting a big new year's eve party televised coast to coast (a la Dick Clark). This gala affair is being held at the Hollywood Boulevard Holiday Inn and the only bands they could get are some pretty terrible LA garage bands called 'Shadow' and 'Made In Japan', neither of which is New Wave. 'Shadow' is a 'Queen' wannabe complete with a Freddy Mercury sound alike and too much eye shadow (perhaps this is whence they derived their name). 'Made in Japan' is just bad and sounds like the kid next door and his high school pals trying to entertain at the local block party. A psycho killer calls in on Blaze's request line and threatens to do someone in at midnight in each of the four time zones, ending up with Blaze herself. Could the psycho be her drug addled husband ( Kip Niven), her ignored son (Grant Cramer), just a random loony off the street bent on terrorizing radio DJs who wear dresses that look like orange saran wrap and way too much rouge? Those with more than a kindergarten education will figure it out within about ten minutes.
Review by : Susi Dee / December 14th, 2000
The music, which continually drones on throughout the production, is definitely not punk rock. It is a mix of heavy-metal and grunge and it is blaring, irritating and miserable - it grated on the nerves.
Review by : Unknown
You'll be scrambling for the fast forward button when you see the punk band on the show perform dreadful songs which only seem designed to pad the movie out.
Review by : Mike Spraque / Decenber 31st, 2017
New Year’s Evil is more Lifetime Movie of the Week than solid 80’s slasher. But add in some punk rock, a badass “slasher vs the biker gang” subplot, and a creepy/cool mask and New Year’s Evil is a movie every horror fan should watch. Once.
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