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New Year’s Eve can be a scary time. The sheer volume of crowds, the expectation to stay up past midnight — and on some occasions, serial killers and various hauntings. Horror movies with recurring themes make them oft-revisited staples of the season, and ringing in the New Year with a horror film can be quite the tradition. Some may use a new decade, century, or even millennium to draw focus to the many fears that the unknown can bring.
A fresh start can be something positive and exciting, so juxtaposing that feeling of excitement with gore and terror is a great setting for a horror film. The white snow that often accompanies these festivities tends to be the perfect canvas for blood as well. Not to mention parties are a great place for bad things to happen, as it’s easier to hide in a crowd.
10
New Year’s Evil (1980)
Directed By Emmett Alston
The slasher New Year’s Evil sees Diane (Roz Kelly) terrorized by a masked killer known as “Evil.” As he warns her that he’s planning to kill a “naughty girl” when the clock strikes midnight in every American time zone, the tension builds as the clock draws closer to the dreaded time. Set to the tune of punk rock at a countdown party, it’s a race against time to try and save one’s own life from the killer.
When the audience learns the twist that the slasher is actually Diane’s husband (Kip Niven), the fear factor is even greater. His misogynistic nature is revealed, and it makes him even more terrifying as the danger hits close to home. The next twist of their son then taking over the mantle is even more scary, as the main character’s fate is up in the air at the end. The movie uses the themed setting very well, with the party atmosphere creating a great backdrop for the incoming terror.
9
Ghostkeeper (1981)
Directed By Jim Makichuk
A group of friends go on a snowmobile New Year excursion in the mountains and find themselves fighting for their lives against a sinister force. Jenny (Riva Spier), Marty (Murray Ord), and Chrissy (Sheri McFadden) have to shelter at an abandoned inn, run by a mysterious older woman, clearly hiding a secret. As the group of friends realize they’re being targeted by an old North American Windigo legend, they’re taken one by one.
The New Year’s setting isn’t quite as important to the storyline itself as the legend is, but it certainly creates a wintery ambiance. The Rocky Mountain backdrop is beautiful compared to the horror being experienced by the group. The tension and fear build gradually throughout the movie, as the mystery is slowly unraveled, resulting in an intriguing cult classic despite Ghostkeeper‘s shocking Rotten Tomatoes score of 19%.
8
Antisocial (2013)
Directed By Cody Calahan
In Antisocial, a group of five friends gathers to celebrate the New Year, a deadly virus affects everyone else on the outside. The film with Sam (Michelle Mylett) trying to get over a breakup by attending a fun New Year’s celebration, but what happens is far from joyful. The movie puts technology at its center, as it turns out that this pandemic of violence was started by social media. It’s a very strong allegory to young people’s addiction to their phones and apps and shows the exaggerated effects of its negative influence.
As the core group barricades itself in the house, hoping to avoid the carnage outside, little do they know that the danger is very much already creeping in. The gore is plentiful, and the film does not shy away from graphic violence and jump scares. It mixes a hefty dose of satire and social commentary with post-apocalyptic horror tropes.
7
Strange Days (1995)
Directed By Kathryn Bigelow
Set during the Millennium New Year of 1999, Strange Days is a sci-fi thriller that has quite a few horror elements up its sleeve. While the setting may be only four years after the movie was filmed, the futuristic elements are amped up quite substantially, with a lot of dangers coming from the cyber world, and a dystopian feeling abounding throughout. The cast is also impressive, with Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and Juliette Lewis among the main players.
James Cameron co-wrote the screenplay, which focuses on themes of race, power, and voyeurism. While the film isn’t set over one New Year’s night, it employs the feeling of dread that was brought about by the fear of the millennium that was abundant in the 1990s. That level of uncertainty prevailed in the latter part of the decade, and this clever horror-thriller managed to bottle up that feeling and pop the cork at midnight.
6
The Signal (2007)
Directed By David Bruckner, Dan Bush, & Jacob Gentry
Consisting of three parts, The Signal uses a non-linear form to tell its story, with a mysterious thread connecting them all. Each director took on their own part, which focuses on a sinister transmission that encourages people to act in horrific ways. As the signal affects many different devices, people are taken over by violence, and the clever construction of the film allows viewers to experience certain events from different perspectives.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is a mix of gruesome gore with a dark comedic twinge. The New Year’s Eve setting changes from a fun and happy occasion to a scary one, creating a visceral atmosphere of fear and dread. There’s a commentary on a changing society that is very interesting when presented in such a weird and creative way. The Signal is certainly a cult classic in the making.
5
The Children (2008)
Directed by Tom Shankland
In The Children, a family travels to the mountains to spend New Year’s Eve in this idyllic setting, and a mysterious illness affects the youngest members of the party. With the symptoms slowly setting in, and behaviors getting more and more disturbing, it’s the children who terrorize the grown-ups. There is gore, an unsettling feeling that usually tends to accompany films with evil children and an ambiguous ending that leaves audiences feeling unsure and unsafe.
The Children has many moments that will have viewers shouting at the screen at some of the ineptitude of the characters — something arguably a part of all good horror movies — but it’s this complete imperfection in their behavior that makes the horror aspects feel that much more plausible. Seeing parents failing to control their children to such a degree sends shivers down the spine.
4
Minutes Past Midnight (2016)
Directed By Robert Boocheck, Lee Cronin, & Francisco Sonic Kim
Another horror anthology, Minutes Past Midnight features nine stories, each equally terrifying and gory. With the world being infiltrated by monsters, ghouls, cannibals, and killers, fear and violence abound. With the right balance between cheese and seriousness, there are moments of utter brilliance in some of the vignettes. One of the nine stories focuses on New Year’s Eve, and it’s possible to watch each part separately, or even pick which ones to watch at different times, which is a very unique type of convenience.
With a shoestring budget, but some talented and dedicated individuals involved, the visual effects demand a bit of suspension of disbelief. However, some of the prosthetics make for a delight in creative solutions. With puppets, animation, and classic genre horror, there’s enough substance to appeal to many different tastes in the genre and cinema.
3
End Of Days (1999)
Directed By Peter Hyams
As the new millennium approaches, Satan aims to bring about the apocalypse in modern-day New York in End of Days. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a retired detective who is the one tasked with preventing the end of the world. With themes mostly focused on religious iconography and horror, and the supporting cast including Gabriel Byrne and Robin Tunney, this is an underrated New Year’s Special.
The film is filled with action and quite a few jump scares and the story is compelling enough to draw the audience in. Tunney delivers a great performance as the woman who is to be the vessel chosen to carry the anti-Christ, while Byrne plays the many sides of his character very well too. With a lot of sinister turns and a dark premise, this horror thriller takes a different approach to the fear of the new millennium.
2
Mystery Of The Wax Museum (1933)
Directed By Michael Curtiz
Set on New Year’s Day, Mystery of the Wax Museum is a genuine classic of the horror genre that stars one of the original scream queens of the screen: Fay Wray. With a creepy mystery at the center of the story, Mystery of the Wax Museum depicts a man who became badly disfigured when he sustained multiple injuries during a fire at the wax museum he ran with his partner. After over 10 years, he aims to replenish the collection that was destroyed.
The way he goes about it, however, is chilling. Murdering people and setting their bodies in wax is how he chooses to fill the space, while also stealing corpses that resemble some of the figures. This is quite the concept for a film made nearly 100 years ago, and it still holds up all these years later. It’s fascinating to see how the genre has developed in this time, with horror thriving at the very inception of cinema as a true privilege.
1
Terror Train (1980)
Directed By Roger Spottiswoode
Terror Train, a Jamie Lee Curtis cult classic, sees a group of young people terrorized by a masked killer aboard a party train. As the New Year’s Eve party rages on, more and more of the college students get taken out along the way. The killer’s motive is revealed to be a cruel prank that traumatized its intended victim. As the fraternity brothers trick a shy young pledge into a room with a corpse from the medical department, it leads to his having a severe mental breakdown.
As he boards the train, three years later, his plan to enact revenge is put into motion. Even with clear influences from Curtis’s previous Halloween movies, the premise is quite a novel one. The killer skillfully evades getting caught, with the theme of the party being a masquerade, not everything is as it seems. This is a must-see for any self-respecting horror film fan, with a sharp New Year’s theme.
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