The capacities of horror cinema are unlike any other genre. Complete sleaze and schlock are offered a welcomed spot within cinema, and often these B-movie's become glorified and claimed as essential classics, with the more acclaimed entries on this spectrum including the likes of 'Chopping Mall' (1986), 'Tremors' (1990), and 'Eight Legged Freaks'(2002). With the advent of B-movies holding such a bizarre but nevertheless sacred reputation across genre fans, many films have tried to replicate the abstruse, esoteric nature of the mystifying subgenre. For better or worse, films that were made to the intention of being deemed classless and obscene such as 'Gutterballs' (2008) or 'Rubber' (2010), have brought in crowds of fans and consequently a cult following.
Writer and filmmaker P.J. Starks, along with co-director Eric Huskisson present 'New Fears Eve', a slashtastic independent feature that drowns the viewer in gore and viscera throughout this holiday-themed splatter-fest. A passion project through to the bone, New Fears Eve received a dream-worthy response from its Indigogo campaign, where backers were offered rare opportunities to not only receive the expected credits and IMDB listings, but to also feature in scenes alongside famed horror stars and have their songs featured in the film. Complete with its nifty title, New Fears Eve premiered and ran the horror film festival circuit, picking up a few awards along the way, including a nomination for the highly sought after Fangoria Chainsaw Award. With all of its nitty grittiness and its grassroots background, New Fears Eve is a testament to indie horror. It is not polished nor slight in its comedic timing; from beginning to end, the film is a riot, but above all, it is an example of the sort of passion projects that keep horror cinema the fan-run genre that it is.
Grand introduction aside, the film unsurprisingly is set against the backdrop of an annual New Years Eve party hosted by Hooper Industries'. Amongst the celebrations, a masked serial killer dressed in a dark cloak and top hat, nicknamed 'The Doctor' is slicing and dicing their way through the crowds. Hellbent on leaving a trail of bloody victims in their wake, the Hooper's party becomes a goldmine for The Doctor, leading to plenty of guts, slaughter and carnage in the buildup to midnight.
New Fears Eve promptly lets us know its intentions, with the first five minutes of screentime presenting many deaths dressed up in a variety of gross-out ways: face tearing's, eye trauma, head squishing's and throat slashings hash out the bloodied precedence set for rest of the film. It is here where New Fears Eve earns its fairly positive reception. The kills are joyous for gore-fans. Indeed, the sheer over the top flamboyance of them is unrealistic, but only in its figurative form, as The Doctor delivers plenty of stomach-churning extremism that only indie cinema could get away with.
