NEW YEAR’S DAY
(Episode 106)
Directed by: Darren Bousman / Written by:
Steve Niles
Starring: Briana Evigan, Niall Matter, Cory Monteith
SYNOPSIS:
A young woman wakes up in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by horrifying
zombies. She must fight the murderous creatures at every turn, right up
until the shocking, horrifying end.
MIKE CATALANO (Rating 2.5 out of
4):
Happy New Year? Not so much. Our latest trip to the land of FEAR
ITSELF offers up another trial of
“been-there-done-that-but-maybe-I-can-do-it-better”. I apologize for that
run-on adjective, but it’s the best way I can express the feel I got from NEW
YEAR’S DAY. At least this one didn’t suck entirely.
Believe it or not, I felt that this episode’s biggest
weakness was having Darren Lynn Bousman as its director. I know he’s done a
fairly noble job carrying on the SAW legacy with parts II, III, and IV,
however within the confines of those flicks lies his major flaw with NEW
YEAR’S DAY. Whenever a crazy or violent action is triggered in his SAW
movies, for some reason, Bousman feels the need to shoot the scene at this
fast-forwarding, jerky pace that slightly distorts the action happening on
screen.
That same sort of filming technique occurred in NEW
YEAR’S DAY as well… far too often… and it was friggin’ annoying! I mean,
you have all those sickly cool zombies moving around, looking to tear people
apart, however when they do, their motions get all sped up and fidgety.
Why, Mr. Bousman? The action would have felt so much more terrifying and
real had it been allowed to flow at a normal pace. It may have worked
alright with SAW, but it sure as hell didn’t here.
Also, the “twist” at the end of this one was riddled
with plot holes. Once again, it felt as if the writers had to rush to a
conclusion in order to accommodate the one-hour running time. If the
story’s construction had been fully polished, then I could have appreciated
the big surprise/reveal. At least I can give the writers credit for
attempting to add something somewhat new to the zombie genre.
I can also give credit to whoever decided to cast the
lovely Ms. Briana Evigan as the lead. Besides being easy on the eyes, this
girl can act. She did a top-notch job the whole way through and really
carried the story. Because of her, this review is being bumped up by a full
star. Also, even though it was shown at an annoyingly quickened pace, this
episode did manage to score with the gore (no need for the Mrs. Scale
here.) Now, if only they had a Dick Clark zombie walking around.
————————–
AMMON GILBERT
(Rating 3.5 out of
4):
This episode of FEAR ITSELF, directed by SAW II, III, and IV
alum Darren Lynn Bousman, written by graphic novelists extraordinaire Steve
Niles, was just what series needed: a gritty take on the zombie genre that we
haven’t fully seen before.
Looking like a slick music video (Bousman’s signature), NEW
YEARS DAY was the result of mixing CLOVERFIELD and DAWN OF THE DEAD
together. A dynamic group of characters
in New York, a party to celebrate the new year, a mysterious event, and all the
while we’re trying to figure out what the fock is going on, just like the
characters on the screen.
The episode was nice and bloody, finally delivering on the
<i>Parental Advisory</i> notice preluding the show. I dug the twist
ending, and feel that every zombie flick should have some sort of weird zombie
love story to it… as well as a level of zombie revenge. Once the final scene
was revealed, I realized the story was along the lines of the classic TALES
FROM THE CRYPT comics, being that of a zombie / love / revenge story. In the end, NEW YEARS DAY delivered when it came to scare,
blood/gore, and interesting enough characters to show us the way. And zombie…
gotta love them zombies.
————————–
ERIC WALKUSKI (Rating 2.5 out of
4):
NEW YEAR’S DAY is a nightmarish,
familiar trudge through yet another zombie wasteland, courtesy of
Darren Lynn Bousman and Steve Niles – two of our more well-known
modern-day horror maestros who stage an acceptable apocalyptic tale that is
all dressed up with no where to go.
Okay, that’s not being
completely fair. In fact, where this episode ultimately ends up is one of the
best things about it. I admittedly did not see this episode’s twist coming,
and for that, I give NEW YEAR’S DAY props…
But before we get to the end, we have to do the usual zombie shuffle; at its
core, this isn’t anything new at all. I hate to be the guy who says “its
BLANK meets BLANK” but this seriously feels like CLOVERFIELD meets THE SIGNAL.
A final note to Darren Bousman
– ENOUGH with speeding up shots in a weak gesture to bring tension to a scene.
Speeding shots up, complete with white flashes and distorted sound, is not scary
– not in the least – and I have no idea who thought it ever was.
NEW YEAR’S DAY has a few of these annoying moments, and all they do is
bring you right back to Jigsaw-ville. Now, we don’t want to be constantly
reminded of your other works whenever you make a new one, do we Darren?
————————–
JARED
PACHECO (Rating 1.5 out of 4):
So with NEW YEAR’S DAY we get Darren Lynn Bousman’s take on
zombies… and I wasn’t digging it. To be fair, it’d be tough to get a
really positive response no matter what episode was playing this week,
considering the last episode was the impressive EATER. And the people running
the show had a good shot with the Steve Niles penned/Darren Lynn Bousman
directed NEW YEAR’S DAY. Now I loved Niles’ 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, but wasn’t
too keen on Bousman’s SAW 3 or 4, so it’s safe to say NEW YEAR’S DAY
followed along more down Bousman’s road than Niles’.
The problem … it was
nothing new. It’s a watered down, condensed version of all the other
infected/zombie flicks we’ve been seeing recently. It just had a really
heavy emphasis on the whole ‘relationship’ plot. I wasn’t digging the
shaky camera for the parts where Helen was trying to get away. Not sure if
that was supposed to make it feel intense or what… it was just annoying, as
was the constantly flashing lights. The episode didn’t keep me into it at
all, I found my mind wondering several times. The kills/zombies were mediocre,
but that’s expected with made-for-TV zombies. And the relationship plot I
mentioned… very pointless and obviously forced.
Worry not, there were some
positives to the episode. I understand there’s only so much you can do with
this topic in 40 minutes, and the episode was interesting enough. The twist at
the end I dug a lot, almost made up for the prior 40 minutes. I loved
Eddie’s character, was digging every part with him in it. And Briana Evigan
is absolutely gorgeous. To try and pass her off as a girl guys wouldn’t want
to date is insane. Mind you, her performance as actually not good at all…
but she’s damn beautiful.
So NEW YEAR’S DAY was nothing new and for the majority was pretty annoying,
but it did have a hot chick starring and a nice twisted ending.
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