Into the Dark: New Year, New You (2018)

Streaming Service: Hulu

Movie Name/Year: Into the Dark: New Year, New You (2018)

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Length: 90 minutes

Rating: TV-MA

Production/Distribution: Hulu, Horrify, Space, Action Background / Tower Casting, SNK Studios, Stutz Law, The Dub Stage

Director: Sophia Takal

Writer: Sophia Takal, Adam Gaines

Actors: Suki Waterhouse, Carly Chaikin, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Melissa Bergland, Isabella Acres, Michelle Haro, Bianca Lopez, Mia Ella Clyburn

Blurb from IMDb: A group of old friends gather for a girl's night on New Years Eve. But as they begin to rehash old memories, many of the gripes they've been harboring manifest in murderous ways.

Selina’s Point of View:

The cold opening of New Year, New You instantly reminded me of Black Mirror. It set me up to expect something immersive and thrilling. Unfortunately, that’s not really what I got.

In actuality, the movie felt more like the Simulacra games. Anyone who’s played them can tell you that the concept is amazing… the acting/script, however, not so much.

New Year, New You, like Simulacra, has a slow build up. Now, in a video game, that’s fine. When you’re playing a game and it takes a while to get to the core of the plot, you can rely on the game-play to keep you interested. In Simulacra, that involves getting interested in the characters by snooping through their e-mails and pictures. It takes advantage of the natural voyeurism of people. It works.

A movie needs to take a different path. The audience is just a fly on a wall for a film, there’s no interaction. That puts the burden on the creators to keep us interested.

Unfortunately, that’s not something they’re really able to do in this flick.

Only one of the characters is even remotely likable, and she’s a supporting character. Caring about the others is actually kind of a chore. They’re obnoxious. That would be fine if we got into the thrills right away, but the plot doesn’t even make itself known until close to an hour in. The film is only an hour and 20-minutes. That’s insane. Until then it barely even kept me interested, forget intrigued.

Once the action started; it was fine. The ending was phenomenal – I wouldn’t have believed any other ending. But that’s not really enough for me to call it a good movie.

Not a great step into Hulu films for me.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 73%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 67%

Metascore – 53/100

Metacritic User Score – 5/10

IMDB Score – 5.7/10

CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5

  

Movie Trailer: