‘New Fears Eve’ Deserves a Spot in Your Yearly Holiday Traditions: A Review

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What is New Fears Eve About?

New Fears Eve (2025) — The Doctor has an instantly memorable design.

New Fears Eve is a holiday slasher comedy with lots of kills and a great sense of humor.

The story follows three friends who all work together at a company called Hooper Industries. It’s time for the yearly New Year’s Eve office party, and even though friends Brian, Moses, and Leslie don’t really want to go, they all reluctantly attend. Meanwhile, a serial killer wearing a plague doctor mask and a Jack the Ripper outfit has been cutting (and stabbing, ripping, gouging, etc.) his way through town recently. The Doctor also chooses to attend Hooper Industries’ celebration, making it a very bloody new year.

New Fears Eve began streaming on Screambox on December 16th, 2025.

New Fears Eve was written by P.J. Starks, and it was co-directed by Starks and Eric Huskisson. Starring as the three best friends are Lily-Claire Harvey, Turner Vaughn, and Matthew Tichenor. Jesse McDonald plays The Doctor, and also appearing throughout the movie are Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Hannah Fierman (Siren), Dave Sheridan (The Devil’s Rejects), and Jeffrey Reddick (the creator of Final Destination).

New Fears Eve Review

Somehow, New Fears Eve feels nostalgic to me. Maybe it’s because I’ve been following its development for a decent amount of time. Maybe it’s because I’ve had the opportunity of speaking with writer/co-director P.J. Starks a few times over the past couple of years so I already felt familiar with the basic idea of the story. Or maybe it’s because of the movie’s retro-slasher aesthetic. The abundance of gory, practical kill sequences. The wise-cracking humor. It’s probably those last few things.

Watching New Fears Eve feels like watching a movie rented on VHS sometime during the mid-1990s. Not the big studio movies on the back wall, but the independent movies I’d pick up at random from the aisles just because the cover art looked cool. Then I’d get it home, be pleasantly surprised, and rent it many more times before eventually buying it. And I mean all this as the biggest compliment. New Fears Eve is a blast, and it feels like it’s made for (and by) fans of old-school slashers and horror comedies.

The greatest joy I got from New Fears Eve was from the many, many death scenes. The practical gore effects are plentiful, and they start immediately as the movie begins. The kills are done using clever directing and editing combined with in-camera effects. They’re the kinds of effects that make you appreciate the art and craft of low-budget filmmaking. It’s also the kind of thing that give me hope for practicality within the indie horror scene when many other movies of a comparable budget would just do most of the effects, gore and otherwise, in post-production using questionable CGI (I think I did spot a few brief moments of CGI, but they are well done and, thankfully, very minimal).

New Fears Eve does get somewhat cheesy at times, but that’s part of the charm. The murder scenes are bloody, but they’re also fun. A couple of moments might make you squirm, but mostly they’re all there to make slasher fans smile. The entire tone of the film, from the gore to the dialogue, is about having a good time.

The chemistry between the three lead characters is what drives that good time. The banter between them comes across as genuine, even when some of the supporting characters feel almost larger than life at times. Leslie, Brian, and Moses ground the story with how natural their friendship feels. While the entire movie is fun, the main trio and their relationship with each other is where the real emotional stakes in the story reside. There’s a bit of an unrequited love triangle going on between them which adds some dramatic tension, and their reactions toward each other when confronted by The Doctor help flesh out their characters.

Beyond just having a killer loose in an office New Year’s party, there is a secondary plot thread running through New Fears Eve. I won’t spoil it here, but it involves what appears to be a conspiracy of sorts which is connected to the main characters in a couple of different ways. It’s explored only to a point in this movie, so that’s why I feel like it might be something meant to set up future installments. Here, it just gives the impression that The Doctor is more than just a random maniac in a mask. The plot thread adds intrigue, though it does feel a little like a loose end when the credits begin to roll. But more on that later, hopefully.

Rating and Recommendation

Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5

New Fears Eve is recommended for any slasher fan who enjoys a good and bloody movie filled with lots of old-school, practical kills. Also, a love of horror comedies is important because even though there is a dramatic heart to the story, the movie does get quite silly. I’ll admit that a few of the jokes got a heavy eye roll from me, but that was probably the point. It also got more than a few big laughs out of me. New Fears Eve is great, and I think it could be a new New Year’s tradition for plenty of slasher fans like myself.

You can stream New Fears Eve right now on Screambox, and you can rent or buy it digitally on platforms including Amazon Prime Video.