#Manifesting
After spending December revisiting Joel Schumacher’s 2004 version of The Phantom of the Opera (listen), Bette Davis’ Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (listen) and Damien Leone’s Terrifier 3 (listen), Trace and I rang in 2025 with a look back at Sophia Takal‘s Into The Dark entry, New Year, New You (2018), co-written with Adam Gaines.
In the Hulu film, Alexis (Suki Waterhouse) joins friends Kayla (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Chloe (Melissa Bergland) and social media influencer Danielle (Carly Chaikin) to ring in the new year.
But Alexis has ulterior motives for attending this year’s festivities. She blames Danielle for her facial disfigurement, resents her for her fame, and has a devious plan to exact revenge. The party quickly turns into a hostage situation with Kayla and Chloe forced to pick sides as the other two work out their issues in an escalating series of verbal and physical spats.
Will Alexis get her revenge? Will Danielle acknowledge her faults? And who will survive to celebrate the new year?
P.S. Did you miss our other New Year’s episode on Into The Dark: Midnight Kiss? Listen to it here.
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Episode 315: Into The Dark: New Year, New You (2018)
We’re #manifesting a happy New Year’s with our best influencer friend courtesy of Sophia Takal and Adam Gaines’ “New Year, New You” (2018).
The all-female entry of Into The Dark is about toxic (female) friendships and anticipates a ton of 2022 “Influencer” horror titles, particularly Sissy.
Plus: praise for Carly Chaikin, questions about Suki Waterhouse’s career, debates about social media advertising and complaints of “wokeness”, and sly commentary (maybe?) by Takal and Gaines about the importance of Black, queer and fat people in white women’s stories.
Cross out Into The Dark: New Year, New You!
Coming up on Wednesday: We’re tackling the *other* half of Grindhouse‘s double bill with a look at Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof (2007). Did you miss our coverage of Rodriguez’s half? Check out our episode on Planet Terror from last year (listen).
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