New Year New You Movie (Hulu Original) Best of Season 1’s Into the Dark

Blumhouse Television Hulu series brings a horror story to celebrate your New Year’s Eve with. New Year, New You is an episode of the horror movie anthology, Into the Dark. Some friends reminisce and get together for a girl’s night. Not just any girl’s night though, a reunion of sorts. Did you ever have that one friend who made it big and left everyone behind? Was she nice in the first place?

New Year, New You Internet Guru

Basically, in “New Year, New You” a group of old school friends gets together for a little party on New Year’s. They invite the most successful of them all to come along and in early scenes debate whether the internet star Alexis, guru, and role model to thousands of teens will come along to the reunion.

When she finally arrives, the atmosphere becomes increasingly intriguing, yet somewhat predictable. It may be that I have indulged in a surplus of films, or perhaps the initial setup predisposed me to anticipate certain plot developments. Nevertheless, even though this particular storyline may have been explored countless times before, it managed to captivate me to a large extent.

One of the aspects that held my interest was the concept of nice girls seeking justice and exacting retribution. It was satisfying to witness them reclaim their power and retaliate against those who had wronged them. Additionally, the inclusion of a well-crafted backstory added an extra layer of depth to the narrative, making it more compelling.

However, there was an aspect that didn’t quite sit well with me. It pertained to how the various elements of the story fit together. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of apprehension when it came to characters like Alexis who placed themselves in precarious situations. It’s always a bit disconcerting when characters make seemingly illogical decisions, which detracts from the overall credibility of the story.

New Year New You Cast

The director and writer for the Hulu Original series episode “New Year New You” is Sophia Takal and the co-writer is Adam Gaines. I’m not much of a Star Trek fan and that’s what Gaines is known for most. As far as Takal goes, she did a bit on V/H/S and Black Christmas. With that said, New Year, New You was something I was looking forward to watching. The cast for the episode was appealing, especially with Suki Waterhouse (Assassination Nation, 2018)  and Charly Chaikin (Mr. Robot.)

For the back story to be believable I would have preferred the girls have tricked or paid her to come to their little soiree. Despite party decorations, wine, and the facade of a good time, the scenes are dark and ominous. The tone is suspicious and once Alexis and her antics come to light, it’s simply weird that she came into the group reunion with open arms.

Nevertheless, Suki Waterhouse as Alexis was great, and the other girls in the New Year New You cast were equally as impressive. Single locations are always a good time for me if done well and you really can tell a master was at work in the editing. When I looked through the production for names that stand out, I wasn’t surprised to see Tad Dennis in there. The guy did three years of Fear the Walking Dead and that series had fantastic production.

Overall, the film managed to balance intrigue and predictability, empowering its characters with a sense of agency while delivering a relatively tidy narrative. Yet, the issue of character decision-making left me somewhat conflicted. Nonetheless, it’s important to acknowledge the effective execution of the film’s main themes.

New Year New You 2019 falls under the horror genre and functions as part of an anthology, providing a small but enjoyable societal anecdote. It’s refreshing to see a show that brings this kind of concept into a modern setting, and each episode has successfully done that for me. New Year, New You receives a resounding thumbs up from me.

I give New Year New You

3.5 out of 5

New Year, New You Trailer

Hulu Original series, Into the Dark