News
[R.I.P.] ‘New Year’s Evil’ Star Kip Niven Has Died at 73
The 1980 horror film New Year’s Evil is an annual watch in the homes of horror fans across the world, and it was actor Kip Niven who played the slasher in the holiday horror flick. Niven’s Richard Sullivan puts on a mask, picks up a switchblade and goes on a killing spree in the film, killing off a new victim each time the clock strikes midnight in different time zones.
Sadly, we’ve learned this week that Kip Niven has passed away at the age of 73, with a local radio station in the actor’s native Kansas City, Missouri citing a heart attack as the cause.
Kip Niven began his acting career in the 1960s, starting off in plays and then graduating to films and television shows. In addition to New Year’s Evil, Niven’s resume also includes Magnum Force, Airport 1975, Earthquake, “The Waltons,” “Alice,” Dead Before Dawn, Summer of Fear, A Deadly Vision, “Walker, Texas Ranger,” Raising Jeffrey Dahmer, and Goodland.
When you watch New Year’s Evil this year, pour one out for Kip Niven.
“She’s mine, and I’m hers.”
The prison movie is a cornerstone of the cinematic landscape. Often adjacent to horror, there’s something inherently horrific about a building full of “convicts” jockeying for power. Criminal masterminds and the wrongfully convicted alike become pawns in a dehumanizing system and struggle to stay alive in the restrictive environment. Claire Denis pushes this genre to its outer limits with sci-fi and horror elements comparing incarceration to the prison of the human body. Her 2018 film High Life follows a group of prisoners turned astronauts who struggle to retain their humanity after the world has cast them out.
When we first meet Monte (Robert Pattinson), he’s raising a toddler on an isolated space station in the galaxy’s outer reaches. His daughter Willow was conceived through assault by fellow inmate Dr. Dibs (Juliette Binoche) as a part of her mission to reproduce in space. As Denis unpacks the story of this troubled crew, they slowly realize they have been discarded and forgotten. Some find freedom to enact their violent agendas while others try to retain a semblance of normalcy in the extreme environment. Essentially guinea pigs, Monte and his crewmates hurtle through space and grope for a reason to keep existing.
The Lady Killers continue Killer Moms Month with Claire Denis’ beautifully complex film. Co-hosts Jenn Adams, Mae Shults, Rocco T. Thompson, and Sammie Kuykendall chart the mysteries of the cosmos in their quest to understand the glacial plot. They’ll chat about screaming babies, space gardens, black holes and spaghetti along with heavier themes like reproduction and bodily autonomy. Why is Dr. Dibbs so obsessed with pregnancy? Why doesn’t Monte partake of the sex box? Does Mia Goth actually have a big booty and what really happened on that spaceship filled with dogs? They’ll approach the black hole and try to withstand spaghettification while zeroing in on the unpleasant themes of this exceptional film.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
The Lovecraftian Behemoth in ‘Underwater’ Remains One of the Coolest Modern Monster Reveals
‘Jason Universe’ – Horror Inc. Begins a New Era of the ‘Friday the 13th’ Franchise; Here’s the Plan
7 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘The Strangers’ Reboot
First Official ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Makeup Line Open for Pre-Orders
‘The Hermit’ – First Look at Lou Ferrigno as a Cannibal Pig Farmer in New Horror Movie
You must be logged in to post a comment.