Hulu’s ‘New Year, New You’ Is A Brutal & Harrowing Take On New Year’s Eve And Social Media [Review]

New Year’s Eve hasn’t received quite the holiday horror love that Halloween and Christmas have, but this feature-length episode of Hulu‘s “Into the Dark,” titled “New Year, New You,” reminds us that there’s something sinister lurking beneath the night’s promise of rebirth and fresh starts. Each outing of the anthology series from horror super-producer Jason Blum focuses on different holiday, including “Flesh & Blood,” Patrick Lussier‘s terrifying take on Thanksgiving and “Pooka,” Nacho Vigalondo‘s Christmas nightmare. This time Sophia Takal tackles New Year’s Eve with “New Year, New You,” revisiting some of the same themes as her underrated “Always Shine” – soured female friendships, self-esteem, and jealousy – but here it’s all viewed through the distorted lens of social media and wellness culture.

Bearing a facial scar, working as a nanny and living in her hometown, Alexis (Suki Waterhouse) isn’t where she thought she’d be at this point in her life. That dissatisfaction is amplified when she thinks of her high school friend Danielle (Carly Chaikin), who has left their humble beginnings behind to become an influencer who hawks green juice and self-love affirmations on a popular video channel. Alexis invites Danielle to join her and their old friends Kayla (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and Chloe (Melissa Bergland) for a New Year’s Eve reunion at her sprawling house before she sells it. Danielle arrives, looking like the Instagram-filtered version of the girl they remember, spouting self-care aphorisms and sharing videos with her subscribers. But this isn’t the chill girls night that it seems; soon the sheet masks and steam room are replaced by a game of Never Have I Ever that reveals far too much about the sins of their shared past.

Despite its brightly lit, seemingly cheery visuals, Takal imbues “New Year, New You” with a sense of dread from its early moments. We know something is going to go wrong with this intimate party filled with festive balloons and dairy-free snacks, but we don’t know how . . . yet. Alexis has constant, fractured flashbacks to an event that doesn’t become clear until the film’s third act, but it hangs over her and the party she’s hosting. There’s more than just the awkwardness of years spent apart here; a palpable tension between Danielle and Alexis curdles into something more dangerous. And when the blood starts to flow in “New Year, New You,” it’s genuinely brutal and effectively harrowing.

Takal entertains the audience for 90 minutes, giving us a story of the shifting dynamics of female friendship and the demands of a new year for a social media-driven society. Horror has mined a lot of themes, but this one feels fresh and will ring true, particularly for women who may have felt the pressures of the deluge of diet and exercise messages every January.

But where “New Year, New You” falters is that it’s never entirely sure whether it’s a satire of our current culture or a more sincere film. It goes arch and wickedly fun, but then pulls back. While the film effectively unsettles its viewers, it doesn’t give us a full sense of the environment we’ve been invited into. The layout and rules of Alexis’ house aren’t always clear, and since we’re stuck there with these four women, that geography is key to our understanding of the threats inside.

The horrors of “New Year, New You” are amplified, but for anyone who cringes seeing #selflove and #transformationtuesday on Instagram, they’ll feel all too real. This isn’t Takal’s best work, but it still deserves a “like” from genre fans tired of the same monsters and killers they always see. [B-]