Into the Dark: New Year, New You (2018)

Disclaimer: Review originally posted December 30, 2021 and updated July 2025.

If you're looking for New Year's Eve holiday horror movies Into the Dark: New Year, New You (2018) anthology film follows a group of girlfriends having a New Year's get together that takes a horror turn. Directed by Sophia Takal New Year, New You follows a reunion of friends who have fallen out of touch with their fourth group member, Danielle Williams, played by Carly Chaikin (Darlene in Mr. Robot and Dalia in Suburgatory). Danielle is now a famous social media influencer, the film releasing in the height of the influencer craze takeoff. Danielle is on one of those meteoric rises that can happen on social media and her 3 friends, Alexis, Kaela (portrayed by Kirby Howell-Baptiste), and Chloe (portrayed by Melissa Bergland) are not pleased about her brand or success. Alexis, played by Suki Waterhouse, is the main protagonist but who to root for is a bit twisted. Danielle is portrayed as the antagonist despite the actual action that takes place at this get together. To watch New Year, New You on Hulu now click here.

New Year, New You (2018) spoilers past this point

Early on it is alluded to that something went down between Danielle and the rest of the group that caused them to stop communicating. It's revealed that they haven’t been in contact since whatever this event was combined with Danielle feeling above them in social status now. Danielle is the stereotypical social media influencer of the time, someone with very disingenuous intentions and who promotes the idea of living the “best life” no matter what that life actually looks like. Her fanbase is referred to as a horde of mindless zombies at least twice which goes to the point that she's portrayed as cultivating a fake persona. 2 of the women, Kaela and Chloe, however seem somewhat caught up in the status that Danielle inserts into most interactions in contrast to Alexis who seems aggitated with Daneille. Chloe in particular cozies up to Danielle and it becomes clear that she is seen as the failure to launch and feels the most down about her life.

Kaela on the other hand is the most balanced character, fence sitting and willing to be persuaded to anyone's side which leaves her true intentions vague to the viewer. Her backstory of being a closest-ed lesbian in high school makes sense for how the character behaves and she is flourishing in life now that she's started dating a great woman and pursuing a fulfilling career. She seems to have a good relationship with each of the other group members individually and plays devil's advocate multiple times, trying to reason with her unhinged friend group. Since Alexis the driving force behind their planned attack on Danielle she is the most unhinged and has the worst intentions for the night. The setting is her parent's home and she has a scar on her jaw that alludes to an accident that's caused her to be vengeful now. It's mentioned that she had a breakdown and left college due to whatever happened back in high school between the group of women.

Danielle is very obviously putting on a false nice front but her intentions for this aren't revealed up front and her behavior is a bit out of place, more evidence of the wedge between the group members and her. She shows up and immediately wants to jump right back into their friend group, wanting to share vulnerabilities despite having ghosted them after high school. She constantly brings up influencer related topics and attempts humble brags about her lifestyle that ring obviously hollow. During the scene where we learn more about each character’s background she opts to share nothing about herself but rather push the other characters to bare their souls to her. She’s manipulative and crafty but again, the true reason isn't clear. So it’s not all too surprising that when she is confronted by the other three’s true motives of the night she quickly turns from victim to villain and uses her ability to get inside their heads to attempt to get herself free.

See, the three women have lured Danielle here to force her to confess that she bullied a high school classmate of theirs which resulted in that person committing suicide. In spite of Danielle planning to go more mainstream in the upcoming new year they feel it is only right that the public know the truth about her and essentially get her canceled to stop that rise. Once they have her tied up though Danielle flips the script and reframes the incident when they try to record her confessing, making them out to be the bad guys rather than actually confessing to anything. This works and buys Danielle time so that while Kaela is on FaceTime with her girlfriend and Alexis goes to talk to Kaela, Danielle uses their absense to convince Chloe, the weakest link. As the most weak willed of the group, Danielle convinces her that she can help her live her best life and become social media famous if she lets Danielle go. Chloe of course falls for this and they are now on the same side, the “kill the other 2” side rather than the "extort a confession" side.

This leads to Danielle and Chloe locking Kaela and Alexis into the sauna in the mansion and turning the heat up. They plan to kill them in the sauna to make it look like a plausible accident and then call the police and claim they just discovered the bodies. This is a brutal way to kill someone, especially someone just called a bestie but their plan doesn't reach fruition. Instead Alexis and Kaela bust out of the sauna and go find their devices following storing them away for the no tech rule at the start of the night. The foil to the original plan allows more plot to unfold and them being trapped evens out the moral playing field between the group members. Sure, they decided to extort Danielle but Danielle would rather kill her friends than confess to a seperate crime, so everyone sucks here.

Unfortuneately Chloe kills Kaela because Chloe believes she’s coming in between her and her new and better life but that by eliminating her Chloe can have everything she wants. She has a me or them approach and mentality that aligns well with Danielle and her plan. Chloe and Danielle then hunt Alexis around the house like a high stakes game of hide and seek, winner lives. Since she hasn't heard from her Kaela’s girlfriend, Frankie (portrayed by Michelle Haro), shows up concerned which allows Chloe to stab her. It is revealed that her and Danielle have a plan to pin all of the murders on Frankie and frame it as a jealous lesbian gone mad with murderous rage. Luckily, Chloe gets smacked in the head by Alexis and falls down the stairs to her death before this which leads to Danielle and Alexis facing off on the 2nd floor.

After a back and forth battle Alexis pushes Danielle through an upstairs window after Danielle almost kills her. It is in a poetic justice sort of way since the high school situation that kicked everything off resulted in Alexis falling out of the same, now repaired, window. Alexis isn't a hero however and instead steals Danielle and Chloe's plan to pin the murders on Frankie and then absorbing Danielle's social media career. The film ends with Alexis doing a self defense demonstration, something Danielle had said she would do after getting out of the near death experience at the house to capitalize off of the tragedies. Ultimately a gay person goes down for a Home Alone Battle Royale winner-takes-all battle and a detailed version of the high school events that led to the attack aren't revealed.

That Alexis didn’t feel any responsibility is interesting in light of the responsibility that she placed on Danielle when she was in the opposite role. All of the characters do this switch during the film and manipulate reality to fit their narrative best which feels like a nod to influencer culture or could be an accidental deep angle I'm drawing. All 4 women are present and involved in every event but they are jealous of and secretly covet what that one woman has. It is apparent that no character in this movie is totally in the right or righteous, even those that might be close to being in the right do things to facilitate or commit crimes they find heinous. Alexis is clearly mentally unstable but it's unclear if it is because of the high school incident and subsequent breakdown or if she'd always been destined to lose it at some point. Chloe’s character on the other hand is fairly transparent and clear, just maintaining desperation throughout to be perceived in a positive light. With Danielle she wore a mask and eventually was forced to show her true colors when faced with a trying circumstance.

New Year, New You serves as a time capsule of the social media influencer trope that reached a peak around the end of the 2010's decade. Much of what we accept as common knowledge now was simply theory or speculation before, like the idea that influencers were all vapid and self-serving. Now, this seems like a no brainer but the horror twist on it in New Year, New You feels new even many years after this fad has come and gone. Like many other Into the Dark movies it's a rather quick feeling watch but there are some lulls in action that are used to build suspense but don't feel necessary or that they add that much. A lot of the tension building felt like filler because of this and the plot is obvious from the very beginning, more so providing red herrings to make you question your gut feeling rather than it being a misdirect all along. By no means a terrible film and one that's a decent quick watch if you're searching for New Year's horror which is a very small pool of options.