Release: 1986 Written by: Danilo Bach Directed by: Fred Walton
Starring:
Deborah Foreman as Muffy/Buffy St. John Ken Olandt as Rob Ferris Leah Pinsent as Nan Youngblood Clayton Rohner as Chaz Vyshinski Thomas F. Wilson as Arch Cummings Amy Steel as Kit Graham Deborah Goodrich as Nikki Brashares
The 80’s could be classified as the
“decade of the slasher.” Freddy came after you in
your dreams, Michael had issues with his family, Jason was a little
over protective of his territory, and there wasn’t a holiday
on the calendar that was immune from the affliction of having a maniac
killer staking claim to it. April Fools Day was one
of many, but was better than most.
April Fools Day starts
with a group of college students that have been invited to a weekend
gathering to celebrate there final year at school. The invitation comes
from a fellow classmate and heiress Muffy St. John (Deborah Foreman)
and the festivities will take place on Muffy’s
family’s summer island mansion that is only accessible by
ferry.
While on the ferry, there are a
few April Fools pranks played that are all in good fun until that fun
leads to a serious accident while docking on the
island side, and one of the ferry hands has to be rushed back to the
mainland hospital. Now everyone is serious as they
make their way up to the mansion.
The mood begins to lighten up when Muffy plays a few pranks of her own
at the dinner table, and the pranks continue when
everyone is shown to their rooms.
The fun and games end, however,
when one of their group comes up missing and Kit
Graham (Amy Steel from Friday the 13th fame)
believes that she has seen his dead body. The rest
of the group decide to split up (of course they do) to search for their
missing comrade. Upon returning to the house they discover that there
are now two guests missing. They are later
discovered to have lost there heads and now everyone is freaking out
and guests are dying off left and right.
Somehow, April Fools Day
snuck in under the radar and a lot of horror fans don’t even
know that it exists. That is sad because April Fools Day
is actually a very good addition to the genre. Writer Danilo Bach (Beverly
Hills Cop) and director Fred Walton (When a Stranger
Calls 1979) did a good job of taking the model slasher film
and adding twists, turns, red herrings, and surprise endings (yes
that’s plural) to create a mystery that is reminiscent of Agatha
Christie on steroids.
With its DVD release in 2002, April
Fools Day is more accessible than it used to be and, though
lacking any special features besides wide screen, is not that bad of a
transfer. I recommend April Fools Day to anyone
that is trying to introduce newbies to the horror genre. In fact it is
on my list of “starter films” for just such an
occasion. Questions
or comments about April Fools Day? Contact us!
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