APRIL FOOL'S DAY (1986)
Tagline: Childish pranks turn into a bloody battle for survival!
(Horror, Drama, Bad Dialog) [R]
Hi, my name is Mary O'Riley O'Tool O'Shea. I want to go to convent school and things like that. Welcome, welcome to my home and lifestyles of the rich and undeserving.
I actually saw this movie around the time it came out,
likely when it was released to cable TV. I had forgotten about it until
recently when I started re-visiting some of the campy 80’s horror movies from my
youth. I did remember liking it.
In this one, A group of eight college friends goes to an island mansion belonging
to a friend of theirs named Buffy (no, not the vampire slayer). The day starts
off rocky, with one of the invited getting in a horrific boating accident, but
everyone seems to get over that pretty quickly. Like it literally takes them
just a few hours and they are back to normal. As the night progresses and
dinner has ended, each person finds a clue connected to their past which starts
spooking the group out. There are also several very strange things about this
house. It is April Fools after all. As the night one by one each of the group
starts to disappear, sometimes in a gruesome fashion as the fear and terror
ratchets up.
Overall a lot of this movie is made by the incredibly eerie performance of Deborah
Foreman (who plays Buffy) who was also in WAXWORK. There is a duplicitous
nature to her range in this and it adds a layer of creepy to this thing. Amy
Steel is also pretty epic in this and is able to almost return to the level of
terror we see her going through in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART II. Thomas
F. Wilson is also in this and I found his performance just okay. Most recognize
him as Biff in the BACK TO THE FUTURE series. There is a bit of irony here in
the sense that this isn’t the only slasher flick connected to BACK TO THE FUTURE. See my review on FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER.
The movie is directed by Fred Walton who knows a thing or two about creating
great atmospherics. He also directed 1979’s WHEN A STRANGER CALLS. Score wise
this thing is really well done and the lighting is fantastic. We even get some
really nice depth shots in here which show great attention to detail. If I have
any complaints it’s some of the terrible dialog and sequences late in the
movie. The plot is also not flawless which is fine, but in a movie constructed
as well as this, it would have been nice to fill in some of those holes.
APRIL FOOLS DAY is not your typical slasher, and if you haven’t already seen
it, you might be pleasantly surprised. This is one of the better-shot slashers
of the ’80s, replacing over-the-top gore and “80s we’ve got a movie to sell”
nudity, with a sincerely haunting atmosphere.
I give APRIL FOOLS DAY a 5 out of 7. This would have been a higher rating if
the oddly delinquent and unnecessary dialog had been left out.
GRAPHICS
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