APRIL FOOL’S DAY (2008)

APRIL FOOL’S DAY (2008)

Tagline: She has a killer party planned.

(Drama, Thriller, There Are No Giant Space Battles in This Movie) [R]

Note: This movie was given a TV-MA rating on streaming services but was not given an MPA rating. That is essentially a [R] rating had this movie been released theatrically.

In this one, some very rich 20-somethings are having a fancy party when Milan Hastings is given a drink that makes her lose her senses and as her “friends” are pranking her, she falls off the balcony to her death. A year later the inner circle of her “friends” gets letters warning them. It soon becomes clear that if the person responsible for the prank and Milan’s death doesn’t come forward, each member of the group will die. It doesn’t take long before the group finds out the threat is real. 

First off, this was originally going to be a sequel to APRIL FOOL’S DAY (1986) but they decided to just do an updated version of the original, and to be honest even though it’s produced by the same producer Frank Mancuso Jr. as the original, it’s basically an insult to fans of the original. This movie has several issues including giving us a bunch of characters that are near impossible to root for, but it isn’t exactly an insult to horror fans, it just came out at a time when much better films were being produced and had been produced with similar plots that didn’t have an iconic twist. SORORITY ROW came out a year after this, but it’s vastly superior, you also had films like URBAN LEGEND and more that did twisty stories better and that hurt this production I think. I could be wrong.

On its merits though the movie is mostly bad and to be honest it’s very difficult to follow how this group is even remotely connected. There are none of the horror elements you are looking for regarding aesthetics, sets, or any of that. 

Acting-wise Taylor Cole plays Desiree Cartier in this and has a very Jodi Lyn O'Keefe from SHE’S ALL THAT quality to her performance. I actually wonder if this movie might have been improved with Jodi Lyn O'Keefe in the role of Desiree. They both look similar, but O’Keefe is the better actress of the two just comparing the films I’ve seen them in. Sabrina Aldridge plays Milan and does fine with a brief amount of screen time. She did one film before this but never did another movie afterward. Joe Egender (THE FRANKENSTEIN THEORY) plays a creeper photographer Ryan and is also decent in the role. Scream queen Scout Taylor-Compton (CAPTIVE) plays Torrance in this and it was pretty clear to me that she out-acted everyone on the set. Josh Henderson (THE GIRL NEXT DOOR) is also average as Blaine. Rounding out the main cast we get Samuel Child (PIRANHA 3D) as Peter Welling. He was pretty decent in the role, but as I stated earlier, all the characters in this come across as terrible people. Like, “ALL” of them. 

My suggestion is that if you are looking for a better version of this go to the creepy and eclectic 1986 version. This one very much feels like a heartless effort trying to be slicker than it really is and to make things worse it’s even tossed around by a terrible soundtrack and weak score. Sorry guys, this one is rough, I really couldn’t get into it. This is coming from a guy who actually doesn’t hate good remakes, this simply isn’t that.

APRIL FOOL’S DAY gets a 3 out of 7 and that might be kind of generous. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF 360 PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.