Movie Review: April Fool's Day (1986)

April Fool’s Day (1986)

Classic Slasher Fare with a Twist

Directed By: Fred Walton
Starring: Deborah Foreman, Amy Steel, Ken Olandt, & Deborah Goodrich
MPAA Rating: “R”

April Fool’s Day (1986) is one of the many slasher flicks that got lost in the shuffle of the eighties, a time when films of this ilk were even more plentiful than boring remakes are in the new millennium. This is unfortunate because it is perhaps one of the few original ones to come out of the decade and holds up considerably well so many years later. To be fair, however, it only becomes original in its last act in a delightfully shocking revelation that is far braver than most mainstream films. The rest is standard slasher fare where sex-obsessed teenagers find themselves being stalked and strategically killed off by an unseen killer. Dead teenagers proceed to fall out of every shadowy corner, while one or two prove to be the only ones not tailor-made for slasher fodder.

April Fool’s Day begins by introducing our array of victims…ahem, teenagers. They are all rather indistinguishable from each other, except for Muffy St. John (Foreman), the pampered heiress who has invited all of them to her palatial island estate for the weekend. On the ferry ride over, an April Fool’s Day prank goes terribly wrong and leaves a dockhand’s face severely mangled. Moments later, however, the teens have recovered from the ordeal and are enjoying the weekend away from the stress and confusion of college life. Harmless pranks, all orchestrated by Muffy, occur, just adding to the frivolity of the occasion. Soon, however, they all begin to disappear one by one, all apparently the victims of a crazed serial killer. As terror sets in, the friends begin to turn on one another, especially on the suddenly-strange Muffy. Is there really a killer on the loose…or is this just another one of Muffy’s pranks?

Early on in the film, one of the soon-to-be-deceased teenagers looks at the well-dressed dining room of the St. John home and states, “This is like an Agatha Christie.” And if Christie had ever written a teen slasher flick for the eighties generation, it would probably resemble something like April Fool’s Day, except with more finely-tuned characters. The primary difference between this and the copious other films that are almost exactly like it is that, while most slasher flicks rely on semi-nude women being decapitated or otherwise dismembered, April Fool’s Day works more effectively as a classy mystery. Like a darker episode of Scooby Doo without a chatty dog, April Fool’s Day is more about finding clues and uncovering hidden secrets than it is about delivering ghoulish gore effectively. It is indeed a welcome change of pace.

Though the ending of April Fool’s Day is a thoroughly divisive one (you will either love it or hate it), it is well-executed and keeps the film from becoming generic slasher fare. Whatever your opinion about the conclusion may be, the ending is why people still discuss April Fool’s Day and why it has left somewhat of a mark, no matter how small, on the genre. The rest of the film is fun and frivolous slasher entertainment, except without the copious amounts of arterial sprays and severed heads. The teenagers have sex, but no nudity is shown (a cleverly-placed shirt flap hides even the token slut’s cleavage). Some might call April Fool’s Day a classy slasher flick and it is...at least in comparison to the other mindless romps from the same decade. It may not be the most blood-soaked tool in the shed, but it is one of the sharpest.