April Fool's Day
Director: Fred Walton
Writer: Danilo Bach
Starring: F. Thomas Wilson and Deborah Foreman
Body Count: 7
Review: This movie kicks all ass.
A bunch of college friends take a trip over the April Fool's weekend to the summer home of their mutual acquaintence Muffy St. John. Before they even make it to the island estate, things start to go awry thanks to a plethora of April Fool's tricks. Once they actually are on the island, things get even worse for the kids.
April Fool's Day is an incredible blend of humor and horror, and it works surprisingly well, even today, more than a decade after its release. This was one of the cheapie flicks that Paramount churned out hoping to build another franchise to aid their flailing Friday the 13th Series. It didn't work in terms of sequels (April Fool's Day was never given a sequel), and perhaps it's good that way, because the potency of the film would probably be lost in a sequel.
The really amamzing thing about the movie is that even though it was definitely made to fit within the confines of the genre rules (must have blonde sex-vixen, must have non-risque female lead, must have quirky teenage banter, etc.), it surpasses most other films that were hindered by their genre ties. I can think of at least a dozen other slasher flicks of the same period that tried to be as clever, fun, and (believe it or not) realistic (especially in terms of dialogue--this movie is totally accurrate) but failed in their attempts.
And, of course, there is The Twist....and although most of today's more sophisticated teens should be able to figure it out long before it's exposed, I won't mention any more of it here, because it is still pretty cool when you see it on film.
