1986’s “April Fool’s Day†is a silly horror film. It’s also riddled with writing and directing issues that can sometimes be distracting. Yet, at the same time, it’s one of the most original slasher films to come out of the ‘80s, clearly taking an overdone genre premise and trying to make it its own. It has star power: it stars then-popular horror actress Amy Steel (“Friday the 13th Part 2â€) and Tom Wilson (Biff in “Back to the Futureâ€) in fun roles. Fred Walton directs, and Danilo Bach writes. And while both contribute issues to the film, by the end “April Fool’s Day†is a fun, campy slasher that’s still fun to watch.
The premise for “April Fool’s Day†is simple yet effective: a group of college graduates gather at the lake house of their friend, Muffy (Deborah Foreman). They boat over to her abode by ferry, and the scene is familiar. I’d be surprised if both “The Menu†and “Glass Onion†didn’t take direct inspiration from this film’s opening sequence. The coeds mingle and joke as they wait for the boat. Lloyd Berry plays the Ferryman, and I love that the film bills him as ‘the Ferryman.’ It adds a mythology to the “April Fool’s Day” it needn’t have included. Along the way we see the film is taking its theme of ‘April Fool’s Day’ literally. A prank on the boat sets the stage for what’s to come.Â
The Film Uses its Title Well
One of the things the film does well is use its title as a red herring. It riddles its happenings with April Fool’s pranks to distract us from the fact this is a horror film. Wilson’s Arch Cummings leans back in his fancy dining chair and it collapses, dumping him on the ground before transforming into a chair once again. And as the group toasts with some sparkling wine Muffy presents, it leaks down their shirts while Muffy looks on, laughing. By the time the group heads off to their rooms—and Wilson jumps on his friend’s bed and jokes, “wanna play hide the sausage?—“April Fool’s Day†has effectively lulled us into false security. For before long one friend will disappear, only to float by two guests underwater, seemingly dead, and Muffy will begin to act very bizarre and suspicious.
The set design for “April Fool’s Day†is good. Muffy’s house looks more like a vintage mansion from the 1890s than modernity. Its budget of $5M was likely used on its filming location (we learn the estate’s exteriors and interiors were filmed in British Columbia) and on Steele and Wilson. I liked that the film uses an actual house and not a set. It adds to its originality. Likewise, the production team does a good job at the pranks Muffy sets around the house before the horror begins. One of the creepiest was a set of moving eyes behind a vintage portrait of a man with eyes cut out—even though a gag explains it—and a bedside lamp that won’t turn out no matter what its user does. Newspaper clippings of a tragic accident also set the stage eerily, even though “April Fool’s Day†takes until roughly 40 minutes in to shift towards horror.
Writing and Direction Dent the Film
Where the film suffers is in its direction and non-existent gore, the latter which audiences came to expect from slasher films of the day. The direction hits in odd places. For instance, on one occasion Tom Wilson stands, looking into the distance before shuffling off for no apparent reason. Other times he struggles to stand out. It’s odd, as Robert Zemeckis directed him to perfection in “Back to the Future†as the wicked Biff Tannen. Another issue is the writing. Several of the characters have complicated backstories (one wants to be a doctor but can’t get into medical school due to a lack of ‘seriousness’) yet often it’s hard to follow the film’s stories. The audio is also a problem. We rented this from Amazon Prime and couldn’t have made it through without subtitles as the dialogue is so low in places it’s hard to hear.
Yet when “April Fool’s Day†shifts into its straight horror—setting up Steele and another as the ‘final pair’—the film can become quite scary. Some of the effects lack conviction (they’re practical, doubtless, and not up to today’s standards) while other set pieces are pretty grisly. As Steele’s Kit finds one friend hanging from a noose, his feet and hands tied behind his back, I felt “April Fool’s Day†was making a definitive statement. The film is rated ‘R’ (it could never be today; it would land an easy PG-13), and the ending climax honestly tops even some of the “Friday the 13th†films in tone and scares. Yet the film has a surprise in store for us. I won’t ruin it here; it’s one of ‘80s horror’s best twists and earns a badge of originality.Â
Still, Entertaining and Scary
It’s hard to love “April Fool’s Day†or to hate it. I doubt it’s a film I’ll watch every Halloween (“Halloween III†owns that distinction), yet it’s still full of enough life and originality to earn credibility. The actors are mostly good despite their sometimes lack of direction and writing depth, and they make us like them by the end. The film is not cynical—nor smut—and its characters are real. The film could have used some additional time in the writing department to flesh out some holes as well as more direction from Walton to make his characters seem more effortless. Yet it’s all forgivable. For VHS artwork that scared me as a kid, “April Fool’s Day†is still fun to watch as an adult. It lives up to its name and entertains you along the way. For Spooky Season, sometimes that’s all you need.Â
