Stars: Amy Steele, Deborah Foreman, Ken Olandt
Director: Fred Walton
It’s time for a little getaway on a remote island with a few of your friends. Too bad a killer is joining your group.
Brief synopsis:
Muffy St. John has invited a small group of her classmates and friends to her island lake house for April Fool’s Day weekend. While Muffy sets up the house for her guests, her friends take the ferry over. They include horny couple Nikki and Chaz, steady couple Kit and Rob, class clown Arch, business minded Hal, Muffy’s cousin Skip, and bookish Nan. It is all fun and games until a prank by Arch and Skip ends up accidentally injuring one of the crew on the ferry.
Spoilers below (you have been warned):
Skip, upset that someone was injured because of him, drinks and hides away from the group. Everyone else sets up house and begins their weekend. The pranks start early and some are quite mean, including allusions to abortion, deadly car accidents, and drug addiction. Still the group enjoys their meal of champagne and hot dogs before retiring for the night. Skip ends up drunk in the boathouse and is confronted by someone there.
The next day, everyone gets up to enjoy their lakeside setting. Everyone but Muffy, who seems disoriented and a mess. A small group of them play soccer while Kit and Rob enjoy the boat house for some sexy times. As Kit lays on the boathouse floor, she sees a dead Skip float on a boat underneath her. The couple quickly jumps up to tell the others what they saw. The boys, minus Hal, go in separate directions to try and find him. Nan confronts Muffy over the nasty baby crying recording in her room and then goes to cry. Arch ends up in a snare trap and is then attacked by someone. The water goes out at the house so Nikki and Hal go to the well to get water but the rope on the bucket breaks. Nikki outmans Hal and climbs down the rungs on the side of the well to retrieve the bucket and some water. The rungs fall out of the old well and she ends up in the bottom. As she flails around in the water, the bodies of Skip, Arch, and Nan float up.
She makes it back to the house and they tell everyone what they have found. Rob talks to the constable for the area who informs him that the ferry captain and his mate are still at the hospital and to beware of Muffy. The group decides to secure the house and waits for help to arrive. Slowly, everyone but Rob, Kit, and Muffy are killed. Kit and Rob see a flare from the constable and head out to his boat to try and get away. There, they find a note that states that Ms. St. John has been in a mental hospital for the last few years. Kit says it can’t be Muffy since she has been at school with them.
They climb into the basement and find a growth chart with the names Muffy and Buffy. Kit realizes that Buffy is doing everything. They see a pair of eyes behind a painting and Muffy’s head is behind it. Buffy begins nailing the windows shut so the couple flees upstairs to try and escape. Rob gets stuck in a closet while Buffy confronts Kit. Kit tries to reason with Buffy to no avail. She runs into the living room only to find…
Again folks, major spoilers ahead – do not blame me if you read any further without seeing the film:
Everyone is sitting in there, alive and well. They shout April Fool’s to Kit. The man injured on the ferry, Buck, surprises Rob in the closet and removes his latex mask before releasing him to see his friends alive. Muffy reveals that she will inherit the house and this was a dry run for a murder mystery weekend to pay for the expenses. Skip is not Muffy’s cousin, he is her twin brother. The constable is Muffy’s uncle and Buck was a make up man. The group parties to celebrate the success of the whole ruse. Later on, a drunk Muffy goes to her room to find a jack-in-the-box toy. She turns the crank but is shocked when, after it opens, she is grabbed from behind and her neck is sliced. This turns out to be the final prank from Nan, who seems satisfied to get the last April Fool’s of the weekend.
My thoughts (with spoilers):
Ok, this is a divisive film in the horror community but I don’t know why because they tell you up front that the entire film is a joke. The first time I watched the film, I clocked early on that we never see the murders on screen. At this point in the film, seeing the murders on screen was kind of a big deal for horror films. With no onscreen murders and the title, it was a no brainer to me that this was a big prank on the audience. It doesn’t make it any less fun of a ride.
The chemistry between the actors is the biggest plus of the film. The actors hung out together before shooting started and the director even had the girls improvise the scene of them cooking in the kitchen. Amy Steel (Kit), Deborah Foreman (Muffy), and Deborah Goodrich (Nikki) are obviously having a lot of fun and that camaraderie shines through the entire scene. It also helps highlight the distance we get from “Buffy” once the switch comes the next day. “Buffy” is an obvious outcast, trying to fit it and failing miserably. Thom Wilson, Biff from Back to the Future, is great as the buffoon Arch. Clayton Rohner, star of ‘Just One of The Guys’, is perfect as the sex-crazed Chaz. The three other characters are not as memorable but capable in their roles.
The direction is surprisingly good. The director of this film, Fred Walton, had previously directed ‘When A Stranger Calls’, which has an amazing opening 20 minutes but the rest of the film is just blah. Here, he manages to maintain the suspense and includes enough misdirects in the story beats to allow people to possibly question what is real and what isn’t. It is very well-paced and the performances he gets work for the material. The script isn’t groundbreaking but has enough originality and nods to classic murder mystery themes to really hook the audience.
A fun little film that could be an introduction to horror for early teens, April Fool’s Day really was a breath of fresh air in the slasher genre and one I have fun revisiting every few years.
More films from 1986 to check out:
Ruthless People – Forgotten comedy starring Danny DeVito as a businessman who wants to get rid of his wife, Bette Midler. When she is kidnapped, he refuses to pay the ransom. Meanwhile, she bonds with her kidnappers and they plot to get back at him together. Definitely worth tracking down.
Wildcats – Another forgotten comedy, this one with Goldie Hawn taking over as coach of an Inner City high school football team. Film debut for both Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.
Gung Ho – Michael Keaton stars with Gedde Watanabe as a car plant manager trying to save his workers jobs following a Japanese takeover.