RELEASE DATE: 1986
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider - 8/21/08
We open with a lady named Nikki on what appears to be a home video tape of her on a boat dock. She tells us of a girl named Muffy who invited her out to an island because its Spring Break. From the visual age of Mary I�d say she is on her 10th year of college. She tells the camera man she likes to procreate on the first date in so many words. After this, the cameraman pans over to a girl named Kit who doesn�t have much to say. Then he pans over to the standard horny college guys Arch and Skip who crack a few lame jokes before the scene switches.
We quickly join a young lady cleaning up a rather dusty cellar. A woman named Clara goes down to check on her but she ensures her things will be cool with a party she is hosting. She proceeds to play with a jack in the box while the credits roll. Immediately we get treated to a flashback where a younger version of herself is opening the jack in the box as a present years ago. She receives a surprise when an ugly monster pops out of it. Sigh, they just don�t make toys like they use to do they. Anyhow, I should point out this mentally imbalanced girl is Muffy.
Back on the boat dock, the group of fodder�er�kids are joined by a woman named Nan. Kit grabs her bags and the cameraman from earlier emerges as a standard dressed 80s fellow with a standard 80s character name with a standard 80s attitude, Chaz. Kit�s boyfriend Rob and an eccentric fellow named Harvey arrive to complete the group. They all board the happy boat ride which takes off thanks to the moody ferryman Cal.. With a long boat ride in front of them and some run time to kill, we go into personality background mode. Most of it will not matter what so ever. All you need to know is the following
Nerd=Harvey
Jock=Rob
Horny Guy=Chaz
Horny Girl=Nikki
Nice Girl=Kit
Bookworm=Nan
Closet Homosexuals=Arch and Skip
Ok, feel free to reference this at any time during the review. Right before the group docks, Arch and Skip play a game of stretch with a jackknife. By the way Arch is played by Thomas F. Wilson who later went on to be Biff in Back To The Future. Every time he talked I fought back the urge to say �HELLO, THNK MCFLY, THINK�. After a brief argument, Arch chucks the knife at Skip which implants itself in his stomach. After falling into the water, it turns out it was all just an April Fools joke. After a good laugh and a bunch of �that�s not funny guys�, first mate Buck tries to tie up the boat from the water. Cal, who apparently didn�t pass boat safety 101, runs his boat into Buck thus popping his eye out.
So the day progresses with many annoying conversations into the night where Skip is getting wasted. He basically blames himself about Buck�s eye popping mishap. Meanwhile at the dinner table frivolity changes to serious conversations at the drop of a hat. It is after all, April Fools Day and the pranks are in high demand. After dinner, the kids camp down for the evening. Several them find odd items in their rooms such as a heroin kit, S&M equipment and a playing tape of a baby crying.
Arch wanders around for a bit looking to get laid. He walks in on Chaz and Nikki screwing in a physics challenging pose. Realizing his hand is the best chance he has for a date, he calls it a night. While everyone else calls it a night, The drunken Skip remains stumbling around outside alone. This obviously means we can now finally get rid of at least one annoying character. Of course, the idiot goes into a dark shack where he gets taken out by an unseen assailant.
The next day, the kids all go out to play. Meanwhile, Kit and Rob try a little pre marital sex in a shanty on the water. The mood quickly gets spoiled when they spy the body of Skip floating by in a boat.
The kids run up and tell the others about what they saw. Chaz finds Skip�s broken off jackknife on the dock which prompts a search and rescue. Following standard slasher movie rules, the boys decide to split up to look for Skip. The scene switches quickly to Nan confronting Muffy about the baby crying tape in her room. Muffy claims to know nothing about the tape. Quickly we join up with Arch again who is sauntering through the forest. After avoiding a snake (I can�t verify if it was of a venomous nature but I doubt it) Arch finds himself caught in a trap with the snake striking at him. An unknown person shows up and kicks the snake aside. From Arch�s looks of despair, I guess the snake was a more welcome site than the person hovering over him.
Back at the house the group meets up again and decide calling the police is a good idea. Gee you think? Muffy decides everyone needs a little tea to calm their nerves. However, the water main is apparently broken so Harvey and Nikki head out to the local well. Harvey loses the bucket down the well so Nikki decides to go fetch it. She falls in and comes face to face with Arch�s severed head and the boy of Skip/Nan. So after a bit of struggling, she finally gets out of the well and back to the house. Rob gets a phone call from Sam at the hospital who says he�ll be right over.
So seeing theres some screen time to kill between Sam�s journey from the hospital to the house, our story moves on. Kit discovers a black and white picture of twin girls in Muffys father�s study. Muffy walks in and looks quite perturbed by Kit�s discovery. Meanwhile, upstairs Harvey grabs a gun he packed in his suitcase. Finally a prepared character in a slasher film. The group starts to talk about things found in their room. Apparently they are related to something shady in their past. Once again the group decide not to stay together and go to their rooms. Um�yeah good movie idiots.
Nikki goes into all out panic mode and Chaz tries to chill her out. Nikki leaves the room for a minute returns to find that Chaz is dead and missing �little Chaz� if you know what I mean. The killer walks into the room a second later and I guess dispatches her. Rob and Kit roam around in the attic and Rob tells her a bit more of his conversation with Sam. Apparently he told her not to trust anyone, especially Muffy. Kit finds the dolls from the table earlier and they equate them with deceased members of the cast. Although I have to admit I couldn�t see a resemblance.
The two hear Sam arrive and decide to split. However, Kit decides that splitting from her boyfriend won�t result in anything bad. After stumbling upon a few grizzly bodies including Harvey�s, Kit idiotically decides she needs to get Muffy before leaving. Rob puts two and two together for her and pulls her out to the dock. They find Sam�s boat and some papers describing an escaped mental patient bearing Muffy�s name. Figuring that rowing is overrated, Rob and Kit decide to risk their necks and go back into the house for the boat key.
The next bit of stupidity amazes me. Leaving a cellar full of potential weapons, Rob and Kit run to the kitchen to find the boat key. Rob, who apparently doesn�t like fighting girls, runs around looking for the key while Buffy breaks into the kitchen Why didn�t he simply smash Buffy�s brain in with a pipe, I don�t know. Then on top of it, the idiot gets locked into a room while Kit gets chased around. All he can do is yell how much he loves her from the other room. Boyfriend of the year, apparently not.
Anyhow, Kit escapes the knife wielding Buffy and walks into a room where�gasp�everyone that was supposed fodder is still alive! Buffy reveals the knife is fake and everyone shouts at once APRIL FOOLS. I have to admit that is kind of a hilarious prank. Meanwhile Rob meets up with Buck in the closet who reveals his eye was never damaged, rather a simply fake prosthetic.
Ok so what just happened you may ask. Well as explained to us by Muffy, there is no Buffy and she wants to turn the house into a dinner theater attraction. With the help of Skip (who is her brother), her Uncle Frank (who is Sam), Buck (who is a makeup design specialist) and Cal (who actually is a ferryman) they pulled off the ultimate prank on everyone. With Muffy�s plan executed, the group goes into party mode. The movie ends with an unnecessary bit with a plastered Muffy having a joke played on her. But oh well, alls well that ends well.
So in our world of twist endings brought to us by the likes of the highly untalented M Knight Shamalamadingdong, one can look at this film as being ahead of it�s time. I guess some can really call the film predictable but I�m sure it fooled many people watching it. I have to admit the twist at the end had me laughing when I first watched this film. Granted the twist is bittersweet seeing I hated all the characters.
In the vein of 80s horror, the film follows all the safe, yet in this case, satisfying staples. Theres the stereotypical characters we all know and love to see hacked up. Then theres the body discoveries which parlays into the screaming which parlays into the blood and so on. Granted the film doesn�t really doing anything new and unseen gore wise, it times the scares well and holds the viewer�s attention.
I guess where this film could suffer is in the re-watch value. That and it�s overabundance of character back story. Still, it proves to be a fun hour and half for those looking for a decent slasher. Although its not one of the best, April Fools Day is a bit of an underrated slasher film. It was always one I used to look at and think �yeah I�ll get that next time I come to video store� but never really did. It is almost a retelling of Agatha Christie�s classic Ten Little Indians but with an 80s twist. That and it has one bitchin� movie cover. I guess the joke was on me for avoiding it all these years.
Well now that our tales of a bloody getaway are over, we would like you to listen to other class members on their summer getaways. Click on the banner below to hear about them.
