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It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I have a huge fondness for 1980s-era cinema in general and the slasher genre in particular, so my enjoyment of a film like APRIL FOOl'S DAY is a given. It has a typical set-up in which a bunch of vacationing teenagers end up at an isolated location before being bumped off one by one by persons unknown, Agatha Christie-style. What makes this one stand out are the unusual plot twists and turns along the way, particularly that big twist ending which is unlike anything else. The film is obviously low budget but the photography is crisp and sharp and director Fred Walton infuses the proceedings with the appropriate atmosphere. Watch out for Thomas F. Wilson, playing another jerk character much like his Biff in the BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy.

April Fool's Day is really a byproduct of a period of time when horror was overcrowded with cheap imitators and unworthy ripoffs. Consumers and horror fans alike were alienated by an overblown market of horror films that were low-budget, spit into theaters nearly every weekend, and made on a shoestring budget. The ones that were able to garner enough recognition while in theaters were released to VHS and Betamax and wound up achieving a cult status, whilst the ones that failed to drum up any business in theaters were left to fade in complete obscurity, some not meriting a home video release until the dawn of DVD and others, to this day, never been released.April Fool's Day is interesting because its campiness and its tongue-in-cheek approach to the horror genre predates the wildly successful Scream franchise, yet comes years after other horror spoofs like Saturday the 14th and Student Bodies. Needless to say, however, it doesn't come close to being as successful as the aforementioned franchise mainly because it can't even conjure up half the wit that particular series had. The film concerns a group of faceless twentysomethings that venture out to their friend's large home for Spring Break in light of April Fool's Day. Their friend is a wealthy individual, who has gone through the trouble of setting up a series of goofy little pranks like whoopee cushions to lighten the mood. However, the pranks turn more and more sinister, as drug use is suggested in the home, before finally turning deadly, as the group of friends begin to wind up dead as they all try and outlast and play the game their host has set for them.The film was directed by Fred Walton, who churned out cheap eighties horror efforts like authors were churning out pulp novels in the 1960's and 1970's. Walton, who also directed the original When a Stranger Calls and its sequel, however, keeps things mostly sterile with April Fool's Day in a directorial sense, never adding any kind of zest or cinematic flair to the screen. He directs this film like a TV movie, with very basic, predictable camera angles and a limp aesthetic that fails to amuse or provoke, much like the film's throwaway characters.Yet, the campiness of the film is the downfall here; this is a film that can't decide whether its cheekiness wants to work in bringing a more comedic edge to the film or if it wants to be campy to give the presence of simply being an amateur production. The tonal unevenness here comes at how much of April Fool's Day is just one big joke on the audience, playing us for fools, as the title would suggest, but not in a fun, "whodunit" way, but a tired and tedious way. The suspense lacks on almost all fronts, other than generic eighties synthesizers letting us know when we should be frightened and when we should be unsettled, the music is thoroughly boring, effectively exuding no personality, and the characters are your generic souls who make improbable decisions that come to light once the ending rolls around.Give April Fool's Day credit for carrying out an ending I'm sure would never fly in mainstream cinema today. However, despite how interesting it is, it's also very impractical, even by the standards of an eighties slasher film. It'd be nice if the encompassing package of April Fool's Day was as intriguing as its ending, but it's simply another cash-in on the boom of a genre, lacking in personality and suspense and, in the end, being able to take as seriously as anything else on April 1st.Starring: Jay Baker, Deborah Foreman, Deborah Goodrich, Ken Olandt, and Griffin O'Neal. Directed by: Fred Walton.

This 1986 horror film stars Deborah Foreman, Amy Steel, Ken Olandt, Deborah Goodrich, Griffin O'Neal, Jay Baker, Clayton Rohner, Leah Pinsent and Thomas F. Wilson. This tells about a group of college friends spending April Fool's weekend together. They begin playing jokes on each other until someone decides to play a deadly game of their own when each of them disappear one by one. Foreman (Real Genius) plays host & friend, Muffy, Steel (Friday the 13th 2) plays Kit, Olandt (Summer School) plays Rob, Goodrich (Just One of the Guys) plays Nikki, O'Neal (son of Ryan) plays Muffy's brother, Skip, Rohner (Just One of the Guys) plays Chaz, Baker plays Harvey, Pinsent plays Nan and Wilson (Back to the Future) plays Arch. This is a good 80's flick featuring a decent cast and good, eerie score by Charles Bernstein. I recommend this if you're into horror/slasher flicks.

Practical jokes are known to amaze and amuse people. They add fun and entertainment to liven up a very dull party. April 1st is known to the world as "April Fool's Day". In this movie, you have 9 friends from college going out to Spring Break on a island mansion. As everyone is getting ready for the getaway, disaster strikes. First, the ferry hand has a mishap roping in to dock the ferry. At the mansion, the soon to be heir Muffy(Deborah Foreman) has set up the place with some jokes of her own. The guests get a few laughs in the beginning, but things get a little more intense. One by one, the guest disappear. They either go missing, or worse, dead. With no way to contact anyone on the main land, the survivors take action. Seeing all the severed head in a well, things get really scary. With the last couple left, they make their last efforts to survive. All of a sudden, everyone in the mansion are all right! What's going on? It turned out that some of the guests were part of the joke. "APRIL FOOL'S DAY!!!!" So there's no slasher in the film, the whole thing is a joke. Well if you are a "sorehead", I would not want you to see this film. Especially, if you can't take a joke. I was amused.