April Fool's Day

I’ll be talking in depth about this film, so exact spoilers will be acknowledged…like in most of my reviews, the proverbial cat is out of the bag (well, like in April Fool’s Day, and so many horror films, there’s a cat popping up to scare somebody and in my reviews spoilers are like that cat: to talk about films in depth, spoilers come with the territory).

Every one or two years, I will watch certain movies. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but certain films—films that aren’t exactly great or spectacular—just seem to go down rather easily, not demanding much from you. I think you could watch April Fool’s Day (1986) almost intact on television with little censorship.

I can’t call this a slasher. To me, April Fool’s Day isn’t any more a slasher than Student Bodies (1981). Primarily because there’s no real killing, and the “clever” ruse (if you don’t see that twist at the end coming a mile away even when watching it for the first time) at the end says the slasher genre is all about props and fake blood. Careful editing of “off screen harm” when the cast start leaving the film with them turning up supposedly in severed  body parts and slit throats to those yet killed signify the ending, telegraph it in such a manner that the twist could be not-too-surprising to the attentive slasher fan. That said, the slasher fan of the 90s that was me that found the ending very disappointing gives way to the slasher fan of today who finds the twist a refreshing and fun way to close the film. No longer does it bother me; in fact, I smile when Rob and Kit (Ken Olandt and Amy Steel) discover that all their “pals” (loosely used because the cast seem to have their problems with each other) are quite alright. By 1986, Paramount studios could no longer sweep Friday the 13^th and its sequels under the rug because their popularity was undeniable. However, a film like April Fool’s Day allowed them to poke fun at the slasher films making them bucket loads of green. Amy Steel’s involvement is kind of a feather-in-the-cap, tying Friday the 13^th to this playful stab at the slashers of the past few years (at that time). I like that Amy Steel (an absolute favorite among us 80s slasher brats) is put out there as one of the major stars, making it all the way until the end and uncovering specific clues left for her and Ken’s Rob to solve.

The key to my overall enjoyment – besides Steel’s involvement - is Deborah Foreman’s weird performance. It seems like her island party host, Muffy (love her name, too.), is truly a bit unstable and oddball. Slowly dressing drably and acting more and more irrationally with each vanishing member of her invited party, with her mental state seeming to deteriorate, Muffy’s behavior and how those at the island mansion react to her entertains me to no end. Even when she admits to the reason behind her tricking the party invited to her island murder shindig, I still like how Foreman doesn’t totally abandon that bit of eccentricity and oddness that defines her character. To even come up with the idea to save her from having to sell her soon-to-be-acquired/inherited-property with this slasher mystery project says something about how Muffy is intrigued by death and solving clues related to it.

What is kind of obvious and ruins some of the supposed impact is that several of the severed heads and gore gags are noticeably fake. Like when Nikki (Deborah Goodrich) falls into the well, as Harvey (Jay Baker) holds a grip to one of the handles, and discovers the head of Arch (Back to the Future’s Thomas F Wilson, constantly clowning around) much to her horror. I can’t imagine anyone could buy that as a real severed head. Saying that, I think the first bit of gruesome business involving one of the ferry crew, Buck (Mike Nomad) supposedly getting his face crushed while trying to tie off the boat to the dock is not too shabby (because the camera doesn’t hold close to the “wound” for too long; that with Buck’s screaming/agony, a nice bit of selling on his part, helps the scene really carry off a sense of tragic bad timing deterring from the buffoonery and jokey nature of the cast on their way to island). That scene with Arch hanging upside down as a snake coils under his head, preparing to strike, certainly always leaves me mortified because I can just imagine my terror of being caught in that horrifying predicament.

I think perhaps the mistake was not to utilize the location enough. I think a real slasher could certainly exploit this location…not just the mansion, but the island itself as well. I consider it a missed opportunity. I’m surprised (perhaps I just haven’t seen it, though) there aren’t more slashers out there that are set on an island. Of course, there have been Italian horrors (Anthropophagus (1980) & Who Can Kill a Child? (1976)) set on islands, but I’m amazed there aren’t more of the American slasher exploiting the isolation and vulnerability ripe for such a treatment. Again, though, maybe there are some out there (probably lousy) that have. There are so many slashers since Halloween’s heyday, that I’m sure “island slashers” are aplenty. Damn slashers come out of the woodwork. Just look at Netflix, the list of slashers just from the last four or five years; there’s quite a selection to choose from.

I have to admit that, while it is cool to see some of the members of the cast of familiar faces in this spoof on slashers, the characters were a bit obnoxiously presented. Clayton Rohner’s camera crazy Chaz, especially, likes to antagonize (even if playful, he seems to be sincere, with some of those “eye rolling” snarky expressions/comments towards the “hick” Texan, “Hal” (Jay Baker’s Harvey is always having to correct them))and often irritates others with his abrasive humor, and Harvey, while likable in his “good ole boy, cigar-puffing oil Texan” way, is treated as a country bumpkin worthy of scorn. Skip (Griffin O’Neal) is shown mostly as a “doesn’t take anything seriously” kid, ribbing Arch, while waxing pitiably about how his daddy doesn’t respect or expect much out of him (while raiding the liquor cabinet of Foreman’s father’s mansion). So some of the characters can go bye-bye and it wouldn’t necessarily bother me a bit. Nikki is seen as a sex-hungry maneater, in a weird sexual position with Chaz at one point much to Arch’s dismay when he happens to interrupt while they are going at it. Harvey, despite her obvious disinterest in him, continues to try and woo Nikki. All this has its place in the slasher genre, also; couplings form, ladies discuss guys, and sex is often the topic of conversation and humor.

I think the house’s being rigged with gags such as door knobs that come off when you grab a hold of them, lamps/lights that do not turn off when you flick the switch (we’ll call them musical lights), water faucets that spurt at your face when you attempt to turn the handles on bathroom sinks, and even a medicine cabinet with fake drug paraphernalia (!) -- Foreman has lots of tricks for her guests. – is one of the film’s most amusing highlights. Muffy pulled out all the stops experimenting with her new idea to keep the mansion and island by enlisting the involuntary aid of her college pals (unknowingly goaded into the whole thing through the misunderstanding that they were invited to party and get wild for a few), using them as  guinea pigs. Rough patches including a baby’s cry misinterpreted as an insult towards the stuffy bookworn, Clara (Pat Barlow) regarding an abortion and the aforementioned snake underneath Arch prove to be examples of miscues that would be shored up by Muffy once she viewed the results of her idea. People would know what they might be in for, and these folks would pay to be tricked and led into a murder mystery to solve, preparing unlike the cast of this film. 

I have read that there were some alternate endings possible for the film, and I think if it had ended with Clara getting even with Muffy through a graphic throat slashing, after the rest had left the premises, might have actually left the audience coming away with at least some satisfaction...a slasher audience, that is. I think reasoning being that not everyone was so amused by the charade, Clara the one getting even; this might have, at least, satiated the bloodthirst somewhat. What we're left with is an April fools for many slasher fans,  hoping for more and getting right the opposite of the expected. I think those who hate the slasher genre, on the other hand, might embrace this film's twist, appreciating the effort involved to try something a bit different from the norm.

If anything, the title of this film should have indicated the twist to begin with, but if you get caught up in the whole movie, it must have been directed and highly influential in its execution fairly well. I have to imagine, though, that not everybody was so easily duped. But perhaps a few were genuinely surprised like Rob and Kit, not quite expecting the ruse.

After thinking about it for a bit, I believe I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) is an example of an island retreat slasher. I must have purposely forgotten this one.