April Fools Day (1986)

      The second teen scream I reviewed this week is Fred Walton’s April Fools Day (1986).  It begins with a group of young adults all meeting up to go to a mutual friends party (they meet up together because they have to take a ferry to the location of the party).  Only a few of them know each other, but they all know the hostess, who happens to be an extremely wealthy young woman.  As the group sits down to dinner, they all become part of each other’s April Fool’s jokes (whoopee cushions, chairs that have legs that collapse, etc).   The group finally seems to be bonding as a whole during this moment, which looked somewhat unlikely on the ferry.  A typical 80s mix of teenagers (cool ‘unconventional’ guy, cool jock guy, nerdy girl, pretty girl, and so on), almost like a horror version of The Breakfast Club - only without the detention, and minus a very well-known cast.  Anyway, the group hops on the ferry and begins their weekend of fun and partying – only to wind up immediately having a rather nasty accident where a fellow loses his eye completely because the boat basically ran him over.  They all arrive at the house intact, though a bit rattled from the bloody start to their weekend.    

            As the ladies and gentlemen get settled in for the night, they all find even more pranks have been set up around the house.  Exploding cigars, faucets that shoot water at the user, and more – but it’s all in good fun.  All in good fun, that is, until the next day when one of the girls sees the boy named Skip looking rather…dead…floating by on a boat.  As the group begins searching for Skip, they lose yet another member of their group, and decide its time to try to call the police.  As the party unravels, the hostess begins acting weirder and weirder…sort of spacey and awkward.  The plot thickens as more and more of the group disappear (or worse, show up bloody), but the best part of this film comes at the end during the big reveal. 

            This particular film doesn’t boast the most wonderful soundtrack, but it isn’t intolerable.  The cinematography is decent as well, but I wouldn’t call it the best shot film I’ve ever seen.  I did, however, dig the special effects makeup, a lot of it was done pretty decently for a film that is both comical as well as chilling.  I know the film has been remade (in the 2000s, century of the remake), and I own both, but I would have to say that while the newer one is more ‘believable’ plot-wise – it just doesn’t have the inherent charm of this version.  Body count?  Around six.  Killers?  I’ll never tell.  Boob count?  Zero, this is definitely more family-friendly but moms be advised that there are a couple of sex scenes (they just don’t show anything besides legs and arms).  Cheap thrills?  One or two.  Actual scares?  Zero…but it’s all in good fun.  There’s still plenty of blood.  Raven’s Scream Meter says: 2.5 out of 5 screams.  Not my favorite movie of all time, but it does grace the shelves of my horror collection.