April Fool's Day (1986)
Directed by Fred Walton
Written by Danilo Bach

Cabin Fever got me in the mood for some good old 80s teen horror, and as my top five or six choices were not available at the local videoteca, I went home with April Fool's Day. I remembered this one as a garden variety slasher flick, but it's actually more like a precursor the Scream, minus the self-conciousness (thankfully).

Deborah Foreman (of Valley Girl and My Chauffeur) peaked with her disconcerting performance as split-personality Muffy, the rich girl who invites her college friends to the family's island beach-house, and then may or may not be killing them all off.

The cast is full of familiar faces, though no one all that amazing (Biff from Back to the Future … uh … coool!), and everyone's good enough for the proceedings. Tons of false scares, as you can't always see what's going to end up being an April Fool's joke and what's going to be a grisly murder. Sigh … I have the same problem nearly every day.

Not too scary, takes awhile to get going, and not quite the satire it wants to be. But it's audacious, tight, aware, and forward-thinking, especially for 1986, the year Ron Palillo was scrounged up from Hollywood's barroom floor to be killed by Jason in Friday the 13th Part VI.

The ending is a real jaw-dropper, even moreso the closing credits music. Nothing about April Fool's Day was what I remembered from seeing it in junior high, but I think I liked it even better this time around.

Not so my second attempt at 8th grade, which I'm still trying to finish. Shit man, it's been nearly 20 years, you'd think I could get the hang of pre-algebra by now … not to mention statutory rape, which I am still horrifyingly bad at.

Review by Mason Bray