April Fool’s Day (1986)

Directed by Fred Walton. Starring Deborah Foreman, Amy Steel, Ken Olandt, Jay Baker, Deborah Goodrich, Clayton Rohner, Thomas F. Wilson, Leah Pinsent, Griffin O’Neal, Mike Nomad. [R]

If a young lady is going to have access to an island mansion where she can invite a group of college friends to spend Spring Break, it might as well be someone named “Muffy St. John” (Foreman). But this hostess isn’t just a spoiled trust-fund WASP; she also loves a good prank, and with April Fool’s Day approaching, the time is ripe to set everyone up for gags ranging from goofy to mean-spirited…but then people start vanishing and turning up dead, suggesting there’s a killer among them. Semi-spoof of slasher movies sets the audience up to be on the lookout for tricks, then expects them to buy into the ruse? Those not born yesterday—or incapable of figuring out why the “kills” seem to always happen offscreen—can find fleeting amusement in the grift and a few mild surprises. The “Ten Little Indians”-esque mystery element makes it a cut above routine stalk-and-slash fare, but genre devotees may be disappointed by its relative tameness and lame ending. A remake went straight to video over twenty years later.

49/100