Warning: This post contains spoilers!
By the mid-1980s, the so-called “golden age of the slasher” was essentially coming to an end. Jason Voorhees was dead and buried. Michael Myers had been replaced by a mask-making witch. And college dorms had become home to slapstick comedy and not revenge-fueled, knife-wielding maniacs. In the spring of 1986, Paramount – then home to the Friday the 13th series – released April Fool’s Day, a quirky whodunit horror-comedy that not only embraced the slasher but gleefully poked fun at it. It was what the subgenre at the time needed.
The film opens with a group of Vassar College friends heading to their mutual friend’s private island for the weekend. In traditional horror movie format, we’re introduced to each of the characters and their personalities. Chaz (Clayton Rohner) is the local hipster of the group and all-around perv, although he only has eyes for bombshell, Nikki (Deborah Goodrich), who isn’t afraid to explore her wild side in bed. Rob (Ken Olandt) and Kit (Amy Steel) are the all-American preppy, nice couple, although Rob’s happy-go-lucky demeanor slips when Kit discovers he didn’t get into med school. Best buds, Skip (Griffin O’Neal) and Arch (Thomas F. Wilson), love to play practical jokes on their friends, while newbies Nan (Leah Pinsent) and Harvey (Jay Baker) try their best to assimilate into the tight-knit gang; Nan’s bookwormish manner and Harvey’s desperation to be one of the rich kids don’t exactly sit well with the others.
And then there’s Muffy (Deborah Foreman), the Spring Break hostess whose island paradise is complete with sunshine, boats, and a giant country estate we later learn she will inherit. The weekend getaway doesn’t get off to a good start when one of Skip’s pranks goes awry and results in a ferryman getting his face crushed between the ferry and dock. Once on the island things get progressively worse when Skip disappears, leading to a manhunt in the nearby woods that results in Arch getting bumped off by a mystery assailant. It isn’t long until the bodies start to pile up and all fingers point to the disfigured ferryman seeking revenge.
While stuck on the island waiting for the police to arrive, Kit and Rob become amateur sleuths and eventually find out Muffy has a twin sister, Buffy, who was committed to an institution years earlier and has escaped. Is Buffy the one responsible for the murders? Or, is it all some elaborate April Fool’s prank?
Who done it? Turns out there is no killer. It was all a ruse created by Muffy: a big April Fool’s prank that also functioned as a test run for Muffy’s business idea to turn her family’s island estate into a murder mystery getaway. How’s that for a twist?
What makes the movie work so well is its ability to function as both a funny slasher and a mystery thriller. The screenplay (by Danilo Bach) has fun not only with its characters but with its audience by putting you in the same situation. It wants you to figure out the clues and unravel what’s going on. Even the final double-twist is the film saying to viewers, “We’re having fun, and we hope you are!” But the scenario wouldn’t have worked nearly as well had the cast not been as good as it is here. Steel and Olandt make a terrific detective couple, while Wilson and O’Neal genuinely seem like old friends. The entire cast meshes very well together and all of the characters are likable in their own way; as with the characters from Friday the 13th Part 2 or Halloween, you want to be a part of their inner circle.
Unfairly ignored during its initial release, April Fool’s Day has since gained a cult following, thanks largely to its frequent play on late-night TV throughout the late ’80s. Pushed aside by hardcore horror fans for its lack of gore and mask-wearing killer, the movie – recently re-released on Blu-ray by Shout! Factory – is now seen as a work of originality and stands high above the assortment of familiar slashers and low-grade sequels that drowned the era.