ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - March 27th
"APRIL FOOL'S DAY" released in 1986
Nine college students staying at a friend's remote island mansion begin to fall victim to an unseen murderer over the weekend leading up to April Fool's Day, in Fred Walton's cult horror film, April Fool's Day!
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On the weekend leading up to April Fools' Day, a group of college friends, consisting of Harvey (Jay Baker), Nikki (Deborah Goodrich), Rob (Ken Olandt), Skip (Griffin O'Neal), Nan (Leah Pinsent), Chaz (Clayton Rohner), Kit (Amy Steel) and Arch (Thomas F. Wilson), gather to celebrate spring break by spending the weekend at the island mansion of Skip's sister, Muffy St. John (Deborah Foreman). Once on the island, it turns out that Muffy has set up a variety of pranks throughout the mansion, ranging from simple gags such as a whoopee cushion and dribble glasses, to more complex and disturbing pranks, such as an audiotape of a baby crying in someone's room and heroin paraphernalia in a guest's wardrobe. In spite of this, the group try to relax, until Skip goes missing, and Kit catches a glimpse of what looks like his dead body. Soon, Arch and Nan also go missing. During a search for the pair, Nikki falls into the island's well, where she finds the severed heads of Skip and Arch, along with the dead body of Nan. The remaining group members then discover that the phone lines are dead and there is no way to get off the island until Monday. One after another, members of the group either vanish or get killed before their bodies are found until Kit and Rob finally put the clues together; it turns out that Muffy has a violently insane twin sister named Buffy (Foreman), who has escaped from a mental hospital, and, in fact, the "Muffy" they have been around since the first night as Buffy, pretending to be her already murdered sister! Buffy then pursues Kit and Rob throughout the house, leading a final revelation that they never saw coming!
TRIVIA: The film's French title was Weekend of Terror, while in Germany release was titled The Horror Party.
Top and Above: Muffy St. John (Deborah Foreman) has one hell of weekend in store for her college friends!
Often likened to storyline for Agatha Christie's classic chiller Ten Little Indians (otherwise known as And Then There Were None), April Fool's Day was the debut screenplay for writer Danilo Bach, and produced by Frank Mancuso Jr. for Paramount Pictures; Mancuso Jr. having worked with the studio producing films in the Friday the 13th series. One of the first actors cast was Amy Steel, in the lead role of Kit Graham, after having worked with Mancuso Jr. on Friday the 13th Part 2.
Cult 80's actress Deborah Foreman came in early to audition for Muffy, but the director and producers didn't feel she was right for the part. They were close to signing several other actresses, all who backed out for various reasons before Foreman, who continued to petition for another audition, she blew everyone away the second time around and landed the dual role of Muffy/Buffy St. John. Thomas F. Wilson, mostly known for portraying Biff Tannan in the Back to the Future trilogy, was also cast as Arch Cummings. Actors Jay Baker, Deborah Goodrich, Ken Olandt, Leah Pinsent, Clayton Rohner and Griffin O'Neal were then cast as fellow house-guests/victims Harvey, Nikki, Rob, Nan, Chaz, and Skip. Ironically, O'Neal - whose character Skip at the beginning on the movie is responsible for the prank-turned-accident which leaves a ferryman disfigured - was indicted on manslaughter charges the following year for a drug-induced boating mishap that resulted in the death of Francis Ford Coppola's son Gian-Carlo Coppola.
Filmed entirely on location in British Columbia, the cast assembled at a hotel in Vancouver just prior to filming and began hanging out to build a rapport and hone their characters to make it more believable that they were all actually friends. Although, while shooting the dinner party scene, director Fred Walton angrily felt "there was no collective energy whatsoever" and the scene was "flat." When they broke for lunch, Walton scolded the cast and when they returned to film the rest of the scene, everyone stepped up their game. One of the more memorable scenes was inspired from a real life episode on set; while the crew was lighting a scene, Deborah Goodrich began reading a Cosmo questionnaire to her costars, which elicited a huge conversation that caught the attention of director Fred Walton. A few days later, Walton handed Goodrich the magazine and a new set of questions, and asked the actresses to improvise a scene which wound up in the final cut of the movie.
Cult 80's actress Deborah Foreman came in early to audition for Muffy, but the director and producers didn't feel she was right for the part. They were close to signing several other actresses, all who backed out for various reasons before Foreman, who continued to petition for another audition, she blew everyone away the second time around and landed the dual role of Muffy/Buffy St. John. Thomas F. Wilson, mostly known for portraying Biff Tannan in the Back to the Future trilogy, was also cast as Arch Cummings. Actors Jay Baker, Deborah Goodrich, Ken Olandt, Leah Pinsent, Clayton Rohner and Griffin O'Neal were then cast as fellow house-guests/victims Harvey, Nikki, Rob, Nan, Chaz, and Skip. Ironically, O'Neal - whose character Skip at the beginning on the movie is responsible for the prank-turned-accident which leaves a ferryman disfigured - was indicted on manslaughter charges the following year for a drug-induced boating mishap that resulted in the death of Francis Ford Coppola's son Gian-Carlo Coppola.
Filmed entirely on location in British Columbia, the cast assembled at a hotel in Vancouver just prior to filming and began hanging out to build a rapport and hone their characters to make it more believable that they were all actually friends. Although, while shooting the dinner party scene, director Fred Walton angrily felt "there was no collective energy whatsoever" and the scene was "flat." When they broke for lunch, Walton scolded the cast and when they returned to film the rest of the scene, everyone stepped up their game. One of the more memorable scenes was inspired from a real life episode on set; while the crew was lighting a scene, Deborah Goodrich began reading a Cosmo questionnaire to her costars, which elicited a huge conversation that caught the attention of director Fred Walton. A few days later, Walton handed Goodrich the magazine and a new set of questions, and asked the actresses to improvise a scene which wound up in the final cut of the movie.
TRIVIA: The interior of the well scene was shot in tank on an L.A. soundstage at the end of production. The water was dyed to look murky and crew members discarded their cigarettes right into the tank. Deborah Goodrich (Nikki) spent so much time submerged in the nasty water that she left the set with a ear infection.
Top: Nikki (Deborah Goodrich) discovers Arch's head in the well!;
Above: Rob and Kit (Ken Olandt and Amy Steel) are the last remaining survivors on the island, pursued by a murdering maniac!
April Fool's Day had a fairly difficult post-production process, one issue concerning the all-important final act.The film originally had a much longer and more twisted ending. In the original script, after Muffy reveals the whole weekend was setup, the guests leave except for Rob, Kit, Chaz, and Nikki who sneak back to the house to prank Muffy for revenge. However when they return, Skip cracks and attempts to kill Muffy in a rage of jealousy. Rob jumps in and saves Muffy, killing Skip in the process. This ending actually was filmed but didn't make final cut as the studio opted for a more upbeat conclusion (however this ending is identical to how the film's novelization concludes). An alternate ending was shot where Muffy is left to believe she is alone on the island and Skip bursts out of a closet and 'cuts' Muffy's throat. She screams only to have the rest of the characters, thought to be gone, enter the room laughing, having pranked her back. The final scene that does appear in the movie (where Nan sneaks out of the closet and pretends to slash Muffy's throat) was actually shot three or four months after principal filming ended - which explains the different hairstyles for Deborah Foreman and Leah Pinsent whom appear in the scene. However, Mancuso Jr. insisted on tacking on the jack-in-the-box ending, which was shot in L.A. months after production had also wrapped.
Released in early 1986, April Fool's Day was only a moderate success at the box office, grossing nearly $13 million (against a $5 million budget), but received mostly negative reviews from critics. One positive review from AllMovie wrote, "Amid the glut of gory horror films that clogged the cable schedules and cineplexes in the wake of Halloween and Friday the 13th, April Fool's Day stands out as a fairly restrained exercise in the '80s teen slasher genre," commenting that it "has more rollercoaster thrills than most slasher flicks with five times the gore." In fact, due to the film being light on violence it received frequent airings on late night television, where it gained a large cult following.
During a 30th anniversary reunion screening/panel, star Deborah Goodrich revealed that she was sent a script for an unproduced sequel several years after the film's release, though she was sketchy on the details and couldn't recall the names of the two writers. The story found Chazz and Nikki, who had gotten married, buying a closed-down porno theater on 42nd Street in New York City that they planned to turn into a bed and breakfast - but when one of Chazz's college-aged relatives arrived for a visit, the games began again. Ironically, Goodrich and her second husband bought the Avon Theatre in Stamford, CT, where this anniversary screening was held. Another horror movie however did utilize the same title around twenty-two years later with 2008's April Fool's Day; this unrelated picture was not a remake but was also a slasher movie and unlike this 1986 film which underplayed the gore off-screen, the 2008 film was more in the tradition of the usual gory slasher pic that this film evoked and spoofed.
Released in early 1986, April Fool's Day was only a moderate success at the box office, grossing nearly $13 million (against a $5 million budget), but received mostly negative reviews from critics. One positive review from AllMovie wrote, "Amid the glut of gory horror films that clogged the cable schedules and cineplexes in the wake of Halloween and Friday the 13th, April Fool's Day stands out as a fairly restrained exercise in the '80s teen slasher genre," commenting that it "has more rollercoaster thrills than most slasher flicks with five times the gore." In fact, due to the film being light on violence it received frequent airings on late night television, where it gained a large cult following.
During a 30th anniversary reunion screening/panel, star Deborah Goodrich revealed that she was sent a script for an unproduced sequel several years after the film's release, though she was sketchy on the details and couldn't recall the names of the two writers. The story found Chazz and Nikki, who had gotten married, buying a closed-down porno theater on 42nd Street in New York City that they planned to turn into a bed and breakfast - but when one of Chazz's college-aged relatives arrived for a visit, the games began again. Ironically, Goodrich and her second husband bought the Avon Theatre in Stamford, CT, where this anniversary screening was held. Another horror movie however did utilize the same title around twenty-two years later with 2008's April Fool's Day; this unrelated picture was not a remake but was also a slasher movie and unlike this 1986 film which underplayed the gore off-screen, the 2008 film was more in the tradition of the usual gory slasher pic that this film evoked and spoofed.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 33%
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