April Fool’s Day
Directed by Fred Walton
Written by Danilo Bach
Produced by Frank Mancuso, Jr.
Starring Deborah Foreman, Griffin O’Neal, Clayton Rohner, Jay Baker, Pat Barlow
Paramount Pictures
DVD | Instant Video
Original release dates: March 27, 1986

It only feels appropriate today to discuss one of the truly original horror films of one of the most unoriginal eras in horror history. The 1980s churned out hundreds of slasher films with disturbingly similar plots and characters. And since 1974’s Black Christmas, it felt every holiday got its own horror film; including Halloween, New Year’s Evil, and My Bloody Valentine. So it only made sense in 1986 to make another seasonal slasher: April Fool’s Day.

Directed by Fred Walton, a horror aficionado whose 1979 When a Stranger Calls contains one of the great openings in horror history, April Fool’s Day is possibly the most unique thriller of the 80s, and an inspiration for the self-referential horror films in the mid-90s. The story is about Muffy St. John (Deborah Foreman), a rich teenager who is having a birthday bash in her island mansion. The most 80s group of friends show up to ferry over for the party. There’s the stoner guy, the hot popular couple, the blonde bimbo, the jock looking to score (a hilarious post Back to the Future Biff Tannen aka Thomas F. Wilson), and of course Harvey (Jay Baker) the Michael J. Fox-esque young Republican in training.