April Fool’s Day

Directed by Fred Walton, April Fool’s Day follows a group of friends, including Thomas F. Wilson’s Arch and Clayton Rohner’s Chaz, as they arrive at Muffy St. John’s (Deborah Foreman) remote island estate for a weekend of fun and debauchery – with problems ensuing after the various characters are attacked and seemingly murdered by an unseen assailant. It’s familiar territory that is, for the most part, employed to hopelessly (and pervasively) underwhelming effect by Walton, as the filmmaker, working from Danilo Bach’s script, delivers a frustratingly lackadaisical slasher that progresses at a snail’s pace and contains few, if any, standout sequences within its first hour – with the picture’s myriad of problems exacerbated by a proliferation of bland, one-note protagonists. (Only Foreman’s appealingly oddball turn as the off-kilter Muffy manages to make a positive impact, ultimately.) And although the now-infamous twist ending is admittedly kind of intriguing (albeit entirely silly), April Fool’s Day has long-since cemented its place as a fairly pointless endeavor that barely, in the final analysis, even feels like a horror movie.

*1/2 out of ****

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