(1986) **3/4A group of college friends go to their rich friend Muffy’s secluded island home on April fools weekend. It’s all fun and games until they start getting killed off.
Aside from the twist at the end, which I won’t reveal, that’s about the entire plot. It’s very simplistic, but works, not as anything blow your socks off spectacular, but as a decent entertaining movie. I think this is owed mostly to the characters, who I didn’t love, but didn’t hate either. Not one of them annoyed me in any way, which is rare for this type of movie. Typically, I’m rooting for one or all of them to die and quickly, but that thought didn’t pass my mind even once. I also believed that these people were friends, which is also kind of rare.
I also have a story for you about this movie:
Picture me at around eight years old walking around the video store when suddenly I see the cover of April Fool’s Day, become fascinated by the woman’s hair pictured above, and decide that I have to see it. I then bring the video box over to my older sister, who was the boss and to this day is still the boss and she takes one look at it and says NO. I beg, I plead, but the answer never changes. The pattern repeats several times a week for two years until finally I grow weary of asking.
She didn’t do it to be mean, which wasn’t out of character for her, but she said no because she was scared. Horror frightened her and it still does to this day. She won’t let her husband watch the Saw movies even though he keeps asking every year. You may ask why we don’t just do it anyway, especially when she’s not around. Again, my sister is the boss. She warned me that if I dared to bring this movie into the house without her knowledge that she would find out and I would pay. My sister pulled a lot of crap on me, including locking me out of the house without a stitch of clothes on when I was fifteen. She is a force to be reckoned with.
I did finally watch it when I was eighteen and was disappointed to discover that the hair doesn’t ever make an appearance in the movie. I can’t even remember what I thought about it then because I was still fixated on the hair. Every scene I waited for it, but no hair. I decided the movie sucked. It’s been years, and I’m finally over the hair, so I thought I’d watch it with fresh eyes.
Aside from the twist at the end, which I won’t reveal, that’s about the entire plot. It’s very simplistic, but works, not as anything blow your socks off spectacular, but as a decent entertaining movie. I think this is owed mostly to the characters, who I didn’t love, but didn’t hate either. Not one of them annoyed me in any way, which is rare for this type of movie. Typically, I’m rooting for one or all of them to die and quickly, but that thought didn’t pass my mind even once. I also believed that these people were friends, which is also kind of rare.
I also have a story for you about this movie:
Picture me at around eight years old walking around the video store when suddenly I see the cover of April Fool’s Day, become fascinated by the woman’s hair pictured above, and decide that I have to see it. I then bring the video box over to my older sister, who was the boss and to this day is still the boss and she takes one look at it and says NO. I beg, I plead, but the answer never changes. The pattern repeats several times a week for two years until finally I grow weary of asking.
She didn’t do it to be mean, which wasn’t out of character for her, but she said no because she was scared. Horror frightened her and it still does to this day. She won’t let her husband watch the Saw movies even though he keeps asking every year. You may ask why we don’t just do it anyway, especially when she’s not around. Again, my sister is the boss. She warned me that if I dared to bring this movie into the house without her knowledge that she would find out and I would pay. My sister pulled a lot of crap on me, including locking me out of the house without a stitch of clothes on when I was fifteen. She is a force to be reckoned with.
I did finally watch it when I was eighteen and was disappointed to discover that the hair doesn’t ever make an appearance in the movie. I can’t even remember what I thought about it then because I was still fixated on the hair. Every scene I waited for it, but no hair. I decided the movie sucked. It’s been years, and I’m finally over the hair, so I thought I’d watch it with fresh eyes.
6 comments:
"My sister pulled a lot of crap on me, including locking me out of the house without a stitch of clothes on when I was fifteen."
I imagine that to this day, your sister receives a Xmas/Thank You card from all the teenage boys who lived in your neighborhood then...
Yeah, no kidding Miko!
The "twist" in this film annoyed the crap out of me.
You should totally do your hair like that now!
I can't help but think that, if you're fifteen, have an older sister, and are outside the house naked, then you're totally asking to be locked out. That's just plain math.
If you've seen this movie and know the twist, I recommend a second look. It's got more to offer than the average boilerplate cheapo 80's slasher. I think Whirly nailed it when she said that the characters actually make you believe that they're friends.
At the risk of showing my age, I remember seeing this when it came out in the theater. It was a major disappointment to hard core horror fans and caused a huge rift in the genre, If you ever have time do a little reading on the bad reviews it received.
For the record I thought it was pretty ok myself and didn't feel betrayed like most fans did. Nice review.
JPX, maybe one day when my hair is long enough, I'll do my hair like that for Halloween, of course, you'll have to be the one to braid it.
Okay - now I feel better since I got to read the story. Although that seems pretty harsh - I'm curious as to why she locked you outside naked.
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