morrison-dylan-fan With the IMDb October Horror Challenge taking place,I decided to take a look at the Horror section on Netflix UK. Hearing about the movie after catching the tense Slasher/Giallo crossover Happy Birthday To Me,I was pleased to find that the title had recently been put on the site,which led to me getting ready to perform a vicious April Fools.The plot:Celebrating the start of April over the weekend,pals Harvey, Nikki, Rob, Skip, Nan, Chaz and Kit decide to spend time on Skip's sister Muffy's isolated island mansion. Playing April Fools on each other as they take the last boat to the island,which leads to deckhand Buck getting hurt and being rushed to hospital. Shaken by the accident,the gang soon discover that Muffy has transformed the island into a deadly April Fools.View on the film:Talking about Agatha Christie when they find dolls round the dinner table, (for being "dumb kids" their quoting of Christie/James Boswell and John Milton sure looks like a mature reading taste!) the debut screenplay by Danilo Bach holds back on diving into the full-on Slasher gore to instead stab the psychological fear of the Giallo. Opening up the Slasher box of "mommy issues",Bach wonderfully uses the title for a jack in the box Giallo mystery,leaping round via the "jokes" that Muffy has left round the mansion,to the (off screen) Slasher killings cleverly being placed for a completely different perspective being revealed in the richly macabre,Christie/Giallo-style twist ending.Losing its entire third act, (which Jeff Rovin's novelisation shows to be a much darker final to the "upbeat" studio final) director Fred Walton and cinematographer Charles Minsky impressively hold things together by casting an eerie Giallo atmosphere over the title,as gliding shots stylishly display the isolation of the Christie-style mansion. Running on a classy note which keeps all the sexy girls dressed (boo!) Walton gives the Slasher murders tantalisingly brief glimpses,that are finely balanced between offering a body count,and being vague enough to quietly place clues towards the sharp twist ending,as Muffy gives everyone an unforgettable April Fools Day.

gweez-37769 I think it's a shame that this particular film wasn't well received overall by the horror fans especially by the slasher fans because this was a horror treat in the best possible way. There's something to be said when you create any type of movie that actually is an original piece especially with everything being out there it's very hard to come up with something fresh and clever all at the same time. With this jewel of a horror classic I believe that was the case where everything came together perfectly. I thought the characters were well thought out and interesting. The balance of the film was superb where the first half it was all fun and games and very funny then the second half it got serious to where the hammer falls on you and sucks you back in saying don't forget this is a horror movie which I thought was brilliant. This wasn't an all-star cast some of the biggest names were Amy Steel who was in Friday The 13th part 2 who by the way was amazing as well as in this film then you had Thomas F. Wilson that played Biff in Back To the Future who also was great in both of these films. Deborah Foreman who played the lead character in this film also played the lead role in Valley Girl opposite A young Nic Cage who was great in this role as well. Clayton Rohner, and Deborah Goodrich played in Just One Of The Guys together who both did their parts very well. Ken Olandt which didn't make a big splash yet as far as big time roles he was just starting out in his career and Griffin O' Neal same scenario in that he hadn't done a whole lot yet in his career when this came out. I have to tell you that there were some great performances by everybody in this film ones that were funny lines like Clayton Rohner as Chaz was telling Jay Baker's character Harvey who was excellent in this film as well confronting him about an earlier incident that happened in the film Chaz says to Harvey "You were jumping around like your ass was on fire. That was a very funny line in the film as well as several others. There is this one scene in the film where all the friends are sitting at the table discussing what they were going to do with their lives after graduation I thought that Griffin O' Neal's character Skip should have been at the dinner table with them it would have made the scene that much better. I think that Griffin O' Neal did really well with his character and should have continue to act because personally I think he's a good actor. The last twenty minutes of the film will leave you on the edge of your seat just typing this out and thinking about it gives me goosebumps it was played out so brilliantly. You can laugh a little but it was very creepy and scary and well thought out. I think this holds well with the slasher genre it's just a fun, smart, suspenseful and scary movie period. At the end of the movie there is this wacky song on the soundtrack that's very out there. Some of the material could use some strengthening but overall pretty solid. One of the better horror movies in general. This could be very well in the top twenty in great horror movies of all time.

Gemma Vance I watched this film after reading great reviews on here. I am a fan of horror, but i prefer modern horror which is probably a reason i disliked this film. I found it boring and not in the least bit scary. I also got confused which character was who, making it difficult for me to follow the storyline. I skipped some parts since nothing seemed to be happening. i have to admit i already saw the ending on a review here so wasn't surprised, but i would have been otherwise. It seemed an OK ending i guess, but nothing that totally wow-ed me and i don't think it was very realistic for me. Overall i disliked the movie, which was disappointing, but probably since i am use to watching modern horrors (like insidious) so this failed to grab my attention.

gwnightscream This 1986 horror film stars Deborah Foreman, Amy Steel, Ken Olandt, Deborah Goodrich, Griffin O'Neal, Jay Baker, Clayton Rohner, Leah Pinsent and Thomas F. Wilson. This tells about a group of college friends spending April Fool's weekend together. They begin playing jokes on each other until someone decides to play a deadly game of their own when each of them disappear one by one. Foreman (Real Genius) plays host & friend, Muffy, Steel (Friday the 13th 2) plays Kit, Olandt (Summer School) plays Rob, Goodrich (Just One of the Guys) plays Nikki, O'Neal (son of Ryan) plays Muffy's brother, Skip, Rohner (Just One of the Guys) plays Chaz, Baker plays Harvey, Pinsent plays Nan and Wilson (Back to the Future) plays Arch. This is a good 80's flick featuring a decent cast and good, eerie score by Charles Bernstein. I recommend this if you're into horror/slasher flicks.