As soon as Muffy St. John and her college friends arrive on her parents' secluded island, someone starts trimming the guest list... one murder at a time.
01 May April Fools Day (1986)
The Opening
By now you probably know that the meat of this is quite ordinary. It has an “it is all a joke“ sort of Scooby-doo ending. And this casts the whole thing retrospectively as a spoof of the genre. Not particularly interesting on that basis alone.
But consider the beginning. When you stick close to a genre, often the only space you have to play is the beginning, including the titles. This beginning is great, sophisticated filmmaking.
It features a film-within-the-film (a video) which turns out to be a joke. You have the dragging mannikins. You have the joke of the jack in the box, which sets up the final twist and also lets you know that this girl is not a twin and that she is a little strange.
I was impressed. The rest is the result of an unpromising genre chummed out by weak production talent.
If the denouement were as cleverly engineered, it would be a good film.
One thing about this film is interesting. The girls are all attractive, and represent different high school stereotypes without resorting to the flapping boobs.
Posted in 2004
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
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