Holiday slashers are a time-honored tradition. A subgenre of great renown amongst horror fans, these entries become some of the most rewatched titles in any genre enthusiast’s collection.
There’s little I look forward to more come Thanksgiving season than my annual Blood Rage (1987) revisit. And I could never dare let New Year’s Eve pass me by without placing my New Year’s Evil (1980) disc in the tray. Halloween is fraught with rewatches, staples of the season that embody the mood and tone like Halloween (1978), Trick ‘r Treat (2007), Hocus Pocus (1993) and so many more. It seems that most every holiday has its horror movie pairing(s), big or small.
There’s a comfort to something familiar, a spirit captured on film that brings the holiday to life and reminds why it is that we celebrate. It’s a feeling that can be amplified one hundred times over by the movies which embody it, encapsulating the holiday and the memories, emotions and traditions associated with it.
April Fool’s Day feels like a holiday born to harbor a teen slasher, one purported mostly by the hijinks of youth and the kind of silly irreverence that 80’s teen flicks, comedy, horror or otherwise, tended to revel in. Embracing that notion, April Fool’s Day (1986) offers characters and dialogue befitting a more jovial tone, presenting a cast that feels like real friends in a surreal situation. These are people you like and want to hang out with for 90 minutes as opposed to the usual vacuous fodder designed to be slaughtered at each act break.
Still, it’s because the film embraces the concept of April Fool’s so wholeheartedly that it works as an extension of the holiday. From the beginning, elaborate pranks pepper the proceedings, often playing on life and death scenarios and foreshadowing the greater thematic thrust of the film’s narrative. It’s a movie that is incredibly upfront with the viewer, making it clear from the earliest scenes that what you see is not always trustworthy and it’s what you don’t see that reveals the most truth.
There are multiple scenes where this strategy stands out. Take the ferry trip, for example, where Arch and Skip toss a knife back and forth. It’s in that fabricated altercation, where the knife lands embedded in Skip and the group panics, trying desperately to save him, that the picture’s aims and charms take shape. After the reveal that the whole thing was a sleight of hand, causing a distraction that leads to an equally disturbing outcome, the film suggests that the best April Fool’s bit isn’t a simple punchline— it’s a whole show.
From the succinctly driven words on the page to the efficient execution onscreen, it’s clear that this will be a film built upon manipulation and delighting in the design of its namesake holiday. April Fool’s Day breaks the typical early slasher mold in more ways than one, holding back dramatically on the gore and creating tension through situational story elements, lighting and blocking techniques. It’s character-focused and fun, which allows the film’s climactic payoff to land with a laugh as opposed to an eye roll.
After all, its aim is in its name, isn’t it?
THE SCENE
Skip taunts Arch to throw the knife one more time. Arch throws it aside in frustration, accidentally hitting Skip in the stomach. Nan screams. Skip falls into the water. Arch moves to help but is pushed aside by Buck. Buck dives in, followed by Rob. They resurface without him but then, moments later, Skip emerges. Arch laughs and says “We got ‘em!” The group seems unimpressed while Skip and Arch celebrate the joke. The Ferryman calls to Buck to get back out of the water as they approach the dock. Buck attempts to throw the line against the dock as the ferry looms closer. He doesn’t move in time and the ferry pins him against the dock underwater. The group watches as Buck resurfaces screaming, his eye a mangled mess of blood and sinew. The Ferryman pulls him out of the water and onto an adjacent boat as he continues to scream, speeding off to find help while the others watch in hushed awe.
THE SCRIPT
THE SCREEN
A knife stands embedded in the wood of the ferry’s deck in a close-up. Arch reaches down to pick it up and the camera pans with him, landing on a medium shot as he says the words: “I’m really not that interested anymore.” The image cuts to a medium-wide of Skip with Arch in the foreground, laughing, egging him on to play and throw the knife. Then a close up of Nan watching and Harvey, too, suggesting that the rest of the group is slowly becoming interested in the scuffle.
This is a case where the script and the scene play out note for note at the start, the action description scarce in the stead of allowing the dialogue and body language to dictate the flow. Small notes are present, calling attention to the fact that the others look up at the interruption for example, but generally the visualization is left to the imagination on the page.
A series of quick cuts accompany the setup, Arch coming into close contact with Skip as they both grab the knife and a change of hands occurs. The cut follows a shot-reverse-shot strategy as Skip tosses the knife back to Arch, having successfully made the switch earlier before Arch turns back around and throws the knife at Skip. The moment has a feel like that of a choreographed dance as Skip grabs his belly and looks down, raising his hand to reveal blood and the erect knife in his belly.
He flips it back hard. Something happens, Skip looks up stunned. Arch’s voice catches in his throat in horror.
ANOTHER ANGLE
Skip stares back, disbelieving, looking down and pulling his hand away from his chest, where the blood begins to seep and the jackknife sticks out, buried hilt-deep between his ribs.
As scripted, Nan screams. The others are visible in the background, watching in shock. In a medium shot, Skip takes several steps back and topples into the water, disappearing beneath the waves. Arch stands immobilized by fear, muttering as scripted: “I’ll get him.” In the same shot, Buck pushes him aside and jumps in the water without hesitation, followed closely by Rob. A wide, low angle shot peering down on Arch, Nan, Chaz and Harvey adds some visual dynamism which lends to the growing intensity of the sequence. A close up on the water shows Rob resurfacing, still no sign of Skip. Then, two legs pop up in the water and Skip appears holding up the knife apparatus and saying, “Hi! Is this what you’re looking for?”
THEY TURN;
ANGLE CHANGE
Skip pulls himself up, dripping, on the other side of the ferry. He holds up the knife — and the padded sash beneath his shirt he used to imbed the knife — and grins from ear to ear. The others stare, totally freaked.
The film does employ an angle change, marking a distinct emotional upheaval and a relief that’s tinged with adrenaline-fueled rage, landing on a low angle medium shot of the group on the boat. Arch is the only one smiling as he releases a triumphant, “We got ‘em!” Arch pulls Skip out of the water in a low angle close up, the camera tracking with them until he is back on the boat and high-fiving his accomplice. The script admits that relief descends but makes note that nobody’s more impressed than assistant Buck, still treading water.
The group converses once more, some angry, others impressed, but all resuming their formerly jovial, ribbing demeanors. The film depicts this in a series of medium-wide shots, juxtaposed against close-ups of the Ferryman and Buck now navigating the ferry to the nearby dock. Once more, the event has served as a distraction, a sleight of hand calling attention away from Buck in the water.
Once more, a series of close-ups usher the viewer’s attention to Buck in the water, attempting to toss the rope line over the metal hitch on the dock. The ferry looms ever closer to Buck, the back of his head visible sticking out of the water as he continuously tosses the rope onto the dock above him. In the script, Buck ducks under the craft to swim to the other side to help before getting knocked into the path of the ferry.
In the film, the whole event is simplified. Buck doesn’t move in time and disappears beneath the ferry. Multiple shots depict Buck as he’s swallowed under the water and wood, his hands raised to cover his face as a close up shows the boat connecting with pier with such force that it splinters. In the film there is a beat while the group watches the water in silence, their frightened faces staring down at the frame from a high angle medium shot. Then, the image cuts back to the water.
In the script, he was pinned by the boat, resulting in far more elaborate injures: But then Buck, thrashing in the water tears himself, loose, screaming and bobbing up, his head and torso covered in blood, the side of his face and his shoulder hideously deformed. In the film he emerges from the water screaming, his left eye and side of his face mangled and bleeding. A quick cut away to a reaction shot of the group greets the frame before landing back on Buck, screaming in agonizing pain.
It is awful. It is ghastly. And it is unforgettable.
The script minces no words in ensuring the impact of the event is felt visually as well as emotionally, especially given the antic which had set the stage for the horrible accident. In both the script and the film, the town’s constable overhears the commotion and rushes to aid. Rather than running however, in the film he approaches in a speedboat, offering a mode of transport for the injured Buck.
After the ferryman pulls him out in a low angle close up, mirroring the shots which led up to this, he holds Buck back from the kids, moving him steadily across the ferry. As scripted, Buck is hysterical. On the page, he’s described as, The gashes of torn flesh seem to drip from his skull and said to be lunging vainly at them in agony. He says, “They did it… them!” and the Action Description notes, it’s hard for him to restrain his own rage.
In the film a steady cam shot follows the ferryman as he shepherds the noticeably less disfigured Buck across the boat, weaving between its onlooking occupants, marred by the continued, carnal screams issuing from the wounded. His words are indecipherable, but it’s very clear that the ferryman is holding him back. On the page, the scene concludes very similarly to the screen. The ferryman and the Constable place Buck on the motorboat and it is said of him: One, maddened, glaring eye still stares out hideously at the group.
Onscreen the group watches as the boat pulls away, now finally hearing the words that Buck was shouting over and over, “They did it! They did it!” The scene concludes in a wide shot, tracking the boat as it grows smaller in the background over the shoulders of the ferry’s occupants. They watch in stunned silence as the friendly man who attempted to help save one of their own only moments before, speeds off a maimed mess of his former self, his pained cries the ultimate insinuation that restitution must be had.
It would seem that with every trick comes consequence, whether it was April Fool’s Day or not.
THE BLOODY CONCLUSION
“I think the only way April Fool’s Day works is if you believe that everybody is actually dying…” cinematographer Charles Minsky said in an interview found on the Scream Factory blu-ray release of April Fool’s Day, “that’s the gag.”
Horror fans tend to treasure their holiday horror supplements. I think of a Black Christmas (1974) viewing as the tree glows dimly nearby or a screening of Leprechaun (1993) as the last of the green St. Patrick’s Day beer is emptied from the keg. These are the films that become as synonymous with celebrating their respective holidays as any other tradition that might be associated with them.
April Fool’s Day has the luxury of representing a date lacking much in the way of grand tradition or endless sentimentality. It’s fun, funny and a wholistic representation of the sort of reckless youthful antics one might think of when considering the holiday. This is present from the handheld mock confessionals that the film opens with until its surprising conclusion, but it’s in the movie’s opening moments on the ferry where the intent first becomes glaringly apparent.
Still, despite Charles Minsky’s recollection in his interview that the opening “death” was a complex one, done with a real ferry, an underwater camera and a water safety guide on set, what made the scene work so well was director Fred Walton’s willingness to allow the cast to feel at ease. “There’s a lot of improv…” actor Clayton Rohner recalled in an interview found on the blu-ray disc, “[Fred] was very loose.” Not being “precious” about film, Fred Walton allowed his cast the freedom to be themselves and feel out their characters. “There was a continuity to our group…” Clayton Rohner continued, “it was very much a family.”
In his interview, Fred Walton said that he viewed the movie as “not a slasher film” but a “spoof” of slasher films. “The decisions that were made about the level of violence and the level of gore were made in the script,” Fred Walton said. He embraced the tone, allowing the comedy and seriousness to intermingle, creating a send-up that was not saddled with an exclusive intonation. Take a fake-out knife fight on a ferry, for example, or maybe the subsequent “injury” that resulted from it.
April Fool’s Day is close-up magic, a film that delights as much in its characters hanging out and shooting the breeze as it does its convoluted whodunnit-style murder mystery. It’s silly, deceptive and eerie, reminding us all why April Fool’s Day seemed like a such a good time when we were kids. Regardless of whether you care much about it, it’s nice to reminisce.
Time-honored tradition or not, it’s a revisit that carries you to the foolhardy zaniness that represents the holiday and an absolute joy to watch. A reason to celebrate and to continue to for years to come. For, once you’re in on the joke, you get to laugh at the whole show, not just the punchline.
April Fool’s, indeed.
Written by Danilo Bach & Directed by Fred Walton
