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    April Fool's Day

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

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    "April Fool's Day" is a horror movie that's devoid of scares and has little payoff in the end. I was hoping to find a film that was either genuinely entertaining or so bad that it would be fun to revisit yearly on April Fool’s Day. Nope.

    A year ago, Desiree (Taylor Cole) hosted a party for her friend Torrance (Scout Taylor-Compton) Joining them was Desiree’s brother Blaine (Josh Henderson), U. S. Senate candidate Peter (Samuel Child), his fiancé Barbie (Jennifer Siebel) and their friend Ryan (Joe Egender) A prank goes wrong and Ryan’s crush Milan (Sabrina Ann Aldridge) ends up dead. “I know what you did last April Fool’s Day”, a note says to six friends one year later. Whoever sent that note promises to kill one person after the other until someone confesses to the crime deemed “accidental” by the authorities.

    The film takes quite a while to get started and when it does, you won’t be happy to find out that Desiree is the unlikeable spoiled brat that you'll be following until the inevitable conclusion where the killer’s identity is revealed. Most of the characters/future victims are bland (Torrance has no personality for example) or are nothing more than unlikeable stereotypes. The beginning of the film also has a really questionable scene where a date rape drug is used for pranking purposes. I know we’re not supposed to like these people, but I don’t think the scene was meant to be unsettling in that way. While a sexual assault is about to take place, everyone else is sitting on the side waiting to jump out and “prank” the woman and embarrass her because she’s being taken advantage of? It’s a good thing the prank went wrong otherwise there would have been some blackmail and lawsuits flying all over the place. On the upside, the uncomfortable scene made me look forward to the film’s killing spree, and I never mind another reason to hate rich snobs that are about to get turned into chunky salsa.

    As the movie goes along, it's hard to tell if the plot holes that are found throughout are all intentionally written in the script due to numerous (and dumb) twists later on. Some are clearly intentional so I’m going to give the picture a pass for the most part. I won’t give our protagonist credit though. A killer is going around slicing and dicing your friends and you don’t call the police? Would you rather end up questioned by them about a murder that was deemed incidental, or in a plastic bag next to the frozen peas? Writing down the ending of the movie would spoil the film so I won’t do that, but let me say this: there are several problems with the conclusion and the more you think about what happens in the last 15 minutes of the movie, the more you'll question if it makes any sense at all.

    There are a lot of problems with “April Fool’s Day” besides the plot and script. A lot of shots just feel off or have the look of something that wasn't quite finished but was deemed "good enough”. At the party during the beginning for example, you have a really big party where the rich and famous are gathering for an expensive get together and acting all nice and proper in one room while outside the party has turned into the kind of "parents are gone, let's let it all out" jam where girls are taking off their clothes and making as guys cheer them on and everyone is jumping in the pool while dancing and loud pop music blasts away. It's hard to put a finger on what exactly the movie is doing wrong consistently throughout but there is definitely something rotten going on in the crowded scenes of the movie.

    “April Fool’s Day” is entertaining as you try and decipher the clues and figure out who the killer is. With the conclusion handled the way it is though, it just comes down to a big disappointment. Then you start to realize that in fact, the movie wasn't that good, with it's mediocre performances, thin characters, clumsy exposition and you stop caring for it entirely. If you are a big horror fan and you like to have yearly rituals to accompany the holidays ("Leprechaun" every Saint Patrick's day etc.) this is not a good choice to watch on April 1st. Even if you don't mind it, there is very little chance that you'll feel excited and look forward to it again."April Fool's Day" is a disappointing horror movie that won't scare you for a second. (On Dvd, April 1, 2013)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  28.2.2016 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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