The 2008 horror thriller April Fool’s Day is distributed by Stage 6 Films. Some of its stars include Taylor Cole as Desiree Cartier, Josh Henderson as Blaine Cartier, Scout Taylor-Compton as Torrance Caldwell, Joe Egender as Ryan, and Jennifer Siebel as Barbie. The producers are Tara L. Craig (TV’s This Week in History) and Frank Mancuso, Jr. (Species). This film is directed by The Butcher Brothers (The Hamiltons).
The story opens at Torrance Caldwell’s debutante ball hosted by her friend Desiree Cartier. Other guests at the party include Milan Hastings, Desiree’s brother Blaine, Barbie Reynolds, Peter Welling, Ryan the cameraman, and Charles the tabloid writer. Unknown to Milan, Desiree has planned a prank on her. Milan is drugged and taken upstairs where she gets ready to sleep with Blaine. Desiree’s plan is to catch her sleeping with Blaine to produce bad publicity. But not everything goes as planned. Milan has an adverse effect of the drug and has a seizure, causing her to fall over the nearby balcony and die. They are all considered not guilty except Blaine who had previously held sole control of the family’s rich estate and, because of his perceived guilt, is forced to pass it to sister Desiree. One year later, they are all still haunted by Milan’s untimely demise. On April 1 Torrance, Desiree, Blaine, Barbie, Ryan, and Peter receive anonymous invitations to visit Milan’s grave at noon. At the grave, they receive another message and a laptop from a delivery man. The note claims to be from Milan herself and it says that one of the six is responsible for her death. Each of them will be killed off one-by-one until someone fesses up. The laptop proves that she’s not bluffing when it shows Charles the tabloid writer’s death after jumping into a pool to save his dog, knowing he can’t swim. As promised, one-by-one each of them dies until only Desiree, Blaine, and Torrance are left.
The feature that really caught my eye was the film’s I Know What You Did Last Summer-style of storyline. For those of you not familiar with this film, several teenagers accidentally run over a man and decide to cover up their tracks by keeping it a secret and hiding the body. One year later, the man they supposedly killed returns to stalk and kill them one-by-one. While it’s clear that in April Fool’s Day there is little cover-up involved, the same kind of suspense is there. People who accidentally kill someone and attempt to deflect responsibility are stalked one year later by the same person that they thought they killed.
An interesting character in this film is Desiree Cartier. In the beginning, she is seen as a spoiled rich girl with no feelings for anyone but herself. As she begins to see each of her friends die an untimely death, she appears to be developing feelings of concern for them. Desiree starts to look out for those closest to her. She realizes that maybe Milan’s death was not worth losing her friends over and there’s more to life than inheritance money or fame.
To wrap, if you’re into a old-fashioned “whodunit?” movie with some horror and suspense on the side, then April Fool’s Day is the movie for you!