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Overall Rating : 5/10
Directed By : The Butcher Brothers
Taylor Cole (All You've Got)
Scout Taylor-Compton (Halloween (2007) )
Josh Henderson (Fingerprints)
Jennifer Siebel
Supplied By : Sony Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : March. 5, 2008
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| PLOT Each April Fool's Day, fabulously wealthy young Desiree Cartier hosts the most killer coming-out parties at her to-die-for southern mansion. And this social event is never complete without one of her patented pranks. But when this year's joke turns deadly, Desiree, her brother Blaine and five of their friends all become the targets of a twisted killer who begins hunting them down one by one in this chilling tale of seduction, betrayal and revenge. | ||||
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| THE REVIEW In this remake of APRIL FOOL'S DAY, wealthy siblings Desiree and Blaine Cartier host a Debutante ball each year on April Fool's Day. Desiree and Blaine also use their parties as avenues to play pranks on their friends as well. And this year as young Torrance has her "coming-out" party, it well be no different as the plan to execute an April Fool's Day prank on one Milan Hastings, a party-goer. But when the prank goes wrong and Milan ends up dying, the one's that witnessed the prank and those who executed all live in guilt, until one year later they receive a haunting reminder of what they did. All receiving letter, those who were involved are instructed to meet at Milan's gravesite, it is there that they receive another letter that seems to be from beyond the grave. Saying that it comes from Milan Hastings, the group are warned that if her killer does not come forward, that all of them will die one by one the next day which is coincidently, or not April Fool's Day. If you asked me, i'd be the first one to tell you that the original APRIL FOOL'S DAY is probably my least favorite "Slasher" movie of all time. I remember after the first time that I saw it, I felt that it was the biggest waste of time, and that I had spent nearly an hour and a half of my life watching it, and received absolutely no redeeming payoff in the end. The original boasted an ending that most saw as clever, but I on the other hand wasn't too impressed nor thrilled by it, So when I first heard of this remake, i'll be honest, I was kind of excited, because of the possibility of making the concept better, and because of curiosity, just to see how The Butcher Brothers would change it around. The Butcher Brothers, whom last directed the well received film THE HAMILTONS which was featured in the 2006 After Dark Horrorfest this time jump on the remake bandwagon, remaking a film that might not be as well known to Horror fans than others. The film's plot has changed a little as compared to the original, whereas in the original a party host named Muffy invites her Drama club friends to her house for a huge Graduation celebration which happened to occur a year after a friend's death, and as the film unfolds everyone begins to die one by one in various ways. The remake is a little different, as we start the film, we are taken to a big Debutante ball being thrown for Torrance, in honor of her "coming out". The ball is being hosted by Desiree and Blaine, two rich kids whom just love to play pranks on April Fool's Day. When one of those pranks go wrong at the party and a girl dies, her death begins to haunt everyone surrounding the prank. The original APRIL FOOL'S DAY was basically a film that went from point A to point B and played out like any other Slasher flick until it gets to it's one big twist at the end. The remake, although it stays within those Slasher boundaries, I thought it was actually almost part Mystery, with twists that play out much like a SCREAM or I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER film - it's production value would also fit the same mold so to speak. I did like that this remake movies at a much better and smoother pace than it's predecessor, during the original I got quite bored rater quickly, but her I was glad to see a much more comfortable pace. In interviews, The Butcher Brothers said that they were making their APRIL FOOL'S DAY story different, with many twists and that it wouldn't just be a rehash of the original film. So with having them say that, I have to say that I was rather disappointed to see that not much was altered at all. Sure the types of parties and locations featured in the film have changed, but the core and everything else has to really changed. It plays out just as I eluded to earlier a "SCREAM-like" rehash version of the original film for the "newer" generation. Those of you that have seen the original will more than likely figure out this remake's conclusion which the first 45 minutes. In addition to the ending of this one, The Butcher Brothers have added an unexpected twist - while i'm guessing this was aiming to shock, and i'll admit I didn't expect it, for some reason I felt that the twist didn't feel right, leaving the film to end on a rather awkward note. As I mentioned the production values are pretty good for this remake. It does look theatrical as it was originally intended for a theatrical run, but I can see why it wasn't as some of the scenes have a feel of being over the top and cheesy(such as the news report scenes), which were uneven when compared to some of the film's really good scenes. However, The Butcher Brothers with this film, continue to show that the do have the potential and vision to eventually become two of the Horror genre's top directors. The acting here is better than I expected, I really enjoyed the performance of fellow Texan Taylor Cole, as she shows diversity as one minute she can be bitch and the next quite remorseful. Also starring here, and coming off her performance as Laurie Strode in the HALLOWEEN remake, starring in yet another remake, is Scout Taylor-Compton. While a lot of people applauded Taylor Compton's HALLOWEEN performance, I was one that thought it was kind of annoying but passable. Her showing here is a bit better seeing as she is not the only one the film rests on. Overall, I enjoyed the APRIL FOOL'S DAY remake better than the original, mostly because of it's pacing and modernization. But this is not saying much, because this film is like getting the same old film, just with new actors and packaging, sure the slight changes sort of help, but the joke is on us so to speak, as we are again left with an ending that is unsatisfying, and unlike the original, this time around we know it's coming. |
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| GORE
METER 2/10 Here we only have one legit gory killing which is a slit throat, the rest consists of the likes of an electrocution and a drowning. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4.5/10 The score was actually fitting, lots of violin and piano tunes accompany many of the film's scenes and it all works very well. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM When I went into the APRIL FOOL'S DAY remake, I wasn't expecting some great film, but I at least had hopes that i'd enjoy it more than the original. I did end up liking it, but it's still wasn't that great as I knew how it was likely to end, and to make it worse, the remake's ending, although altered, doesn't change much. If anything i'd say this remake is a lot more fun and easier to watch - and although it didn't go to theaters, I enjoyed it slightly better than the disappointing(in my opinion)HALLOWEEN remake. This DVD will be released on March 25, 2008 |
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