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. Producers are Tara L. Craig (TV’s This Week in History) and Frank Mancuso, Jr. (Species). This movie is directed by The Butcher Brothers (The Hamiltons).
The story begins 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. Unbeknownst to Milan, Desiree has planned to play a prank on him. Milan is drugged and taken upstairs where she prepares to sleep with Blaine. Desiree’s plan is to catch her sleeping with Blaine to produce bad publicity. But not everything goes according to plan. Milan has an adverse effect from the drug and suffers a seizure, causing her to fall off the nearby balcony and die. They all consider themselves innocent except for Blaine, who previously had sole control of the family’s rich property and, due to his perceived guilt, is forced to pass it on to Sister Desiree. A year later, everyone is 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 itself and says that one of the six is responsible for her death. Each of them will be killed one by one until someone confronts. The laptop proves that it is not lying when it shows the death of Charles, the tabloid writer, after jumping into a pool to save his dog, knowing that he cannot swim. As promised, one by one each of them dies until only Desiree, Blaine, and Torrance remain.
The feature that really caught my eye was the story style of the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. For those of you unfamiliar with this movie, several teenagers accidentally run over a man and decide to cover their tracks by keeping it a secret and hiding the body. A year later, the man they supposedly killed returns to stalk and kill them one by one. While it’s clear that on April Fool’s Day there is little cover-up involved, the same kind of suspense is there. People who accidentally kill someone and try to deflect responsibility are stalked a year later by the same person they believed to have killed.
An interesting character in this movie is Desiree Cartier. At first, she is seen as a spoiled rich girl with no feelings for anyone but herself. When he begins to see each of his friends die prematurely, he seems to be developing feelings of concern for them. Desiree begins searching for those closest to her. He realizes that perhaps it was not worth losing his friends to Milan’s death and that there is more to life than the money of inheritance or fame.
Finally, if you like an old-fashioned “detective novel”. movie with some horror and suspense, then April Fool’s Day is the movie for you!