![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/a/aprilfoolsday.jpg)
April Fool's Day
From the director of the culturally indelible When a Stranger Calls comes this holiday-themed slasher pic that, like most purveyors of April Fool's jokes, wears out its welcome with one trick too many. An eccentric heiress (Deborah Foreman) invites a group of her insipid preppy friends to her family's secluded vacation home where, one by one, each guest is subjected to juvenile pranks followed by a gruesome death. The cast, including Friday the 13th franchise veteran Amy Steel, is fairly bright, but their characters are vapid and too many of the film's key moments are insultingly implausible. Foreman — so fresh and appealing in 1983's classic teen romance Valley Girl — had lost her luster just three years later, and her plastic attempt at taking on a more challenging (or is that incomprehensible?) role pretty much cemented her fall from promise. She hasn't appeared in a first-run release since. Paramount presents April Fool's Day in a good anamorphic transfer (1.85:1) with audio in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Surround. Although the disc's packaging claims "Special Features Not Rated," there are none, not even a trailer. Keep-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
