It’s that time of year again folks. Oh yes, that baron wasteland known as September. After Labor Day, the cookouts come to an end and horror fiends wait patiently for that terrifying month of October. Soon we will be bombarded with haunted houses, special edition dvd releases, and horror t.v. specials but until then we are stuck in this Summer/Fall Purgatory. This downtime has provided me with a perfect opportunity to take a look back at a subgenre that needs no introduction, the slasher film. (Read more…)
The slasher holds a special place in most gore hounds hearts, not because the films are necessarily cinematic pieces of art but because they represented a time in our lives when you could walk through the video store, pick a box with a cool title and were treated to 90 minutes of blood, gratuitous nudity, and more likely than not a masked killer. Some of the movies were memorable, so memorable in fact that they garnered multiple sequels, others not so much. This month I invite you to join me as I look through the good, the bad, and the ugly of the slasher genre, so grab a brew, dust off the old VHS player and come along for 30 Slashers for September……
Day 1:
The Jokes on Me!!
April Fools Day(1980)
After witnessing the uproar over the 2004, straight to dvd remake, I thought that maybe I had been missing out on a Slasher classic after all these years. Always a constant on the video store shelves, I thought it had to at least have some merit because of it’s availability. Boy was I ever wrong.
The film begins like so many other slashers where a group of twenty-somethings get together to go on a secluded trip. Included on this excursion would be the usual stereotypes(the nerd, the jock guy(who is played by none other than Thomas F Wilson, who plays Biff “What are you lookin at butthead” Tannon), the innocent chick…well you get the idea). They are all acquaintances invited by their friend “Muffy,” to join her at her family’s island to celebrate her favorite holiday(I bet you’ll never guess which one it is).
On the ferry ride over to the island, a prank gone horribly wrong ends with a local being sent to the hospital. After arriving, Muffy plays some playful pranks on each of the guests but after they go to their rooms, the pranks become much more sadistic(i.e. bondage gear in one room, dui clippings in another). Members of the group begin to disappear and the viewer is left to wonder whether Muffy is off her rocker or if the local hurt on the ferry is out for his revenge.
I’m sure all of this sounds promising but there are many problems with this film. The kills are done off screen, the film has almost zero sex appeal, and the movie is about as boring as watching paint dry. One thing my friends mentioned in regard to this film is that I would be furious when I saw the ending. They were right, the ending is so preposterous that it boggles the mind and nearly negates the entire rest of the movie. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the ending makes the film seem like more of a Goosebumps style murder mystery than a slasher film. I know most of you have probably seen this one already and if so, you’ve already made up your mind whether to love it or hate it but if you haven’t seen it, I’d run the other way. For being a film called April Fool’s Day, I sure wasn’t laughing.
Well fiends, that’s it for day one in my marathon of slasher goodness. Tomorrow, we’ll take a trip with The Prowler…..
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