Wow, that looks like one hell of a party: you got cool football dude “88,” neat-o “tie-guy” tipping his two frothy beers in a gesture of jocular invitation, that reclining girl who’s just too much of an iconoclast to take her feet off the table, the affable chain-smoker, the cut-up wearing the napkin over the lower part of his face. I’d sure like to attend that shindig. But, oh, wait, who’s that saucy new arrival, raising a glass to toast this holiest of holidays, wherein we light our menorahs with trick candles and eat communion wafers dipped in super glue? The dress is lovely and formfitting, but she looks a little dangerous, no? And who does her hair?!
As with so many eighties horror films, this is one I never saw and can’t imagine seeing. Why this poster, which as far as these things go, is pretty innocuous, so greatly disturbed precious little me when doing my weekly shelf scouring at Video Paradise I really can’t describe. I still don’t know whether it’s really about a young girl with a moussed noose for a ponytail showing up at a co-ed dorm party and proceeding to pick them off one at a time—though that’s my best guess. And for that I want to seriously credit the poster designer, not only for preying on my impressionable young mind but for creating a surreal image that also seemed to stand in pretty well for the film’s literal narrative. Twenty years on, and this image is vivid, man. A quick, brave visit to the imdb page and I realize from reading user comments that April Fool’s Day doesn’t seem to be overly gory, is fairly well shot for this type of film, and features a group of nubile teens spending a fuck and slash weekend in a remote island home in the Northwest. The question remains: is there a death by ponytail? If not, after 25 years, I would feel slightly cheated.
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