I'm going to wax rhapsodic about this film, because it really is among my favorites. It could be my favorite horror movie. I think it's because it's a unique take on a genre staple. Yes, it's a slasher film. While there are certainly antecedents for these kinds of movies from the British film PEEPING TOM to Hitchcock’s PSYCHO and certainly the Italian giallo films of the 1960s and early seventies from directors like Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Even something like BLACK CHRISTMAS kind of sets the stage yes for what's to come. I think most horror film fans will probably agree that the rules of the slasher film subgenre were codified in 1978 by John Carpenter with the release of HALLOWEEN. And I think that HALLOWEEN showed that there could be real money in B pictures and obviously spawned legions of imitators and innovators from the FRIDAY THE 13TH, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series to something like SCREAM, which was very meta-cinematic.

So I find it interesting that in 1986, in the thick of the slasher craze, Danilo Bach and Fred Walton made what I consider to be one of horror cinema’s most literate and refreshing takes. When I was a kid, I started watching scary movies really early, and the one VHS cover that is forever branded into my memory was the box art for APRIL FOOL’S DAY. It says, “Guess who's going to be the life of the party.” And below that there's a group of really attractive young people posed around a dining table. In the foreground, there is a woman with her back to the camera. She's got a raised glass of champagne in one hand and she's got a knife concealed behind her back. And her hair is braided into a fucking noose. It is iconic.

And yet I never rented the movie, ever. I don't know why. I didn't see it until — and I'm totally ashamed to admit this — I didn't see it until maybe 10 or 12 years ago. And it immediately became one of my absolute hands-down go-to favorites. I've seen it at this point more times than I can count. I think I love it more every single time I see it.

It's comfort food. And every single time I see it, I feel like I'm meeting up with old friends, old college friends. Every single time, it feels like I'm going home again. And of course, strangely or not, it's a movie that is peopled with college students who happen in this case not to be at school, but it feels especially appropriate for inclusion on the syllabus at this old institution of higher haunting.

To hear our conversation about APRIL FOOL’S DAY, click here.

Bradford Louryk