APRIL FOOL’S DAY
* Out of 5
Tagline- It’s Gonna Be a Killer Party
Release Date- March 25th, 2008
Running Time- 91-Minutes
Rating- R
Screenplay- Mikey Wigart
Director- Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores
Starring- Taylor Cole, Josh Henderson, Joe Egender, Samuel Child and Scout Taylor-Compton as Torrance Caldwell
April Fool’s Day easily has to rate as one of the worst if not the absolute worst remake that has ever been made. While I’m not one to use the worst movie ever, this one rates as one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I was amazed at how terrible this movie was; I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece, but I got a film even Uwe Boll would be ashamed of. The original April Fool’s Day was a decent flick, while I wouldn’t say it was great it was fairly good and came out at a time when the slasher flick was just a massive cliché and it offered something new. My hatred for the remake has nothing to do with the original since I’m always able to review a movie as its own and not a remake or sequel. And like I said I liked the original, but it’s not one of my all-time favorite horror flicks. The original was fun plain and simple; it wasn’t a great movie, but serves its purpose. April Fool’s Day 08 was simply downright horrible I really cannot think of anything positive to say about this movie at all.
The credits list Mikey Wigart as the writer, which is based off an earlier screenplay by Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores who go under the name the Butcher Brothers. My guess is Wigart did a rewrite and I’m kind of scared to think how terrible their screenplay must have been to need another writer to come in and fix it. April Fool’s Day has a terrible script words cannot describe how truly terrible it was. I’m amazed that this screenplay actually got the green light; it was just pathetic and easily one of the worst screenplays written. We all can’t be Quentin Tarantino, but this script was just an insult. Like I said I’m amazed someone read this and decided to fund the project.
Directors Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores live up to their name the Butcher Brothers for sure. There is not a single moment of suspense and if some of the scenes were meant to be funny they failed at that as well. April Fool’s Day was done on about a 5-million dollar budget, but the production values are terrible! This movie looks so cheap it has sort of a cheap TV movie look, but even worse. I’ve seen movies produced way under a million dollars that look so much better than this. The whole look of the movie is so cheap it looks like a soap opera and even soaps have better production values than this. The Butcher Brothers got a little attention for The Hamiltons from the 8 Films to Die For, which I haven’t seen, but after seeing this I have no desire to see it nor do I have a desire to see anything they make again. My best guess is after this these guys are stuck in direct to video hell. They had a nice size budget and deliver such a poorly made movie that looked so low budget. Imagine if Uwe Boll cloned himself and the two teamed up that is how this movie is. Actually, as I said before even Uwe Boll would be ashamed of a movie like this.
The so-called suspense scenes are idiotic with the worst death scenes I have ever seen put on film. I assume they were meant to have some comedy in them, but they weren’t funny, just pathetic. The pacing is horrible besides just being a flat out terrible movie it’s painfully boring. There isn’t even an ounce of suspense to be found at all, the stalk scenes are just idiotic. One has to wonder if the Butcher Brothers did this on purpose; if not than they are just terrible filmmakers. I have to assume the tone of the film is meant to be like that of the original, but the film is so bad you aren’t sure if its meant to be suspenseful or light and fun.
April Fool’s Day also has one of the worst scores I have ever heard in my life. Composer James Stemple should never be allowed to score another movie. The score was pathetic and not just that, but didn’t fit with the movie. There was no suspense in the movie and any chance would be destroyed by the score. I have no idea what James Stemple was scoring, but it wasn’t a horror flick that’s for sure. The score doesn’t fit the film at all its seriously like James Stemple was watching a different film when he scored this.
Taylor Cole, Josh Henderson and Scout Taylor-Compton are the only actors in the movie who don’t phone their lines in. The three of them manage to give pretty good performances despite having the worst dialogue in recent memory and having terrible directors. Any flaws in their acting cannot be blamed on them since I don’t think any actor could sell the lines they had. Despite how terrible everything was the three gave decent performances. The same cannot be said about the rest of the cast who give mostly weak performances with Samuel Child just being downright annoying. But again with what they had to work with I suppose it’s not fair to place all the blame on them.
Originally April Fool’s Day was meant to get a theatrical release, but it was then dumped direct to video. Instead every copy of this movie should have been destroyed. This is a travesty of filmmaking. There is no excuse for a movie being this bad that had a nice sized budget and decent cast. April Fool’s Day was just a travesty and it’s just a bad, bad movie. It’s not even the so bad it’s good its just so bad its pathetic. My advice is just skip this movie don’t even bother with it the film is just that bad. This April Fools is on those like myself who actually watched this.
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