APRIL FOOL’S DAY (1986)

With special guest Gretchen McNeil

Intro, Math Club, and Debate Society (spoiler-free) 0:00-25:33
Honor Roll and Detention (spoiler-heavy) 25:34-1:06:39
Superlatives (so. many. spoilers.) 1:06:40-1:24:19

Director Fred Walton
Screenplay Danilo Bach
Featuring Lloyd Berry, Deborah Foreman, Deborah Goodrich, Tom Heaton, Mike Nomad, Ken Olandt, Griffin O’Neal, Leah Pinsent, Clayton Rohner, Amy Steel, Thomas F. Wilson

Opened March 28, 1986
Budget $5 million
Box office $13 million gross US/Canada

SPOILER-FREE SYNOPSIS

Gathering for a weekend at the sprawling island home of their friend Muffy, a gaggle of Vassar students find themselves in a bit of a pickle as they start disappearing one at a time, apparently at the hand of a murderer who kills them in a series of increasingly bizarre ways.

SPOILER-FREE GUEST BIO

Gretchen McNeil is the author of several young adult novels for Disney*Hyperion and Balzer + Bray including Possess, 3:59, Relic, I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl, Get Even, Get Dirty, and Ten, as well as the horror/comedy novels #murdertrending—the #1 YALSA Teens’ Top Ten pick for 2019— #murderfunding, and #noescape. Her most recent novel for Disney*Hyperion is Dig Two Graves, pitched as a YA Strangers on a Train, to be followed by Three Drops of Blood in 2023 and Four-Letter Word in 2024. Gretchen’s books have been published in more than a dozen languages all over the world. Ten: Murder Island, the film adaptation of Ten starring China Anne McClain, premiered on Lifetime in 2017, and Get Even and Get Dirty have been adapted as the series “Get Even” and “Rebel Cheer Squad: a Get Even series” for the BBC and Netflix. Gretchen is repped by Ginger Clark of Ginger Clark Literary. Favorite recess snack: Handi-Snacks cheez n’ crackers.

EPISODE NOTE

Music from “April Fool’s Day” by Charles Bernstein.

Why did Professor Louryk choose this film? Find out in our Blog.

ORIGINAL MINI-DOC

TRAILER

SUPERLATIVES

The Gaspar Noe Award for Most Disturbing Scene
Gretchen: The well scene
Eric: Abstaining. There are no disturbing scenes in this movie.
Bradford: Chaz-Nikki sex scene

The Ellen Ripley Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Live (But Doesn’t)*
Gretchen: Buck
Eric: Rob
Bradford: Nikki

The Michael Myers Award for Character Who Most Deserves to Die (and Does)*
Gretchen: Harvey
Eric: Chaz
Bradford: Skip

The Ken Russell Award for Most Baroque Screen Moment
Gretchen: The big reveal at the end that everyone is not dead
Eric: The well scene
Bradford: Cellar sequence/reveal of Muffy’s head

The Brad Dourif Award for Character Who Could Have Been Played by Brad Dourif
Gretchen: Constable Potter
Eric: Cal, the Ferryman
Bradford: Buffy St. John

*Note: For the sake of this film, in which no one actually dies, we are handing out the superlatives as if the characters were actually dispatched.

FINAL LETTER GRADE

Gretchen: B+
Bradford: A+
Eric: D