Fools

Long before Scream and Behind the Mask, there was 1986's April Fool's Day, and even that wasn't the first self-aware slasher film. Hot on the heels of Friday the 13th came Saturday the 14th, the directorial debut of Howard Cohen (who'd previously scripted Vampire Hookers, among others). Not long after, we'd see Student Bodies in 1981, then Pandemonium and the brainless National Lampoon's Class Reunion in 1982. More would follow, but these other films could as easily be considered comedies as slashers. The very fine April Fool's Day isn't funny; it demonstrates that the conventions of its subgenre can be embraced and even pointed out without doing so just to be snide, and as a result, it functions both as a slasher and as a movie about slasher movies. Director Fred Walton had previously made the widely seen slasher-influencing When a Stranger Calls and seemed to understand the genre well enough both to utilize it and to comment on it.

Filming has just started in Monroe, North Carolina on a remake, expected in 2009. Confirmed casting includes Scout Taylor-Compton, who has rapidly made the change from teen-friendly girl-based fare (Sleepover and short stints on The Gilmore Girls and Charmed) to horror features, with the After Dark Horrorfest offering Wicked Little Things and then the lead in the new Halloween, before moving on to another upcoming horror flick called Pearblossom and April Fool's Day.

There's more Horrorfest connection: the new April Fool's Day script is written by the Butcher Brothers, who wrote and directed the not-too-bad Horrorfest installment The Hamiltons. That flick was produced by Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores, who share the directing credit on April Fool's Day.

Cast is still mostly listed as "rumored" on IMDb, and the Charlotte newspaper says that a film publicist declined to mention cast. Why the secrecy? Desperate Housewives actor Josh Henderson was spotted on set as well.

Perhaps the remake will lead to a new DVD edition of the original film; a small cult following for April Fool's Day has long speculated on missing material, due in part to a shot on the back of the packaging (but not in the movie itself) showing what would amount to a major plot element. Paramount has a poor history of pride in these films; fans have long clamored for an uncut My Bloody Valentine as well, a film you don't have to know well to easily spot numerous instances where violent content was excised.

Also, it's a minor travesty that Paramount redesigned the DVD box. The film's original one-sheet, VHS box, and early DVD edition are one of the best-loved and most-remembered pieces of key art in slasherdom, and the replacement with some generic screamy cover, to those of us who haunted video stores back in the day, borders on blasphemy.