April Fool's Day

Episode 162: April Fool’s Day (1986)

Theme: Holiday Horror Month
Hosts: Oz & Curtis

This week, Oz and Curtis kick off Holiday Horror Month with April Fool’s Day — the only movie bold enough to say, “What if we took every 80s slasher setup, removed all the actual slashing, and replaced it with enough pranks to power a full-season order of Punk’d?” It’s a weekend getaway filled with one-syllable names, sweater knots, fake knives, exploding cigars, baby-cry tapes, mannequin mutilation, and a ferry accident so wild it apparently peels faces like an orange.

Join your two favorite prank-adjacent horror scholars as they unpack:

• How this cast is the Olympics of 80s That Guys and That Girls, none of whom appeared in your favorite John Hughes movie, but all of whom lived at your local video store.

• The way every prank somehow ranges from “silly whoopie cushion gag” to “deeply personal emotional trauma,” depending on who opens their bedroom door.

• Why the entire plot depends on Muffy being a master chess-playing sociopath with a full week to stage a murder-mystery Airbnb.

• The fact that a killer never actually kills anyone, making this the least violent slasher that still manages to rack up a body count of fake corpses.

• The twist ending — and the twist after the twist — proving that even the movie itself wants to yell “April Fools!” right in your face.

From coiled snakes to collapsing chairs, from baby cries to well-related jump scares, Oz and Curtis break down a film that works best when you don’t tug too hard on the logic thread. It’s goofy, it’s clever, it’s messy, it’s meta — and it’s one of Oz’s all-time HBO-after-school classics.

Final Verdict

Oz — 9 friends
Curtis — 3 Biffs
Both — Still wondering what “Muffy” is short for, and how many days it takes to prep a mansion for a fake mass murder.