April, You're No Fool: Killer Party (1986)

Killer Party (AKA The April Fool)
Rating: **1/2
Starring: Martin Hewitt, Ralph Seymour and Elaine Wilkes

Damn close to being over-cooked cheese, Killer Party (1986) is one slasher/comedy that brings out more comedy than horror in the sense that it took its time building to the slasher gags we all know and love, with a level of hamminess shot way up high!

It starts with a funeral wake, where one dead woman is getting her last rites read out by a very gay priest as her loved ones weep. After the proceedings, one of the mourners decided to stay and, with the body about to be cremated, seeks the opportunity to say her thoughts about her. Turns out she hated the woman, bad mouthing her until a pair of hands springs out of the coffin and wrangles her inside. Looks like the old bird isn't going down unless she takes someone along with the ride and found one so deserving of that fate. As the coffin is set down to the crematorium, two morticians (dumb enough to not notice the shaking) place it into the oven, burning the bodies alive and-

A girl in a drive-in theater is wigged out by all of this. In a film-within film turn, we now have this girl April snuggling with her rather aggressive boyfriend. Thinking that the movie and her mate is enough to bear for one night, she steps out for a while to get some popcorn, grabbing a free one from a suspiciously deserted snack bar. Upon her return, April finds her boytoy's car empty. Before you ask "is this the part where we see the first murder?", our leather coat-clad beau sneakily comes back, drooling and with an ice pick at hand, charging at his girl and-

Cut to a music video. That whole "film-within-film-within-film" thing is an opening act for a song by some band called "White Sisters", rocking out in their 80s hair and retro-background, singing their single "April". (which ain't half bad actually) We can definitely conclude by now that we're watching the really real movie when we see a lass with coke-bottle glasses watching the video on the TV, before being called out by her mum that her friends are there to pick her up. To make things a little more cheesy, we then get treated with our heroines in a bike ride, accompanied with the most drug-infused opening song I've ever heard. It's like listening to Bananarama or Cyndi Lauper stoned with catnip-laced pot.

Hoping to join an exclusive sorority, our trio, Vivia, Jennifer and Phoebe gather up the guts to pledge said sorority by getting themselves egged and are surprised to find out that they actually got in. Their first task as new members is to help out on transforming a local abandoned house into a habitable April Fools Day Masquerade mansion, filled with gags, pranks and a working guillotine. The house, however, is no ordinary house as not too long ago, a prank took the life of one fraternity member in that same house.

And that's it. Not much about that actually.

Teen campus shenanigans happen for a good run of the film and we eventually get to the big night where all those who are invited don costumes and a prank gets to be played for each of the unsuspected guests. All the while a madman in an antique deep sea diver gear is offing anybody at arms reach. Who is this fella? And why are they killing people? And how the hell are they moving so quickly wearing that heavy of a thing?

Too much partying and no murders makes Killer Party a rather lackluster bodycounter, at least around the first hour; the set-up is mostly a teen comedy filled with gags and pranks pulled on authorities and faculties in all of its 80s flavor and it isn't until the third act that the story remembers it's also one part horror movie and begins slaying some victims. I'm normally okay waiting around on a slowburn act before the mayhem but the thing is there's little to no excitement to the killing spree. It's simply just some nut killing people with most of the gory goodness done off-screen or have the executions cut off before we see anything sharp and pointy hit skin. After finding a couple of bodies, our heroines (well, what's remaining of them) start panicking and tries to get out of the house, which should have been easy if it wasn't for the film's one last little twist: the killer's a demon.

Yep, from slasher slayings to sudden Exorcist (1973) wannabe, Killer Party (1986) goes all out demonic horror as the possessed do deep voices, foams from the mouth, walk on walls and toss tridents that collapses (hollow) structures. It's one crazy twist to be honest, but as crazy as it all gets, this finale  somewhat makes up for the lack of decent slasher slices due to how cheesy and funny it can get. 

In fact, the whole film is pretty forgivable if you see it more as a whack job comedy reeking of cheesy charms, entertainingly laughable for all the insane directions it took to poke fun at. Yes, the slasher elements are weak with its decently-high-but-vaguely-seen-bodycount and overly silly murderer but, in the end, Killer Party (1986) is a hoot of a film to watch if you're struck in the right mood. Serious-minded horror fans should shy away from this one, unless you're willing to loosen your lawyer ties like me and join in the fun!

Bodycount:
1 female burned alive inside a coffin (film within film)
1 female bludgeoned with death with wooden oar
1 male electrocuted through an ear with live wire
1 female speared with trident
1 female brained with hammer offscreen
1 male beheaded with guillotine (mostly offscreen)
1 male had an arm lopped off with machete, later found dismembered
1 male gets a harpoon shot to his arse
1 male found with a spear shoved to his mouth
1 male found dead in a bathtub with a corkscrew to his head
1 female impaled with wooden stake
Total: 11