VOD of the Dead - THE DEATH OF APRIL (2022)

“Based on a true story”. Whenever I see these five words appear before a film I immediately get a little nervous, but not for the reasons you may think. You see, I don’t care much about the grim darkness of reality so the fact that something happened and it’s being revisited doesn’t phase me, it’s the liberties that are taken with stories that do. The term “based on a true story” serves a few purposes, but the most important ones are to avoid defamation, avoid compensation, and for marketing. This is not to say that movies “based on true stories” are full of lies, it’s just that they often take liberties with them to avoid paying those involved and any legal snafus that might arise out of how the real people being portrayed are characterized, not to mention, viewers think they are watching something that “actually happened”. This is well documented and most recently NETFLIX’s series THE WATCHER was the latest to receive my ire and eye rolls for making up 90% o the story they told and trying to pass it off as fact. We live in the disinformation age, where podcasts and pundits hold more sway over people’s opinions than subject matter experts, academics, and fact-based sources. I will admit that while they may not always be truthful, that doesn’t mean these films/shows can’t be entertaining, but I think more often than not the “based on a true story” label is used to get people to think what they are seeing is all or mostly accurate. This brings us to THE DEATH OF APRIL, a new mockumentary-style film from TERROR FILMS that touts the infamous “based on a true story” label coming to VOD Friday, December 9, 2022. Is this film a mystery worth investigating or a death not worth mourning?

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Meagan Mullen, freshly moved into her East coast home, keeps in touch with her friends and family through a video blog. As her entries (and her life) become more complex and emotional, strange things begin to happen in her apartment and the camera captures all of it.

HOW IS IT?

In spite of my suspicions about films that label themselves “based on a true story”, it doesn’t often bother me so long as the material within entertains. I’m willing to accept the marketing deception, which the horror genre is rife with (looking at you THE CONJURING universe), and have even been fooled by it when the original BLAIR WITCH PROJECT came out. In this day and age, it just isn’t as easy to convince people that what they are seeing on screens is in fact real, and while THE DEATH OF APRIL may not convince the audience this actually happened it is a pretty fun ride throughout.

The story is something quite tried and true in the found footage/mockumentary horror niche. A person, Meagan, moves into an apartment that may or may not be haunted by someone who was murdered there previous to her arrival. What transpires throughout is a combination of found footage style webcam videos intercut with single-camera interviews with Meagan’s “family and friends”. In spite of how standard the story is, what is most captivating about THE DEATH OF APRIL is how well-paced it is. For my tastes, I’ve always found supernatural horror films to have strange pacing since the audience is usually let in on the horror earlier than the characters find out. What ends up happening, like in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, is that you get one character who is trying to convince everyone else unsuccessfully until it is too late. That is more or less what happens here, and KATRINA HUGHES as Meagan is extremely convincing as both the happy-go-lucky teacher’s aid and then the more paranoid anxious version of this character. Considering most of the film is Megan’s video diary it’s important to have a lead that is both believable and engaging, and Katrina nails this.

All of this said THE DEATH OF APRIL doesn’t stick the landing as well as it could have. Some of this has to do with the fact that everything is withheld until the last 10 minutes and the logical leap made in Meagan’s behavior doesn’t quite add up with what we see in the rest of the film. However, what does stand out is just how awful Megan’s family and friends are about the whole thing. It’s wild to me that not a single one of them considered the possibility of her interacting with a ghost, especially her brother who is the textbook definition of a douchebag. It’s the tension between Megan and those close to her that is compelling here, and the film would have been better served by playing it more ambiguously. It’s the rare case where an open-ended ending could have worked with a bit more effort made to paint the two versions of the stories going on here. Still, this is far better than it should be, and if you are a fan of these found footage/mockumentaries like LAKE MUNGO you are sure to have a lot of fun with THE DEATH OF APRIL.

LAST RITES

Following in the footsteps of films like LAKE MUNGO, THE DEATH OF APRIL adopts the mockumentary horror aesthetic to great effect crafting a tale that is as effective as it is eerie. While it may not stick the landing, it avoids common mistakes of the genre to keep the story moving and the terror timely!

THE GORY DETAILS

Directed By

RUBEN RODRIGUEZ

Written By

RUBEN RODRIGUEZ

Starring

AMY RUTLEDGE

KATARINA HUGHES

STEPHANIE DOMINI

CHELSEA CLARK

ADAM LOWDER

TRAILER

Where can you watch it?

ON DIGITAL VOD SERVICES BEGINNING DECEMBER 9, 2022!

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