‘Slaughter High’ Is the Greatest April Fool’s Day Horror Movie Ever

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age. 

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing. 

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Fool Me Once, Shame on You. Fool Me Twice, I’ll Spend a Decade Plotting to Kill You and Everyone You Love

Few holidays had their reputations altered more severely by the advent of the internet than April Fool’s Day. What was once a niche holiday devoted to optional pranks on your friends devolved into a 24-hour salute to disinformation in which everyone begrudgingly agrees not to believe anything they read for a day while brands amuse themselves with unfunny online gags. 

But anyone daydreaming about a simpler era of prank calls and whoopee cushions might want to watch “Slaughter High” before waxing nostalgic. Written and directed by the trifecta of Mark Ezra, Peter Litten, and George Dugdale (you just KNOW it’s gonna be good when three cooks are in the kitchen), this 1986 British slasher film turns a brutal April Fool’s Day prank into a catalyst for a quintessential high school revenge saga.

When gawky nerd Marty Rantzen (Simon Scuddamore) receives romantic overtures from the most popular girl in school, he neglects to remember…