It’s April Fools’ Day. A time for practical jokes, hoaxes, and various other forms of trickery. But when it comes to horror cinema, a ‘harmless prank’ is usually anything but harmless. So many classic genre pictures start (or in some cases end) with a prank gone wrong. It’s a tried-and-true setup that can effectively pave the way for a brutal, blood-soaked revenge spree.
The cruel prank trope in horror has been used by many a filmmaker. When utilized effectively, it can work to paint the villain as being more sympathetic than the so-called protagonists, which works as an interesting inversion of expectations. This strategy effectively encourages the audience to cheer for the demise of the thoughtless pranksters and root for the revenge seeker.
So, dear reader, before you set out to trick, deceive, or mislead those around you, call to mind these five instances where twisted pranks backfired. Doing so may just save your life. Now, read on as we chronicle five of the most mean-spirited pranks depicted in horror cinema.
The Burning
If you haven’t seen it, The Burning is a severely underrated summer camp slasher with some exceptionally brutal kills and a gnarly antagonist. The flick sees a group of troublemakers pulling a prank on Cropsy, the caretaker at Camp Blackfoot. The adolescent delinquents sneak into old Cropsy’s cabin and leave a worm-infested skull on the floor. The boys are only hoping to scare poor Cropsy. But they illuminated the wormy skull with candles, which inevitably caught fire and set the cabin ablaze. The caretaker is badly burned and spends several years in the hospital following the ill-conceived prank. Upon release, Cropsy, who has been driven mad by the ordeal, sets out on a murder spree at a nearby summer camp.
If there is a lesson to be learned from this entire ordeal, it’s that if you absolutely must prank someone with a worm-infested skull, you should be sure to use a flame-retardant light source to illuminate your handiwork.
The House on Sorority Row
The House on Sorority Row is one of my favorite slasher pictures of the ‘80s. It features a great cast of characters, brutal kill sequences, and a wild twist ending. The film follows a group of sorority sisters getting ready to leave Greek life behind and head out into the real world. But before they do, the gal pals plan to have a bitchin’ party at their sorority house. The only problem is that their battle axe house mother, Mrs. Slater, is having none of it. Pushed too far by Slater and her sour demeanor, the ladies decide it’s time to teach their crotchety house mother a valuable lesson.
As such, they abscond with her cane and command her to retrieve it. From the pool. At gunpoint. In true horror movie fashion, the prank goes horribly wrong and the young women come to believe they have killed their Mrs. Slater. Whoops. Determined not to let an accidental death spoil their party plans, the gals hide their house mother’s body. But it goes missing. Is she really dead? And if she is dead, who in the ever-loving hell is exacting revenge on the sisters?
As much as I love this movie, the inciting event is nothing short of twisted. Who trains a firearm on an elderly woman (no matter how unpleasant she may be) and commands that she retrieve her cane from the pool? Worse yet, they hide her body so her death doesn’t spoil their party.
Slaughter High
This off-the-beaten-path slasher effort doesn’t get everything right. But it’s certainly one I have come to appreciate more after repeat visits. The ending is a bit of a letdown. But if you can set that aside, there is plenty to enjoy.
The inciting incident involves a nerdy guy named Marty. Marty cannot catch a break. He is shy, awkward, and has no game. As such, when a pretty classmate suggests she may want to have sex with him, Marty thinks his luck has finally changed. Sadly, the proposition is insincere and part of a mean-spirited April Fools’ Day hoax that sees Marty publicly humiliated in nothing but his birthday suit. To add insult to injury, his cruel classmates then give Marty a laced joint that makes him sick and proceed to tamper with his science project. The interference with his experiment sees Marty being badly burned in an explosion. Fast-forward to five years later, the thoughtless pranksters receive an invite to a class reunion where they are repaid for their cruelty.
The prank sequence in this film is tough to stomach. Marty’s classmates are nothing short of evil. If nothing else, their mean-spirited nature makes what transpires at the reunion feel like poetic justice.
Terror Train
Aside from Halloween, Terror Train is my favorite Jamie Lee Curtis slasher. It makes effective use of an inventive setting and the way the killer masks their identity is rather inventive. Definitely a great flick to put into rotation around the new year. Or really any time of year, for that matter.
Terror Train sees Kenny, a mild-mannered fraternity pledge, duped, humiliated, and terrified by douchey frat bros. He thinks he is about to enjoy a dalliance with a pretty lady. But he is instead tricked into caressing a medical cadaver. Ack! That encounter is so traumatic that Kenny winds up institutionalized. Several years later, the creeps that played that nasty trick on Kenny board a party train on New Year’s Eve. They assume they are in store for a debauchery-filled evening but have no clue that the prank they pulled years prior will lead to their undoing. A killer is on board and they slyly change their appearance by donning the costume previously worn by their latest victim.
The moral of this story can be summed up rather succinctly: Tricking someone into canoodling with a corpse is unkind and may cause future complications, up to and including an untimely demise at the hands of a costume-changing killer on a party train!
Carrie
]Carrie is a tough watch. It’s a brilliant film and I enjoy it very much. But the bullying she endures is so difficult to sit through. She has no sanctuary. Both home and school are living hell. Her religious zealot mother is severely detached from reality and so ashamed of the idea of sexuality that she fails to explain menstruation to her teenage daughter. This leads to poor Carrie being scared and confused when her first period arrives. Her classmates have no empathy and respond by pelting her with tampons and telling her to “plug it up”. The young women that attack Carrie are eventually held accountable for their cruelty.
But rather than looking inward, the ringleader of the tampon siege, Chris Hargensen, blames Carrie for her misfortune. As such, Chris and her boyfriend hatch a plan to rig the vote and crown Carrie as prom queen. But rather than let her accept the title with dignity, Chris douses poor Carrie with blood as she is crowned prom queen. This is arguably the most diabolical and mean-spirited of the pranks on the list. Chris Hargensen is a special type of evil. But anyone that has seen the film is well aware that her story comes to a particularly fitting end.
