The Death of April is one of those eked-out found footage films that delve into what happened in the past. Despite a strong cast and great performances, the first half of the film is so slow, that I contemplated fast-forwarding it. In opposition to the title, the girl in question is called Megan.
There is not a lot aside from personal interviews with Megan’s family and friends that attest to her personality. Some of these opinions point to activities that weren’t the usual norm for the 22-year-old but this section of the film felt like watching a bunch of rudimentary boring tapes about someone unknown to you. One quick moment depicts Megan playing with a sharp knife but at almost the 30-minute mark it became obvious, that there is some climactic turn that requires these people to convince the audience Megan is a nice and friendly girl.
Momentary glimpses slowly introduced that edge toward the usual trope similar to that seen in Paranormal Activity films where a family or family member is overtaken by a supernatural entity. And that’s exactly where Megan heads. She talks about things moving around in her apartment. She shows her boyfriend some footage of a glass moving in the foreground of one of her videos. Megan also begins to look into whoever lived in her apartment before and discovers that a girl called April was found murdered a few years ago.
The Death of April Horror Movie
So of course there eventually comes a time in the film when we need the obligatory Megan doing weird things. The things Megan begins to do aren’t novel or new. She is seen standing in the yard, soaking wet and staring at nothing. Memory lapses are reported where Megan has done things she can’t recall and are things her friends see her do that they don’t like.
Megan herself films a few clips of her talking about strange noises in the night. While I like movies of this nature, it would have been nice to see something unique surrounding her climatic possession throughout the film.
Writer and director Ruben Rodriguez doesn’t even try to surprise fans of paranormal movies in The Death of April. The conversation is not interesting it’s repetitive. The more Megan starts talking about the weird stuff that is happening the more impromptu the scripting seems. Still, though, the film overall is a nice time passer. Production values are what you would expect from a small-budget found budget film. It’s creepy enough if that’s what you’re looking for.
The Death of April is rated
2 Great performances wasted in a lackluster narrative out of 5
