The Death of April (2022) Review – A Stale and Uninspired Mockumentary

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we will be reviewing found footage mockumentary horror The Death of April from 2022.

A horror inspired by a classic mockumentary

The Death of April follows the story of teaching assistant Meagan. Hoping for a new start, Meagan moves across the country to the east side of the US. Feeling somewhat confused by her decision, her family are disappointed but support her anyway. Upon arriving in her new home, Meagan begins to experience bizarre happenings. Could it be down to a supposed haunting or something a lot more sinister?

The Death of April is one of those movies that seems to be heavily inspired by the fantastic mockumentary Lake Mungo. A ton of films emerged copying the aforementioned horror classic’s style. Many of which were American which seems strange given Lake Mungo‘s format was very much akin to Australian and British documentaries rather than the type you would see in America. While some of these movies are completely watchable, many of them are pretty awful, completely missing the point of what made Lake Mungo so effective. The Death of April is one of the latter.

The story follows protagonist Meagan who is investigating the murder of a girl called April. When information gathering about this movie, after I finished watching of course, I noticed this seemed to confuse a few people so thought I would help clear that up. The movie features interviews with Meagan’s family, videos taken by Meagan during her investigations and videos taken by her brother. All of which hint at something tragic having taken place, the nature of we are not quite sure.

A fairly interesting start

Like many of these movies that throw you in somewhere near the end. The backtracking to find out what has happened makes for an interesting start.  It is made fairly clear that something has happened to Meagan and we are not quite sure what that is. Meagan isn’t a particularly interesting, or even likable, character but I did find myself quite intrigued by what exactly happened to her and how it took place.

“The story keeps hinting at a darkness inside Meagan, but she is so obnoxiously cheerful that it is hard to imagine anything being inside of her other than bubblegum and jolly ranchers.”

It all falls apart pretty quickly, though, unfortunately. We find ourselves in a cycle of Meagan filming herself as fairly inconsequential things happen. All the while, she becomes less and less likable and more and more annoying. The things around her house moving on their own and doors mysteriously shutting behind her now seems like an awful reason to keep watching this annoying person talk. The story keeps hinting at a darkness inside Meagan. She is so obnoxiously cheerful, however, that it is hard to imagine anything being inside of her other than bubblegum and jolly ranchers.

A repetitive cycle of interviews with family discussing Meagan’s changes and scenes of stuff happening around the house form the basis of the next 40 minutes. It offers nothing to invest in and very little to care about. The stakes are low and what little stakes that exist are wasted through lack of story development and exposition. This goes on, throughout. The movie just fizzles to a close with no satisfying conclusion and the kind of directorial shoulder shrug that says “I don’t know, you figure it out!”. It wouldn’t be so bad if there were a few scares to latch on to. There are none at all.

Acting is okay, direction is mixed

Acting is what you might expect from a movie like this. Some people seem more comfortable than others in the interview setting, something that is really common with mockumentaries. Katarina Hughes, as Meagan, feels like a weird casting choice. As mentioned above, she seems like a really nice person, I couldn’t imagine her having a dark side. This makes some of the movie’s scenes feel a bit silly as well as robbing them of gravity. 

“Rodriguez’s focus on story over scares was a big misstep because the story is just not that interesting. It is a shame because the mockumentary setup is well done.”

I found many of Meagan’s vlogs annoying. Like she was told to just chew up time so she filled it with awkward improv. You can see Hughes become more comfortable with the format as the movie goes on, though. Some tighter scripting would have been good to keep the story on track. Amy Rutledge has a brief role as something of a medium. You may know her from Rent-a-Pal, a movie we reviewed a while ago. She was decent in that and she is fine in this.

Side characters are all fine. Stephanie Domini, as Meagan’s mum, and Chelsea Clark, as Meagan’s friend Heather, are both passable. They seem, for the most part, fairly natural in front of the camera. Travis Peters, as Meagan’s dad, seems a little less natural. The most comfortable in front of the camera is Adam Lowder as Meagan’s brother. His character is pretty annoying but Lowder does a nice job.

As far as direction goes, this one is a real mixed bag. Ruben Rodriguez’s pacing is a little off. The movie drags massively in the middle and will likely lose much of the audience around this point. His focus on story over scares was a big misstep because the story is just not that interesting. It’s a shame because the mockumentary setup is well done.

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