In light of the upcoming slasher Sorority Row being released in theaters this Friday (September 11th), here are the top ten pranks that have gone wrong in horror movies. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet for Sorority Row (which you can see here in standard or in hi-def), then you’re missing out on why this top ten is relevant. In the trailer, six girls of Theta Pi play a prank on one of the girl’s cheating boyfriend. The prank goes horribly, horribly wrong beyond it’s already morbid show resulting in the death of one of the girls of Theta Pi. Walla! You now have relevance.

This is part I of the top ten and where I only give you the last five, ten (10) through six (6), first and then tomorrow will be the top 5 most twisted, gone wrong pranks of them all. Lets get the show on the road, shall we?

Warning: If you continue to read, there will be SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Number 10: April Fool’s Day (1986)

Directed by Fred Walton and written by Beverly Hills Cop writer Danilo Bach, April Fool’s Day is nothing more than one big prank. That is why it is at the last spot in our countdown. It is kind of a cop out prank but, none the less; it still counts. The ingenious part of this movie is that it is kind of fooling the viewer. We are never a part of the gag and we end up being pleasantly surprised at the end, or on other hand become enraged because none of it really happened – no real bodies or blood but all fake, party town hoaxes.

The plot involves eight college friends who get together to celebrate their completion of the final year. They are invited to come to an isolated island mansion provided by Muffy St. John. Just as the trip seems to be a fun getaway, one by one they start to disappear or show up brutally murdered. They ask themselves if this is this part of a cruel joke or is there something more sinister with Muffy St. John and her past?

April Fool’s Day stars Real Genius’s Deborah Foreman as Muffy St. John and Amy Steel of Friday the 13th Part II.

Number 9: Tamara (2005)

From the writing of Final Destination Jeffery Riddick and the greenhorn director Jeremy Haft, Tamara is a tale of revenge. Tamara is the nerdy girl of high school, the one always being teased. So, when she supernaturally awakens from her death after a prank by the high school jocks, she becomes the anti-hero, super sexy witch with vengeance in her eyes.

The plot of Tamara is about an unattractive, shy occult practicing girl who, although very intelligent, has no self-esteem or friends. To boost her confidence, Tamara writes an article for the paper about the athletes in the school using illegal enhancement substances. When two jocks, Shawn and Patrick, get wind of her having a crush on her handsome English professor Mr. Natolly, they construct their prank in order to get back at her. She is lured by Shawn and Patrick, along with four other individuals, to a motel room where she believes Mr. Natolly is, and starts to undress. She is surprised when Shawn and Patrick pop out of the closet with a video camera and during the struggle, Tamara is killed, buried and forgotten…until the next day.

The film stars Jenna Dewan as Tamara and Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchad’s Matthew Marsden.

Number 8: Joy Ride (2001)

Never talk to strangers, even over the CB radio! Joy Ride is born from the writers Clay Tarver and Cloverfield scriber J.J. Abrams with John Dahl at the helm. Some truckers just can’t take a joke. Leave it to a voice called Rusty Nail to prey on the pranksters. Rusty is just a lonely man who all he ever wanted to was to meet up with Black Sheep for some night lovin’. Instead, he gets the shaft by a couple of young punks and decides to play his own games with them. This is the ultimate cat and mouse game but with large semis. Throw in a few tense moments and you have yourself a perfect little off road thriller.

Joy Ride has Lewis driving across country to pick up his college sweetheart Venna. Along the way, he bails out his little brother Fuller from jail. On one of their stops to Venna’s, Fuller buys a cheap CB radio and decides he is going to have himself a bit of fun. Fuller coaxes Lewis into giving the CB a try and pretends to be a trucker sweet heart named Black Sheep. Lewis and Fuller convince a deep voiced midnight carrier called Rusty Nail to meet them at a motel. Soon the prank takes a sour turn as the room that was given to Rusty actually had somebody else in it and that person turns up dead. Now, the two brothers are being stalked and terrorized by Rusty on the open road and over the air.

Joy Ride stars Fast and the Furious’s Paul Walker, Saving Silverman’s Steve Zahn and the awkwardly beautiful LeeLee Sobieski from suspense thriller The Glass House.

Number 7: Terror Train (1980)

At the gleaming light of the Jamie Lee Curtis’s freshly acquired career and stardom, thanks to John Carpenter’s Halloween, she lands herself another movie where she can vocalize her screaming voice yet again. This time, instead of a house, she is on a train…a Terror Train. It is New Year’s eve and the Sigma Phi fraternity wants to have a little fun with one of their pledges – Kenny Hampson. Our leading lady Alana is coerced into leading Kenny up to a dark room believing he will score with the hottie. As Alana hides, Kenny strips and places himself in bed next to somebody. Unknown to Kenny is that the somebody is just an actual dead body. Once the prank is upon him, he snaps and ends up in a mental institute. Children shouldn’t play with dead things…right? All aboard!

The plot to Terror Train is fairly simple. Take everything I said above and then tack on three years later when its graduation time and the fraternity plus Alana board a train to celebrate. People start to die a gruesome death and suspicions run high. The killer uses various masks, include Groucho Marx mask, and eludes those who try to track the killer down.

Terror Train stars Jamie Lee Curtis from the Halloween series, Urban Legends: Final Cut’s Hart Bochner and a very young magician by the name of David Copperfield.

Number 6: Slaughter High (1986)

Slaughter High comes from then first time writers and directors Mark Ezra and George Dugdale. This superb, or subpar, high school teen revenge movie is in much of the same boat as Tamara’s plot. The prank pulled here was against a nerdy kid named Marty Rantzen. He is lured by Carol Manning, a smoking hot babe, into the locker room where he thinks he is about to have sex with Carol. By the end of the entire day prank, Marty is embarrassed and with acid on his face, leaving him horribly disfigured. Smart kids never look out for the acid because they’re too busy focusing on them jocks. Silly nerds…

To further the plot, we’ll have to go in a bit deeper than what their is above. Marty is horribly disfigured. We got that down. Years later, those involved in the prank are invited to a 10 year class reunion only to show up to a desolate building about to be demolished. The friends start to die off one by one and they quickly come to the conclusion that Marty must be back and to take revenge on them all for what they have done to him.

Slaughter High stars Hammer Horror icon Caroline Munro and Simon Scuddamore as Marty Rantzen.

Check back tomorrow for Part II as I will give out the top 5 pranks gone wrong in horror movies!