Movie Review: ‘Fantasy Island' (2020) - The Dark Side of Paradise


Source - Amazon

“Be careful what you wish for”

Introduction

Movie’s Name - Fantasy Island (2020)’

Directed by - Jeff Wadlow

Based on - Fantasy Island by Gene Levitt

Genre - Horror, Adventure, Thriller, Science Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Supernatural

Language - English

Rating - PG-13 (Durg Content | Brief Strong Language | Suggestive Material | Terror | Violence)

The Main Cast

Michael Pena as Mr. Roarke

Maggie Q as Gwen Olsen

Lucy Hale as Melanie Cole

Austin Stowell as Patrick Sullivan

Jimmy O. Yang as Brax Weaver/ Tattoo

Ryan Hansen as J.D. Weaver

Portia Doubleday as Sloane Maddison

Michael Rooker as Damon

Synopsis

A suave yet sinister and enigmatic Mr. Roarke makes the dreams of his guests come true at a luxurious tropical resort situated on an island. 

“Fantasies really play out as you would expect”

Everything starts to go awry when the fantasies turn into nightmares of a group of young lads who are connected to a person’s death upon their arrival on the island. These visitors must soon solve the island’s mystery in order to escape with their lives.

Plot

After winning a contest, businesswoman Gwen, former police officer Patrick, step-brothers J.D. and Brax and disturbed Melanie arrive at an enigmatic Fantasy Island that assures their fantasies and dreams come true. However, Roarke warns them that they will be allowed to only fulfill and live one fantasy per person in their journey.

“The fright is real, not a fantasy”

On making the wish every character is found to be involved and living their own fantasy at the tropical resort. But soon they realise the island has turned their fantasy into living nightmares. 

Soon the group realises that every guest was involved in a person called Nick and his death, they deduce that this is Roarke’s fantasy, believing that Roarke and his wife Julia are Nick’s parents. 

“To escape a price has to be paid”

The guests try to escape but turn into hostages when a group of gangsters shoot down the plane which was their only resort to escape. It stands to see how the group will solve the island’s mystery by paying a price in order to escape and survive.

The Movie

Fantasy Island also known as Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island is an American supernatural horror movie serving as a reimagining prequel to ABC’s 1977 television series of the same name. The movie was theatrically released in February 2020 but generated negative reviews from critics.

Despite it, the film grossed a fair huge amount of box office success worldwide against its production budget. The movie’s overall approval rating was 7% with an average rating of 3% by the critics. 

As the movie tries to show the long-dead exhuming fantasies to show the dark side of wish fulfillment many critics have labelled the film as contrived with dull plot and money waste investment. 

Some have also called it utterly boring and that the movie did not live upto its terror genre as throughout the movie contains very less terror scenes.  

Stills from the Movie - Spoiler Alert!

1. The Arrival to the Fantasy Island

Source - Behind The Lens

“Welcome to Fantasy Island. And congratulations to each of you on winning the contest.” (Julia)

2. Melanie’s fantasy to torture her high school bully Sloane Maddison. However, she soon realises Sloane is really sitting on the torture seat where Dr. Torture is going to give her the worst nightmare and pain. 

Source - The Phuket News

“Stop! Stop! Call it off! (Melanie)

Source - Daily Mail

“Dr. Torture?” (Melanie)

3. Gwen realises her fantasy of a happy married life that she always wished is escalating fast to years ahead. After much contemplation she becomes sure her wish was to face the regret of not being able to save her neighbour who lived in the apartment above.


Source - Product Placement Blog

“Okay, enough.” (Gwen)

(Roarke’s wife Julia helps Gwen to change her fantasy)

Source - Entertainment Focus

“It’s not what I want, it’s what I have to do” (Gwen)

4. The young lads watch the plane, their only resort to escape, burst into pieces on being shot by a group of gangsters. Unfortunately by this time J.D. is dead.

Source - Bloody Disgusting

(And now they are on their way to the cave where the spring that causes the fantasies is. If it is destroyed they finally get to escape)

  1. The Revenge Backfires - Everyone gets to know that Melanie is behind the fantasy and getting them killed as they were involved in Nick’s death. But the tables turn when Sloane drinks the spring water and starts her new fantasy of escaping safely by getting rid of Melanie.

Source - Youtube

“Fantasy fucking Island” (Brax)

Personal Verdict in One Sentence

For a production house that focuses on horror, Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island does not live upto the trend of eliciting thrill and excitement. The movie is better at eliciting yawns than frights.

The Bottom Line

Though the movie is a hard mix of sharp changes in its tempo only some parts of it stand out to be good while surprisingly most other scenes lag and pull the entire story line down. The movie did have an optimistic tale to tell but ended up being a shoddy affair.

My ratings for the movie - 2.5 on 5

You may watch the movie on - Amazon Prime Video

Written By - Umme-Aiman