Fantasy Island (film)

Fantasy Island, also known as Blumhouse's Fantasy Island,[2] is a 2020 American supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Jeff Wadlow. Serving both as a horror reimagining and a prequel to ABC's 1977 television series of the same name, it stars Michael Peña, Maggie Q, Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Hansen, Portia Doubleday, and Michael Rooker and follows a group of people who, while visiting the eponymous island, discover that their dream fantasies brought to life begin to turn into horrific living nightmares they must try to survive. Jason Blum produced through his Blumhouse Productions banner.[3]

Fantasy Island
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJeff Wadlow
Produced by
Written by
  • Jeff Wadlow
  • Chris Roach
  • Jillian Jacobs
Based onFantasy Island
by Gene Levitt
Starring
Music byBear McCreary
CinematographyToby Oliver
Edited bySean Albertson
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • February 14, 2020 (2020-02-14) (United States)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7 million[1]
Box office$48.5 million[1]

Fantasy Island was theatrically released in the United States on February 14, 2020 by Sony Pictures Releasing to overwhelmingly negative reviews. Despite this, the film was a box office success, grossing $48 million worldwide against its $7 million production budget.

Plot

After winning a contest, businesswoman Gwen Olsen, former police officer Patrick Sullivan, step-brothers J. D. and Brax Weaver, and disturbed Melanie Cole arrive at the enigmatic Fantasy Island, a tropical resort where fantasies apparently come true. Upon arrival, the island's proprietor, Mr. Roarke, explains that each of them will be given one fantasy and guides the guests to their wishes: J. D. and Brax become honor guests in a rave party at a mansion, Patrick is enlisted in a military war in honor of his late father, Melanie decides to take revenge on a childhood bully, and Gwen accepts her ex-boyfriend Alan Chambers' marriage proposal she rejected many years ago.

While torturing her bully, Sloane Maddison, by uploading an online video of her cheating on her husband, Melanie discovers that Sloane actually was kidnapped and taken to the island to perform the fantasy against her will. She saves her from a masked surgeon and they run away. Meanwhile, Patrick is captured by American soldiers who introduce him to their commander, Lieutenant Sullivan. There, Patrick realizes that he is his father, in his last mission before dying, although Sullivan does not recognize him.

As night falls, Melanie and Sloane are attacked again by the surgeon before he is killed by Damon, a private investigator who lives in the island. Damon takes them to a cave where he explains that the fantasies are created by the spring water under a glowing rock. Damon reveals that he came to investigate until Roarke offered him a wish to see his deceased daughter, but the fantasy turned into a living nightmare that trapped him on the island. The trio collect some spring water and continue to the resort to ask for help. The next morning, Gwen wakes up to discover that she has a child with Alan and becomes dissatisfied. Roarke appears and explains that he is living his own fantasy of being reunited with his deceased wife, and it will be fulfilled as long as the guests are granted to their fantasies. Gwen convinces Roarke to change her fantasy.

However, Fantasy Island begins to turn the other fantasies into living nightmares as J. D. and Brax are taken hostage by a drug cartel associated with the mansion's owner, and Gwen is taken to the night she accidentally caused a fire that killed her neighbor Nick Taylor. She realizes that all the other guests, except Melanie, were there that same night. Gwen tries to save Nick but fails and she is rescued by Roarke's personal assistant, Julia. At the same time, Sullivan's soldiers are called to rescue some hostages, who turn out to be J. D. and Brax. After being murdered, the cartel reanimate as zombies who attack the soldiers. In the ensuing chaos, J. D. is shot dead and Sullivan sacrifices himself so that his son and Brax can escape back to the resort.

Melanie and Sloane are ambushed by the zombified surgeon until Damon leaps over a cliff with him, saving them at the cost of his own life. The remaining guests regroup at the resort, but are cornered by Roarke, who reveals that they are part of someone else's fantasy in which they are all killed. Realizing that everyone was involved in Nick's death, the guests deduce that this is Roarke's fantasy, believing that he and Julia are Nick's parents. The guests escape to the dock to be rescued by a plane sent by Damon's associates, only for it to be shot down. The group run to the cave to destroy the glowing rock with a grenade that Patrick is carrying.

Suddenly, Melanie stabs and wounds Patrick before taking Sloane hostage. She reveals that this is her true fantasy, having orchestrated the contest to seek revenge on the guests for Nick's death, with whom she was supposed to have a date on the night he died; it is also revealed that Julia is Roarke's wife. When Julia begins to die, she convinces Roarke to help his guests to escape from the island before disappearing. Remembering the spring water she collected before, Sloane drinks it and fantasizes Melanie being together with Nick. This causes Melanie to be attacked by Nick's zombified corpse, which drags her into the water. Before drowning, Melanie detonates the grenade against the guests, but Patrick sacrifices himself by falling on it to protect the others.

The fantasy concludes, and Gwen, Sloane and Brax wake up at the resort, where Roarke finally agrees to let them go. As the three survivors board a plane to leave the now-purified Fantasy Island, Brax wishes for J. D. to return to life and go home. Roarke explains that Brax must remain on the island for his fantasy to come true. After Gwen, Sloane and the now-revived J. D. depart on the plane, Roarke asks Brax to be his new personal assistant and to have a nickname. Remembering a nickname his step-brother gave him at college, Brax chooses to call himself "Tattoo", initiating the 1977 television series' events.

Cast

Production

In July 2018, it was announced in July 2018 that a horror film adaptation of the Fantasy Island television series was being developed at Blumhouse Productions and Sony Pictures. It was described as "a mix of Westworld and The Cabin in the Woods". Jeff Wadlow was set to direct as well as co-write the screenplay, and co-produce.[4]

In October 2018, Michael Peña, Jimmy O. Yang, Dave Bautista, and Lucy Hale joined the cast.[5][6][7][8] In November 2018, during an interview, Wadlow disclosed that Maggie Q, Portia Doubleday, and Ryan Hansen were added as well, though Bautista was no longer to appear in the film.[9] Michael Rooker, Charlotte McKinney, Parisa Fitz-Henley, Austin Stowell, and Mike Vogel were cast in January 2019.[10]

Filming locations

Most filming was in Viani Bay, Fiji.[11] Minor scenes were filmed in New York and Mississippi.

Music
Fantasy Island:
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
Bear McCreary
ReleasedFebruary 14, 2020
GenreSoundtrack
Length1:11:01
LabelMadison Gate
ProducerBear McCreary
Bear McCreary chronology
Eli
(2019)		 Fantasy Island:
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(2020)

On February 14, 2020, Madison Gate Records released the score soundtrack for the film composed by Bear McCreary.[12] Jared Lee performed a track titled "Don’t Wish Your Life Away", which appeared in the film's end credits and was released as a single on January 31, 2020.[13]

All tracks are written by McCreary.

No.TitleLength
1."You Are One of My Guests"1:37
2."Arrival"3:45
3."Regret Is a Disease"2:26
4."Your Fantasy Begins Now"5:47
5."No Soldier"5:45
6."The Life You Wanted"2:51
7."Panic Room"2:30
8."Dog Tags"3:26
9."Brax Makes His Move"2:44
10."You Deserve It"2:04
11."The Heart of the Island"4:38
12."Fighting"4:28
13."A Devil, a Pig and a Clown"6:36
14."Not My Fantasy"2:58
15."The Island’s Secret"8:49
16."In the Cave"4:24
17."Hate in My Heart"3:05
18."Every Guest Gets a Fantasy"6:01
19."What Happens Now"2:40
Total length:1:11:01

Release

Fantasy Island was released on February 14, 2020.[14][15] It originally was scheduled to open on February 28, 2020, before being moved up, with another Blumhouse production, The Invisible Man, being set for its original date.[2]

Home media

Fantasy Island was released on digital on April 14, 2020. Later, the film released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 12, 2020.[16]

Reception

Box office

Fantasy Island grossed $26.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $22 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $48.5 million, against a production budget of $7 million.[1]

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Sonic the Hedgehog, The Photograph and Downhill, and was projected to gross $13–20 million from 2,770 theaters in its opening weekend.[17] It made $5.7 million on its first day, and went on to debut to $12.6 million for its first three days, and a total $14 million over four, finishing third at the box office.[18]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 7% based on 108 critics, with an average rating of 3.40/10. The site's critics consensus read: "Fantasy Island tries to show audiences the dark side of wish fulfillment, but mainly serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of exhuming long-dead franchises."[19] On Metacritic, the film had a score of 22 out of 100 based on 29 critic reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C−" on an A+ to F scale.[21]

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "inane" and "contrived," and wrote that "it feels like someone planted about a half-dozen different scripts all over this Fantasy Island."[22] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film zero out of five stars, writing, "If crimes against cinema merited prosecution, Blumhouse's Fantasy Island would go directly to death row...The only genuine, blood-curdling scream incited by this stupefyingly dull time- and money-waster comes at the end, when the notion dawns that [the film] is meant to spawn sequels. Stop it now, before it kills again."[23] Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com wrote that the film "contains less raw terror in its entirety than Sonic the Hedgehog during any five minutes of its running time," calling it "utterly boring" and "no sane person's fantasy of a half-decent movie."[24]

References
  1. "Fantasy Island (2020)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  2. Miska, Brad (December 1, 2018). "Sony and Blumhouse's 'Fantasy Island' is a Horror Film; Set for Release in 2020!". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on December 3, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  3. McNary, Dave (December 1, 2018). "Michael Pena's 'Fantasy Island' Movie Lands 2020 Release". Variety. Archived from the original on December 2, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  4. "'Fantasy Island' Movie in the Works at Blumhouse". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  5. "Michael Pena to Star as Mr. Roarke in 'Fantasy Island'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  6. "Jimmy O. Yang Joins Blumhouse's 'Fantasy Island' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  7. "Dave Bautista in Talks to Join Michael Pena in 'Fantasy Island' Movie (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  8. "Lucy Hale Boards 'Fantasy Island' for Blumhouse and Sony". TheWrap. October 12, 2018. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  9. The Mutuals Interviews - Jeff Wadlow, archived from the original on March 9, 2020, retrieved February 13, 2020
  10. N'Duka, Amanda (January 18, 2019). "'Fantasy Island' Welcomes Michael Rooker, Charlotte McKinney, Parisa Fitz-Henley & Austin Stowell". Deadline. Archived from the original on October 31, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  11. "Lucy Hale on Instagram: "Fantasy freaking Island. Here we go."". Instagram. January 14, 2019. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
  12. "'Blumhouse's Fantasy Island' Soundtrack Details". Film Music Reporter. February 13, 2020. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  13. "Jared Lee's Original Song 'Don't Wish Your Life Away' from 'Fantasy Island' Released". Film Music Reporter. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on January 31, 2020. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  14. Squires, John (August 22, 2019). "Blumhouse's 'Fantasy Island' Horror Movie Gets a New Release Date". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on August 22, 2019. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  15. D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 22, 2019). "Blumhouse-Sony's 'Fantasy Island' Moves Up Two Weeks – Update". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 22, 2019. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  16. Miska, Brad (March 30, 2020). "'Fantasy Island' Gets Unrated Release With Commentary and Deleted Scenes". Bloody Disgusting. Archived from the original on March 31, 2020. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  17. Rebecca Rubin (February 12, 2020). "'Sonic' to Speed Past 'Birds of Prey,' 'Fantasy Island' at Box Office". Variety. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  18. D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 15, 2020). "'Sonic The Hedgehog' Runs Up $3M In Thursday Night Previews". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 15, 2020. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  19. "Fantasy Island (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  20. "Blumhouse's Fantasy Island Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  21. Mendelson, Scott (February 16, 2020). "Box Office: 'Downhill' Flops, But 'Parasite' Gets A Huge Oscar Boost". Forbes. earned a C- from CinemaScore, so it's not long for this world.
  22. Roeper, Richard (February 14, 2020). "Blumhouse's inane 'Fantasy Island' not worth the trek to the multiplex". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on February 14, 2020. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  23. Travers, Peter (February 14, 2020). "'Fantasy Island' Review: A Nightmare of a Reboot". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 15, 2020. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  24. Sobczynski, Peter (February 14, 2020). "Fantasy Island movie review & film summary (2020)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on February 15, 2020. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
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