Movie Review: Fantasy Island

By Ryan Grow | February 25, 2020

Fantasy Island brings your deepest fantasies to life, and the new movie gives it a horror twist to keep things even more interesting. 

The enigmatic Mr. Roarke (Michael Pena) makes the secret dreams of his lucky guests come true at a luxurious but remote tropical resort, but when the fantasies turn into nightmares, the guests have to solve the island’s mystery in order to escape with their lives.

Remakes, reboots, and revivals have been a constant theme in pop culture within the last decade, mainly with the horror genre. The latest addition is Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island, a thriller that turns the 70’s television series into a horror movie. 

For those who say that the movie is confusing, you are both right and wrong. There are several plots happening at once and it does get confusing, but its all one clear storyline different things happening to each individual. 

It deviates from the typical movie formula: where you discover something is not quite what it seems and you investigate it and defeat the villain. The film does things a bit differently and even though there are many plotlines happening, for each character its something that’s easily understood. 

Its when they all reunite towards the end of the film that it becomes one story and everything is made clear. It’s just a series of interesting adventures and when the big plot twist happens it’s brilliant and unexpected. Director/co-writer Jeff Wadlow does a great job of plotting out the story in a way that keeps you guessing and never loses focus. 

It may be a horror movie, but it has a lot of meaning that lies underneath. All the characters go through journeys that change them, certain characters more than others but that is getting into spoiler territory. The movie was perfectly cast and they all brought something special to the film. 

Overall, Fantasy Island is a pretty interesting movie and even though in the beginning things might look confusing, it all pays off in the end.

Critic Review: 4/5 stars

What did you think of the film? Sound off in the comments.