FANTASY ISLAND
US, 2020, 110 minutes, Colour.
Michael Peña, Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Jimmy O.Yang, Ryan Hansen, Maggie Q, Charlotte Mc Kinney, Evan Evagora, Portia Doubleday, Kim Coates, Michael Rooker Parisa Fitz- Henley.
Directed by Jeff Wadlow.
On hearing of Fantasy Island, some older audiences might be delighted. It was a favourite golden oldie television series making a comeback?. Well, not exactly!
In recent years the Blumhouse Company has been very successful in producing smaller budget horror stories, drawing on all kinds of conventions and eagerly exploiting them. Audience response, younger rather than older, has been very positive. Some of their films have been Truth or Dare, Happy Death Day, Us.
But what has happened here is that the basic idea, created by Gene Levitt in the 1970s into the 1980s, has been appropriated for an island where the fantasies lead not just to a self-revelation, but to some horror experiences.
Once upon a time, there was the Hispanic Ricardo Montalban as Mr Rourke. Now there is the Hispanic Michael Peña as the 21st-century Mr Rourke. At the beginning, he has an assistant, Julia, a woman of mystery. But, at the end, as he calls out “the plane, the plane�, there is a brand-new Tattoo!
As expected, there is a motley group of guests each on their own quest. There is Gwen (Maggie Q) who regrets she did not accept a marriage proposal five years earlier. There is the young and brash Melanie (Lucy Hale) who is still resentful about a school bully and wants to see some justice done. Patrick (Austin Stowell) is an upright character with military ambitions, remembering his hero father. And then there is a kind of brash 21st-century Abbott and Costello type of partnership, stepbrothers, one tall and very white American, the other short and Asian (Ryan Hansen and Jimmy O.Yang). The stepbrothers have a very easy fantasy, some indulgence in the kind of Spring Break cavortings, drinking, sex…
There is some further complications on the island, a private detective who has been sent to investigate what on earth is going on. There are also some mercenaries, in link with the drug dealer who previously owned the island. Clearly there are going to be threats, guns (and several grenades).
As the film goes on, as we might have expected, people start to enter into other people’s fantasies, pursued also by the baddies, so that the plot becomes, to say the least, overly-convoluted. One must agree with one reviewer who remarked that in the middle of the filmmaking, they tossed all the pages into the air and decided to film whatever landed first. Which rather undermines the credibility, especially the revelation of the final villain.
This is one of Blumhouse’s lesser efforts, a reasonable idea but there is that tangle of the convolution.
1. The Blumhouse company and its making of small budget horror films? Its success and reputation?
2. Television and Fantasy Island, memories of Ricardo Montalbano, Hispanic, Mr Rourke? Tattoo as his assistant? Calling out that the plane was arriving, the guests, meeting their fantasies – in a romantic holiday situation?
3. Turning this premise into horror?
4. The screenplay, the guest characters, filling in their backgrounds, delineating their fantasies, the various twists, entering into each other’s fantasies, realism and fantasy, dangers and violence, the life-giving power of the fountain in the cave? The final revelation of the villain – how plausible?
5. This talk, Michael Peña and his Hispanic presence, Julia as his assistant and welcoming? Mr Rourke and his explanations, immersion into the fantasies, following them through to the end? His own fantasy, the relationship with his wife?
6. The range of staff on the island? The plausibility of so many fantasies and the crowds acting them out? The private detective on the island and his interventions? The drug dealers in link with the previous owner and their invading the island?
7. Melanie’s story, young and brash, the revenge on the bullying student, going into the control room, her enemy bound and gagged, the doctor coming to torture her, the console, pressing the buttons, the various attacks? Her discovery that this was real, that Sloane had been abducted, her in fidelity to her husband, the phone call to the husband? Her rescuing Sloane, linking up with the others, going through the cave? The revelation that she was the villain? How plausible? Her fantasy and her place in other’s fantasies?
8. Sloane, the bully, her husband, infidelity, abducted, gagged and bound, the torture, rescued by Melanie, the apology? The escape together, the dangers in the cave? Her other self? And the revelation of the truth and her escape?
9. Patrick, the military image, memories of his father, the uniform, participating in the fantasies of his father’s last mission, going to Venezuela, the soldiers, his being captured, revealing himself to his father, their going into other people’s fantasies, the danger to Patrick, his father falling on the grenade? Patrick, helping the others, military interventions, his sacrificing himself?
10. Gwen, her fantasy, meeting her fiance, the same meal, five years earlier, the proposal, her acceptance? The discovery of her life, married for five years, her daughter? Her remembering the past, causing the fire, in the fire, her being rescued? Her daughter turning on her?
11. Brad and Bracks, half-brothers, the kind of spring break fantasy, Chastity, Bracks has gay, the men? Their becoming involved in the other fantasies? The dangers, Brad and his death? Bracks and some heroism?
12. The private detective, desperate, trying to help, the women, saving them, going over the cliff?
13. The mercenaries, their masks, uniforms, attack, the violence, the weapons? The guests defending themselves?
14. The confrontation with Mr Rourke, the truth? Julia dying?
15. Leaving the island, Mr Rourke staying, Bracks becoming Tattoo, saving Brad, the women on the plane going to safety?
