Jaden Jordan
- Aug 9, 2021
- 3 min read

Fantasy Island (2020)

The Breakdown: A group of people wins a contest that gives them a stay at an island that promises to make your deepest fantasies come true, just maybe not the way you expect.

Watch If: You're intoxicated and want a silly, blockbuster crap-film.

Not If: You're after an actually good film that... you know, makes sense.

SECONDARY FACTS

Overall Rating: 2.6

Length: 1:49

Country: USA

Language: English

Gore Factor: 1/5

REVIEW

THE QUICK AND DIRTY

Fantasy Island is a typical mediocre sudo-horror that offers a lukewarm presentation of a premise that was full of potential.

PREMISE: (3)

. The original Fantasy Island was a T.V. show that ran for seven seasons from the end of the 1970s to the early 1980s. Mostly dramedy with a hint of horror that focused on a "star of the week" predicament format. It had so much that could have come out of it in the modern age- in short, it was prime real estate for a remake. Unfortunately, this film took a boundary-less idea (Fantasy Fulfillment) and used the most mundane versions possibly. And there's something despicable in taking something with so much possibility and doing nothing with it.

ACTING:(3)

The acting is fine. No one steals the show, but no one was cringey. Most of these actors have other films under their belts that demonstrate their real abilities, and this was not the film for them to tap that effort.

AUDIO AND VISUALS:(2)

It is, unfortunately, fairly common for mass-market horror films to get lazy, and turn up the volume on the stereotypical sound score to artificially insert tension where there otherwise wouldn't be. The soundtrack itself is loud and chunky. Instead of enhancing or mimicking tension, which was likely the goal of it, it ends up undermining and natural tension or emotion that the film might have had, Pair that with some smack-you-in-the-face-with-a-bat green-screen effects, and you have a final product that feels dollar-store cheap.

ATMOSPHERE: (2)

This film is the movie equivalent of that one friend who has a gag voice mail intro, where it says hello, and lets you answer before going "syke" (Or whatever equivalent is hip with the cool kids these days).

What I'm trying to say is that this film tries to artificially inseminate itself with so many (predictable) twists and turns that the very appearance of the twists becomes tiresome. It's practically a poorly written love letter to Shyamalan.

While I will secede that the way all the storylines collide is interesting, it is completely drowned by the billion and three other twists in the last half of the film.

(And that's not even mentioning the smattering of poorly done jump scares that take over a good chunk of this film. )

DELIVERY: (3)

This film aggressively caters to the most mainstream interpretation, and it destroys anything good that this film could have been. But as bad as this movie was, films like these do need to exist- as gateways to future horror fans, as inspiration for the next person who can do this better, and ultimately, to present the questions, no matter how poorly its done, that make us think about ourselves, and what we really want.