Fantasy Island (2020) | Review

A reimagining of the 1978 series Fantasy Island released on Valentine’s Day 2020. I can’t say that I’ve watched the show before, but I did know it existed. I watched the trailer several weeks ago and immediately made plans to see it.

That was a good decision too! Fantasy Island (2020) ended up being a complicated storyline based around what one person would do for love. But that didn’t ruin the story for me.

Mr. Roarke did it!

The first couple of moments into the movie, I felt most, if not all, of the characters introduced off of the plane to visit Fantasy Island seem obnoxious for some reason or another. And I knew the staff was definitely in on whatever Mr. Roarke had planned. Not to mention the assistant, Julie, seemed a little shifty too. As welcoming as she was, she had the creepiest vibes for me.

However, Mr. Roarke has a little comedic relief in certain moments to start the movie off in the first 20 minutes. We find out he’s the keeper of the island and also living a “fantasy” as long as he orchestrates the islands will.

What’s your fantasy?

I won’t go into significant details of the film, but each individual starts their fantasy off, and its chill enough until the island in some way perverts it.

And of course, there’s a man on the island, a private investigator, trying to warn the guests, but he’s not good at it. His experience with the island has been perverted, and now he wants to expose it.

The one rule of the island is once a fantasy begins, you have to see it through to its natural conclusion.

The five people who came on the trip, don’t know each other, but they turn out to have a connected moment in the past. As a result, all the fantasies intertwine due to one person’s actual fantasy.

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It’s an action horror film, but it’s not the scariest movie you’ll see. The conclusion of the film did leave me with a few questions. For example, what happens to Mr. Roarke? Is the island still going to pervert people’s fantasies? Will Blumhouse try to make a sequel?

Regarding my last question, I don’t think this film needs a sequel. So many of the mysteries were revealed in the final act of the movie. But, maybe they’d have to have new cast members, plus different information about the island to make a sequel worthwhile. But this film as a one-off is absolutely an exciting movie to watch, especially as you unfold how the characters are related.