Fantasy Island was Co-Produced by Blumhouse and
A Tower of Babbel production, and distributed by Sony pictures, it seems like producer Jason Blum has developed a strong strategy of getting his next venture off the ground. Co-written and directed by Jeff Wadlow, starring Maggie Q (Nikita), Lucy Hale (Katy Keene) and Michael Pena (Ant-Man). Fantasy Island the movie got released on Valentine's day, and was marketed with a hint of horror. The film was brought to you by the same team that brought you Blumhouse's Truth or Dare. Which was released two years prior, Featuring the same director and three quarters of the same writing team, and returns it's leading starlet in the form of actress Lucy Hale who was coming off her long stint on pretty little liars at the time. Both films have been panned by most critics but enjoyed by the target audience. Fantasy island had twice the budget, but percentage wise the film did under perform. When compared to Truth or Dare - there is 50% drop in ticket sales both abroad and domestically in just the film's opening week. None-the-less with Blumhouse's production model the film has made its return and over 5 million dollars gross profit domestically in its opening day weekend.
The Premise - It is a remake of the 1977 television series which was an Aaron Spelling production that ran for seven seasons and a little bit of the rebooted (1998) series which ran for only one. Sticking with Spelling's model, of usually 2 or 3 groups of visitors come to this island to be granted their fantasy of a missed opportunity or regret; With the condition that the participants must see their fantasy concluded to its very end. Mr. Roark the Island's host does not mention that the island has designs of its own when giving these fantasy which everything comes at a cost. The motif of a snake or serpent and the dripping of single drop of blood is not fully explained, nor how water runs throughout the movie acts as a catalyst. The film begins to pick up pace when Michael Rooker's character Damon appears and sets the stage by revealing something sinister lies beneath the surface. And all 4 sets of guest have something particularly unbeknownst to them very much in common. Clues are dropped and an explanation is given to how the island does work, the final act gives a twist that explains some of the imagery we see throughout the film, and provides the thread of that underlining link. However many of the island's machinations is troublesome and rules that the film creates for a frame of reference is all but completely discarded for the sake of building climatic conclusion. The elements of implied horror is merely obstacles for each guest to overcome, nothing gory or visceral to leave an impression for the general viewing audience. Fantasy Island was rated PG-13 for violence , terror, drug content, suggestive material and brief strong language.
If I had one question to ask the writers or key actors, that would be how self aware are all the guests particularly the brothers at the end of the film's run. And if I could end on a follow up question, Why pick an intellectual property that fans who remember the series would have not seen an episode in 36 years, when the final episode aired; and the young audience to whom are the intended demographic will have no context or understanding of the source material. There exist a danger of missing the opportunity of getting a much larger audience to see the movie by mining such an old property.
No comments:
Post a Comment