Fantasy Island

Februrary 14, 2020
Horror/Thriller
PG-13
United States
Director: Jeff Wadlow
Recommended by: Kimber Spores

There’s a place called Fantasy Island where anything and everything is possible. Five lucky guests get to have everything they desire. It sounds like a dream come true. In reality, it’s a nightmare.

Mr. Roarke (Michael Peña) is the island’s operator, but he’s not responsible for the fantasies coming to life. According to him, that job belongs to the island itself. Him and his staff, including his assistant Julia (Parisa Fitz-Henley), take care of the guests before they’re sent off on each of their adventures. There are two rules: only one fantasy per person, and the fantasy must be completed to it’s natural conclusion.

It starts with brothers J. D. Weaver (Ryan Hansen) and his younger brother, Brax (Jimmy O. Yang). Brax wasn’t technically one of the guests, but J. D. was allowed to bring him. J. D.’s fantasy is to have everything: wealth, women, a non-stop party. Brax gets to enjoy it. Next is Gwen Olsen (Maggie Q). Her fantasy is to go back in time and say “yes” to Allen Chambers (Robbie Jones) when he proposes to her and have a daughter. She gets what she wants, including Lila (Jeriya Benn), her five-year-old.

The other fantasies aren’t so upbeat. Patrick Sullivan (Austin Sowell) had always wanted to enlist, but promised his mom he wouldn’t. He wants to be a hero, like his dad. Finally, there’s Melanie Cole (Lucy Hale), who wants revenge on her high school bully, Sloan Maddison (Portia Doubleday).

Things go as expected, of course, but they start to go wrong. J. D. and Brax realize that with having everything, someone else will want it, so they’re attacked by a group of men in masks and wielding guns. Patrick finds out he’s dumped into the middle of his father’s army mission; the one where his father (Mike Vogel), dies. Melanie figures that the girl she’s torturing is just a hologram, but finds out quickly that Sloan had actually been kidnapped and brought to the island. And Gwen sees that, though her perfect life is exactly what she wants, it’s not what she deserves. She has a dark past, one that cost a man his life.

The only one who really knows what’s going on is a man who has been living out in the woods. Damon (Michael Rooker) was a private investigator who got himself invited to the island to check out if the claims were true: that everyone’s fantasies become real, but then turn bad. He finds out how the island really works and tries to save the guests, including tackling a bad guy off of a cliff to save Melanie and Sloan. The problem is, the bad guys don’t die, and the guests who die come back as monsters.

The guests end up running into each other during their fantasies, and they realize that they’re not going through their fantasies at all; just one person. They figure out that they’re all connected to each other. Six years before, Gwen accidentally started a fire in her apartment. Her upstairs neighbor, Nick Taylor (Evan Evagora) was trapped in his own apartment. His roommates, J. D. and Brax, didn’t check to see if he was in his room because he was supposed to be out with a girl: Melanie. Patrick was the cop on the scene who refused to go into the building until firemen showed up. The fantasy was just one big revenge plan.

But from who? Who would bring all of these people to the island to kill them? I know the blog is called Spoiler Alert, but you’re gonna have to watch the movie to find out.

If you’re hesitant about horror movies, but are interested in trying them, I recommend this one as a good place to start. Yes, there’s a bit of gore, and yes, it’s suspenseful, but there’s also a fair amount of humor thrown into it to keep it from being too creepy. And, there’s a (for me, disappointing) fairly happy ending. Including an appearance from Tattoo, the character from the Fantasy Island TV show.

To me, this movie isn’t scary, and I wish it had a more heartbreaking ending, but it is entertaining nonetheless.

If you have a movie you would like me to review, leave a comment or send an email to spoileralertblog@outlook.com with “movie review” in the subject line.