Fantasy Island is a Horror/Thriller that was produced by Blumhouse Productions. Blumhouse Productions is an American film and television production company, founded by Jason Blum. Blumhouse is known mainly for producing low-budget horror films, such as Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Get Out, Insidious, Split, Happy Death Day, Upgrade, Sinister, Halloween, The Invisible Man, and The Gift.
(Source: https://www.cinemadailies.com/ranking-the-best-blumhouse-production-movies/)
Spoilers and Impressions
The film begins an island with a woman named Sloane Maddison running from certain villains. She calls the island’s owner, Mr. Roarke for help, although he reminds her that she could be a guest there, and Sloane is captured by her follower.
Later on, a plane filled with guests make Fantasy Island, where Roarke greets them together with his assistant Julia. Among them are Gwen Olsen, Melanie Cole, Patrick Sullivan, and stepbrothers JD and Brax Weaver. Roarke tells them that each one of their greatest fantasies will be consummated till they reach their “natural conclusion.” Observing the guests from afar is a man referred to as Damon.
After the guests get to know one another, Roarke starts to require them to their fantasies. He brings JD and Brax to a fantasy of an endless party, wherever JD spends time with a horde of exquisite young ladies while Brax spends time with attractive men and a lot of weeds. Though celebrating, Brax sees what feels like apparition of an awfully burnt man.
The next morning, Gwen meets Roarke, who asks her questions specific to her background. She is shown to her fantasy: a restaurant where she rejected a proposal from her ex-boyfriend in order to pursue her career goals. She is met by the ex-boyfriend, Alan. He is real and has been roped into the fantasy, which Gwen feels bad for. However, she enjoys reconnecting with Alan, and when he proposes once again, she chooses to accept.
Melanie talks to Patrick regarding her personal fantasy, that is to torment her former college bully. Roarke then brings her to a basement where she finds Sloane occupied behind a two-way mirror. Thinking it’s simply a hologram, Melanie proceeds to torture her by zapping her or dumping toilet water on her. She then uploads a video of Sloane having affair with another man, that is announce on Facebook for her husband to examine. The computer then calls her husband, and Melanie quickly realizes that Sloane is admittedly there, and he or she tries to prevent her from getting hurt a lot. A person dressed as an operating surgeon enters, and he resembles a doctor that wants to frighten Melanie, whom she nicknamed Dr. Torture. He gets ready to use a buzz saw on Sloane’s arm till Melanie activates the cattle prod and toilet water to electrocute Dr. Torture and free Sloane. Melanie pretends to be a guest to not let Sloane know she was torturing her.
Patrick is taken to his fantasy, that is golf shot him back during a war setting within the 80s wherever he reunites together with his father, who was killed in action. Patrick is taken by the opposite troopers as a captive. As this happens, JD and Brax are screwing around with what’s in their mansion, as well as an array of grenades and guns. The troopers catch this and find themselves during a firefight with enemies in their zone. JD and Brax then learn that the mansion is owned by a thug named Kalishov, and a gaggle of his armed thugs are approaching.
Melanie and Sloane bear the dark woods to search out how off the island, but Dr. Torture finds them once more and attacks. They are saved by Damon, who impales the operating surgeon together with his machete. Damon tells the women he was a personal investigator who showed up as a guest whose fantasy was to examine his dead girl once more, and it came true, however things became a nightmare and he became cornered there. Damon additionally reveals that Roarke spiked the guests’ drinks with some reasonably magic water that’s the supply of granting the guests their fantasies. They resolve to get a phone to call for help, whereas additionally obtaining a number of water in a canteen bottle. However, once trying to look into the fountain, the guest’s fantasies are shown. Sloane’s is to get back together with her husband, whereas Melanie’s is shown to torture Sloane, letting her notice that Melanie lied about being a guest, and provides Melanie an opportunity to vent her anger to Sloane over her treatment of her.
Mr. Sullivan confronts Patrick when finding an image of himself together with his own son in Patrick’s belongings. He reveals that that’s him as a baby, and Mr. Sullivan is his father. Though he proves information solely each of them may know, Mr. Sullivan isn’t convinced that Patrick can do something to stop him from his fate, which is able to happen throughout a captive rescue mission in Venezuela that may happen successive day.
Gwen wakes up to search out that she has already married Alan which they need a five-year-old girl named Lila. Gwen tries to search out Roarke and alter her fantasy, as a result of this can be not what she had in mind. She talks to Julia and tells her that her fantasy was to travel back and save somebody from a fireplace she caused. He tells Gwen that his own fantasy was to be able to see his dead adult female, and it will solely continue as long as he fulfills the guests’ fantasies. Although Roarke initially refuses, Gwen convinces him to let her enter the new fantasy when citing that he will solely see his wife if he lets her have her fantasy.
Kalishov’s head hood interrogates JD and Brax over some cash that’s purportedly within the mansion. They fight to trick the thugs by oral communication that the cash is within the garage, wherever their weapons are. At the same time, Gwen enters her new fantasy to the burning building. She sees JD and Brax effort. She tries to make her way into the burning flat to save lots of the victim, Nick Taylor. She runs outside to get help, finding Patrick there as a cop who doesn’t help since he desires to wait for the firefighters. Gwen runs back inside but goes unconscious till she is found and saved by Julia.
Patrick and the soldiers arrive at the site of the hostage situation, which happens to be the mansion. After JD and Brax manage to fight off some of the thugs, Patrick finds them and helps kill some of the thugs, but they come back to life as zombies. JD and Mr. Sullivan end up killed, with neither Brax nor Patrick able to help them.
Melanie, Sloane, and Damon are attacked by a zombie Dr. Torture, who once again attempts to attack Sloane until Damon sacrifices himself by throwing himself and the surgeon over the edge of a cliff. The ladies then return to the torture room to reach a phone. Sloane calls her husband and apologizes to him over her deception, while also using it as an apology toward Melanie. They then contact Damon’s associates for help to escape.
As everything is starting to get worse, the guests gather to confront Roarke and his henchmen over the fantasy, as they are all in the fantasy of someone who wants them dead, and Gwen concludes they are all connected to Nick. She caused the fire that killed him by accidentally leaving the kettle on in her apartment, and Patrick was at the scene but didn’t go in to help. JD was Nick’s roommate and was going to check on him, but Brax made him leave. Melanie was supposed to go on a date with Nick that night but got sick and backed out, meaning Nick wouldn’t have died if she was with him. They then run to catch the plane, but it is shot down by the thugs. The guests run to hide and believe that Julia was Nick’s mother who wants revenge on them. They resolve to destroy Roarke’s fountain to stop the fantasy altogether.
The group enters the cave to find the fountain, where they are attacked by manifestations of their personal demons. Sloane sees her bullying self, while Patrick is attacked by dead people he couldn’t save, and Gwen sees that Lila has killed Alan. Nick’s ghost also appears before her but doesn’t know who Julia is when Gwen mentions her. After they fight everyone off, Melanie appears before Patrick and starts stabbing him. The others reach the fountain to destroy it with a grenade, but Roarke stops them, because Julia was his wife and he doesn’t want to stop seeing her after she passed away. It is then revealed that they are all in Melanie’s fantasy. She wanted to go out with Nick that night, but she stood him up due to her self-doubt from Sloane’s bullying.
Roarke sees that Julia is close to succumbing to her illness again, and she convinces him that it is time to let her go once and for all. He does so and goes to help the others. He tells Sloane that she still has to fulfill a fantasy. She drinks from the canteen bottle and wishes for Melanie and Nick to end up together. Nick’s zombie then emerges from the fountain and pulls Melanie inside, causing the zombies to disappear. She jumps out quickly to throw back the grenade, but Patrick throws himself onto it to save everyone.
Gwen, Sloane, and Brax wake up the next day as they are preparing to leave. Roarke tells Brax that he technically lived out JD’s fantasy, so he still has one he can use. His fantasy is for JD to return home alive, which would mean he would have to stay on the island. Brax agrees, and JD goes home on the plane with Gwen and Sloane. Brax then reveals JD’s nickname for him: “Tattoo.” He stays and becomes Roarke’s new assistant.
I think the deeper themes of Fantasy Island revolve around unprocessed trauma, regret, and revenge. Melanie’s character specifically, who was harassed, has been so unsteady because of what befell her that she is never going to move on looking for revenge on those person who wronged her in any way even taking it to an extreme with bodily torture and death, which is what she did with Sloane. Before she ends up in the torture chamber with her childhood bully, Melanie asks Roarke if she can film the event so she can remember it. Then she unleashes both mental and physical torments, including posting a sex tape of her with another man to Sloane’s personal Facebook page to break up her marriage. However, she saves Sloane from death so she can get an apology from her bully before trying to kill her. I believe This goes to show a totally broken mind, and addresses the enduring impacts of bullying, a few scars never really recover, and a few lives are for all time affected by harmless name-calling and different acts committed in youth.
According to bulliesout.com, bullying creates a culture of fear and has a negative impact on everyone involved. Being bullied can seriously affect a person’s physical, emotional, academic and social well-being. Many sufferers of bullying lack confidence, feel bad about themselves, have few friends and spend a lot of time alone. Bullying is a very stressful ordeal; they may feel ashamed and embarrassed that they are not standing up to the bully and deal with what is happening to them. Bullying can have devastating effects on a person which can last into adulthood. At its worst, bullying has driven children and young people to self-harm and even suicide. This might be the reason behind Melanie’s behavior.
(source: https://bulliesout.com/need-support/young-people/the-effects-of-bullying/)
Another topic, which is investigated more with Gwen’s character, is disappointment. Gwen has totally lost her capacity to have satisfaction in her life since she accepted, she wasn’t deserving of love. This cost her a happy marriage with the man she had always wanted and a child. Misfortune is also depicted through Patrick’s story line, who goes to the island to “play soldier” and winds up serving close by his father, who died a heroic death saving his men from a live grenade. Patrick loses his father once more, but still chooses to throw himself on a grenade to save his new acquaintances because he gained a better understanding of what heroism is. He at last regarded his dad more for making the best choice, regardless of whether it implied growing up without him. Fantasy Island is astoundingly layered, and presents an open door for different spin-offs and side projects to occur.
In general, I think the film is fine and worth the watch. If a person is into unpredictable twist and turns then this is one of the movies they might like. I love the pleasant way the film investigates the human side of disappointment, hatred and how we become entrapped in the past, to such an extent that we lose our present.