FANTASY ISLAND: now a horror movie

[Gothick]

Fans,

In the wake of the Banana Splits being "re-booted" as a slasher thriller, apparently Fantasy Island is now a big budget feature film from some outfit called Blumhouse, re-configured as a horror mystery adventure. The blurb:

The enigmatic Mr Roarke makes the secret dreams of his lucky guests come true at a luxurious but remote tropical resort, but when the fantasies turn into nightmares, the guests have to solve the island's mystery in order to escape with their lives.

It sounds more like the old ABC Movie of the Week Haunts of the Very Rich, which in turn was kind of a horror update of the old play and film, Outward Bound.

It seems ironic that these old shows have been re-booted as horror, while DS was rebooted by Burton-Depp as comedy; go figure.

G.

[Brandon Collins]

I saw the trailer for this movie not too long ago and I was wondering if it was intended to be connected to the Fantasy Island television show or not. It was difficult to tell because of the movie clearly being a horror film.

Gothick, you make an interesting point about this being a horror film and the DS 2012 movie ending up as a comedy. I suppose it's the era we live in now, where remakes and reboots abound and these titles need to be given a "fresh" take in order to succeed.

[Gothick]

I never really watched Fantasy Island, but I think Ricardo Montalban's host character was named Mr. Rourke (or "Roarke").

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Back in the day (and pretty much still) I thought the one-two ABC Saturday night punch of The Love Boat and Fantasy Island portended the end of civilization. Though to be truthful, I'd soured on almost anything Aaron Spelling was involved with before either series came on the air...

[Gothick]

I thought both series were dire. My only encounters of either was when I was home on visits from college since I did not own a TV set in my dorm room (or my own place when I finally got one).

I guess next will be a re-boot of Love Boat as something really horrific, like delegates to the Republican National Convention having a pre-convention cruise. Yikes.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Not that we didn't suspect this might be the case, but:

‘Fantasy Island’ Review: Blumhouse’s Awful Reboot Is a Total Nightmare
Against all odds, the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie wasn’t this week’s most desperate attempt to bring an old brand into multiplexes.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

‘Fantasy Island’: Here’s the Best of the Critics’ Terrible, Terrible Reviews
Critics absolutely hated Blumhouse's latest. Here's some of their worst.