Fantasy Island

For unexplainable reasons Hollywood has been fascinated with converting past TV shows into feature films, i.e. "Starsky and Hutch", "Charlie's Angels", which had been produced twice, and they typically do not fare well at the box office. So, why do they continue to do so with the likes of "Fantasy Island"?

The enigmatic Mr. Roarke (Michael Pena) makes the secret dreams, or fantasies, of his lucky guests, including Gwen Olsen (Maggie Q), Melanie Cole (Lucy Hale), Patrick Sullivan (Austin Stowell), J.D. Weaver (Ryan Hansen) and Brax Weaver (Jimmy O. Yang) 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. 
Roarke chooses the guests extremely carefully given the fact that these guests, unbeknownst to them actually have a connection which needs redemptive intervention. As these guests begin to live out their fantasies, the fantasies start to bleed into each other. So as the guests become more and more perplexed, their connection becomes that much more clear. 

Others to round out the cast are Michael Rooker as Damon, Portia Doubleday as Sloane, Parisa Fitz-Henley as Julia, Nick Slater as Greg, Evan Evagora as Nick Taylor and Joshua Diaz as Alejandro.

This was directed with clarity and creepiness by Jeff Wadlow ("Cry Wolf" '05, "Never Back Down" '08, "Kick-Ass 2" '13, "True Memoirs of an International Assassin" '16, "Blumhouse's Truth or Dare" '18) plus TV and shorts. What's intriguing about this filmmaker is that he has the ability to add just the correct amount of creepiness to his films, specifically this one, and still has a certain realness about it. If Wadlow's style of directing interests you, his "Danger Girl" is in pre-production. It is interestingly written by Wadlow, Christopher Roach and Jillian Jacobs, based on the TV series. While all these writers have a connection with certain films, Wadlow has the lion's share of the experience here. It would've been easy to write this like the series considering the series was written where each guest had their own fantasy by itself. But instead, these writers developed the film whereas the different fantasies by the guests ended up being connected by a past event involving them all. This added mystique to the storyline. There were a couple of situations that were seemingly unanswered, however to divulge these could spoil the plot. And some of the characters seemed a bit over the top, but at least that did produce more adrenaline.

All in all, this film was certainly far better than I ever thought it would be. Could it survive during the summer or end of year film season? Probably not, this definitely will keep one on the edge of their theater seat, and isn't this what's fun about a creepy film?

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                           Rated: PG-13                                           109mins.