Fantasy Island (2020)

[Flack]

I've watched enough cartoons to know that wishes always come with strings attached. Tell a magic genie that you wish you were thinner, and you might end up as a two-dimensional drawing. If you sell your soul to the devil for a zillion dollars, you might end up with tons of pennies crushing you to death. There's a real art when it comes to making wishes that don't backfire.

The guests in 2020's Fantasy Island must not have watched a lot of cartoons as children, because some of their wishes ("I want to torture the girl who was mean to me in high school") have dozens of ways they could go wrong, and very few ways to turn out right.

This time around, Mr. Rourke works as much on the island as he does for it. One of his own wishes has left him there in charge, and the guests fantasies are powered by some black watery magic goo that can create everything from hallucinations to human dopplegangers. Unlike the original television show, it's made clear early on that the guests are playing for keeps. There's no cell phone signal, and few guests remember the details of their fantasies -- the only two thing keeping the island from receiving a flood of one-star Yelp reviews.

Like last year's Banana Splits, turning Fantasy Island into a horror film makes it unfaithful yet enjoyable. Halfway through the movie as island guests begin showing up in one another's fantasies, it becomes clear that some of the guests may have known one another off island.

It wasn't terrible; then again, I watch a lot of terrible movies and maybe my awfulmeter's a bit off. A few of the twists were dumb and like many horror reboots I found myself hoping everyone in the film would die painful deaths. I doubt I'll watch it again, but I didn't turn it off so I guess that says something.