Horror fans were somewhat shocked when they realized that the intriguing reinvention of the classic 70s TV show Fantasy Island would be released with a PG-13 rating. But according to director Jeff Wadlow, there’s an edgier version of the Blumhouse reboot that’ll be available at some point.
Love it or hate it, Fantasy Island is doing well at the box office. The chilling chapter of horror has grossed roughly $22 million off of a $7 million budget, making it another mark in the win column for Blumhouse when it comes to putting out a low-budget success. Despite the box office victory though, the film hasn’t gotten great reviews, which leads many to wonder if it would be better overall if it had gone all out with an R-rating.
Well, according to Wadlow, he actually had every intention of Fantasy Island being rated R. The director sat down with CinemaBlend recently and disclosed that he was forced to cave and give in to a PG-13 compromise after the movie was screened to a test audience.
Upfront I said, ‘Jason Blum, the movie has to be rated R.’ And it’s not. That’s great example of having to change and kind of go with the flow. I felt that it had to be R, and I thought I shot an R movie, but then when we showed it to an audience we were like, ‘Well, it’s not really that R.’ And just a couple of trims and it was a PG-13.
This was probably the best way to ensure the film made a profit, as the concept was a bit out there and it’s not as if Fantasy Island has a massive following like Marvel or DC to rely on. The R-rating maneuver had just recently backfired for the DCEU’s Birds of Prey, too, so it was probably the right move in the end, and Wadlow didn’t seem to mind accepting the change.
He later went on to mention the possibility of audiences seeing the adult-centric version, stating:
There’ll be a slightly edgier cut that will be available later on. But the movie works, it’s much more about character and emotion, and it doesn’t matter if a movie’s PG-13 or R – those things come through when you have great actors like we have in our film.
Unfortunately, fans won’t get to see the edgier version of Fantasy Island on the big screen, but it does seem like that opportunity will arrive when the film is released on Digital and Blu-ray. Fingers crossed.