In an era increasingly dominated by name recognition, brand value and IP above all else, there’s no harm in beloved TV shows being adapted for the big screen or vice versa.
However, when a property that’s known and loved for one thing is put through the meat grinder of terrible decisions and poor execution, to the extent that it barely resembles the thing it’s supposed to be inspired by, then mistakes have been made somewhere.
Fantasy Island was a mysterious show wrapped in a layer of mystery, but for whatever reason, the call was made to reboot it as a straightforward horror movie under the watchful eye of hit factory Blumhouse. The only real problem is that the movie sucked, and it wound up with a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 8%, a low rating that it fully deserved for failing to provide a single worthwhile justification of its own existence as a feature film.
Because this is Blumhouse we’re talking about, Fantasy Island was nonetheless profitable after earning close to $50 million at the box office against a $7 million budget, and it’s now crashed right into the Netflix most-watched list in 20th position as per FlixPatrol, for nothing rings in the festive period like abjectly terrible horror.