Desires Come With a Price in “Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island”
In Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island, any fantasy could come true… but fantasies come with a price.
In this terrifying suspense thriller, the enigmatic Mr. Roarke makes the secret dreams of his lucky guests come true at a luxurious and remote tropical resort. But when the fantasies become nightmares, the guests have to solve the island’s mystery in order to escape with their lives.
(Watch the film’s new spot at https://youtu.be/_fM4DDojPj8.)
Directed by Jeff Wadlow, Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island is written by Jeff Wadlow & Chris Roach & Jillian Jacobs and is produced by Jason Blum and Marc Toberoff. Based upon the Television Series Created by Gene Levitt.
The film stars Michael Peña, Maggie Q, Lucy Hale, Austin Stowell, Portia Doubleday, Jimmy O. Yang, Ryan Hansen and Michael Rooker.
We all have our fantasies. Maybe we picture ourselves on a beautiful tropical island where anything is possible. Or to live out a life we never quite got the chance to experience. Or to make something right that we regret from our past. Or maybe it’s something darker… something we’d never act out in real life but can only imagine making real.
At the center of the movie is the enigmatic Mr. Roarke (Peña), the white-suited steward of an island where fantasies come to life. He has welcomed the island’s guests, all with distinct fantasies, to come to the island where they will live out their dreams, but also with the promise and the warning: the results may not be what was intended.
“It’s the ultimate wish-fulfillment movie,” says producer Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse label has brought horror fans some of the top movies in the genre. “The idea of going to a magical place where all of your fantasies come true – and things go very wrong – that’s very ripe for a thriller.”
For Blum, the movie fits squarely into the Blumhouse oeuvre. “The reason this is a Blumhouse film is that we try to focus on character and drama and story – anything scary is organic to the storytelling and to the dramatic arcs of the characters. When fans go to see Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island, they’re going to see this situation that – except for the island where wishes come true – feels very grounded, it feels very real. And because of that, it feels much scarier.”
Director-screenwriter Jeff Wadlow says that he hopes people have fun seeing the dark fantasies play out as if the audience was orchestrating the fantasies themselves. “We are presenting a narrative that has an awareness that we are intentionally putting the characters through a gauntlet, an ordeal that will force them to grow and change and experience their fantasies in a way that they weren’t expecting,” he says. “I hope that the audience enjoys that process and with a little bit of glee, watching these people learn their lesson.”
In Philippine cinemas February 12, Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Use the hashtag #FantasyIslandMovie