They made a Fantasy Island Movie!?

And the craziest part is not that they made one.

Oh, it's a Blumhouse movie... so, let me guess: Either it's a piece of shit that takes a diarrhea on the source material, or a horror twist on a classic... which to be fair, Fantasy Island lends itself quite well for a horror twist.
SONY Pictures... OK, this is likely to be crap now...
Luis from Antman is Roark...

Oh, it's a Blumhouse "horror" movie...

Why am I pulling out after they got me in?

Nicolas Cage refused the part of Roark... NICOLAS "I'LL PLAY ANY ROLE YOU GIVE ME AS LONG AS IT PAYS OFF MY RIDICULOUSLY EXORBITANT DEBT" CAGE actually REFUSED the role. Seriously, how bad can this be for him to refuse a role...

*one internet search later*

I stand corrected. This movie MIGHT BE GOOD DESPITE it being a Blumhouse movie. Nicolas Cage tends to refuse good roles. Aragorn, Neo, Norman Osborn, Shrek...

*another internet search later*

Yikes! Critics and audiences seem to hate this movie. The common themes on the criticisms aginst it stem to: Half-cocked horror due to PG-13 rating, taking a dump on the source material and attempting to be edgy... yup! It's a Blumhouse movie...

Yesterday, I complained about not well thought out forced dicersity/representation can be detrimental to an adaptation. The existence of this adaptation brings forth another pet peeve of mine: Lack of respect to the Source Material. Yes, I believe that a Morality tale show like Fantasy Island lends itself for a Horror movie... but that doesn't necessarily mean "gorefest" type of horror. I believe that when "creatives" try to "leave their mark" or "put their spin" into an existing property, they lose focus on what made the material you're adapting beloved by many. You can't go Dark over dark for darkness' sake, because you need LIGHT to appreciate the dark.

Blumhouse well, they Blumhouse'd their way through Fantasy Island tried to make Malcom McDowell's Roark seem tamer than Ricardo Montalban... sadly, they lost their way.

Adaptations do not need to be 1:1 recreations of the original. They need to be respectful of it. Changes made cannot distance themselves so far from the source material that fans of the original cannot recognize the new version.
Easiest example: 1990s live action Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. One stuck close to the source material, albeit with a lot less violence. The other, well...


Was saved by Raul Julia, May he rest in peace. But you get the idea of what I'm saying, right?


Because you cannot have a Fantasy Island rant without
De plane! De plane!

When making adaptations, the source material tells you what the parameters are for your story. Stray from those and the story will suffer.