Fantasy Island was a cheesy TV series from the ’70s and ’80s about people visiting a private island where all their dreams could come true, within reason. Earlier this year, Blumhouse reimagined the show as a horror movie with the “be careful what you wish for” theme. Now, the movie is available digitally, and it’s loaded with special features, including a really weird deleted scene.
In the scene titled “Death Do Us Part,” Brax Weaver (Jimmy O. Yang) finds himself in an underground cavern with his brother JD (Ryan Hansen), and the two stumble upon an empty wedding procession with only a corpse bride standing by the alter, which turns out to be Jenni–JD’s ex, a very briefly mentioned character from his past. Brax then gets to put a ring on Jenni in a cringe-inducing moment, as it slides up her bloodied finger.
Luckily, the bizarre scene also features commentary from Fantasy Island director, producer, and co-writer Jeff Wadlow. Warning, there are a few spoilers for the movie ahead.
“This idea of encountering this sort of corpse bride–this manifestation of Jenni that would speak to Brax’s guilt about coming to this island and letting his brother–letting JD, the most important person in his life die,” Wadlow explained. “He wasn’t able to save him. He wasn’t able to get him off the island, so JD’s real life fantasy could come true–that he could be with Jenni forever.
“As a standalone sequence, it’s really, really great. Ultimately though, within the context of the cut, it’s just a little bit too long for this point in the story. There’s just a little too much going on. The idea of the corpse bride seemed like too much to introduce this late in the game.”
It’s a great standout scene that simply doesn’t work for the pacing of the movie. The digital version of Fantasy Island contains both the theatrical and unrated cuts of the movie, director and cast commentary, and deleted scenes–all of which also have commentary from Wadlow.
The digital version of Fantasy Island is available now. If you want to pick up a Blu-ray or DVD copy of the movie, you’ll have to wait around until May 12. Check out an extended preview of Fantasy Island below.
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