Editorials
The Dark Side of “Fantasy Island”: Revisiting the Show’s Creepiest Episode, ‘The Nightmare’
On Valentine’s Day, Blumhouse’s latest release gives a classic fantasy TV series from the ‘70s a horror makeover in Fantasy Island. At least, that’s how the description of the plot reads on IMDb. First introduced in 1977 as a pair of back-to-back TV movies, Fantasy Island starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke, a debonair and mysterious fellow who welcomes guests to his island to fulfill their greatest fantasies. Fantasies that rarely ever turn out how the guest envisioned. The setup of the series allowed for all corners of tone and genre to be explored. While fantasy and drama remained at the forefront of the series, it wasn’t out of the norm for horror to guest star in episodes.
Outside of the guest’s dream scenario, Fantasy Island kept its supernatural elements understated and enigmatic for much of its run. Mr. Roarke often dropped hints toward his immortality and an ethereal, specific code of ethics he adhered to. There were also the episodes in which he engaged in a battle of wits with the Devil (Roddy McDowall) himself over the claiming of souls, sharpening the mystery further. Many years after the series had ended its run, Montalbán revealed in an interview that he played Roarke as a fallen angel whose sin was pride, and that the island was Purgatory. So, really, in the grand scheme of biblical battles of good and evil, Fantasy Island remained far closer to genre fare than a cursory glance suggests.
Mr. Roarke granted his guests anything their hearts desired, which meant the sky was the limit for the scenarios they faced. For many, their dreams were rooted in reality. For others, they encountered ghosts, witches, mermaids, demons, and plenty of time travel. All of which were intended to instill a valuable life lesson for the participant. Each episode featured two to three unrelated fantasies at play. Season four’s “With Affection, Jack the Ripper” saw a criminologist live out her dream of discovering the identity of Jack the Ripper, only to find herself his newest intended victim. “Possessed” featured a mother seeking Roarke’s help when her daughter begins behaving strangely, and the ep’s title is a crucial hint as to why. Season five’s “The Ghost’s Story” revolved around a woman forced to stay the night in an actual haunted house for the sake of her occultist reputation.
That’s only scratching the surface of the horror-centric fantasies.
The series’ creepiest episode of all, though, came very early in its run when the supernatural hadn’t yet become so prominent: season two’s “The Nightmare.” A young woman wanted to play out her recurring nightmare to decipher its meaning. A nightmare that traumatized her as a child, but has come back with a vengeance after her recent nuptials. Roarke recreates her childhood home and bedroom down to every last detail, and the poor woman’s nightmares are viscerally personified post-haste.
It’s sensory overload as her nightmares are filmed in a disorienting, blurry fishbowl aesthetic. The unnerving sound is dialed up to an extreme decibel; the maniacal cackling of her marionette clown, now life-sized and autonomous, to the child-like screams of her other toys as they spontaneously combust. The more the woman tries to flee her childhood home, the more she’s cornered by sentient toys and roaring flames. The woman does eventually discover the root cause of these terrifying visions, but the truth isn’t nearly exciting as the build-up, and you can probably figure it out by the context clues in her waking life. Still, “The Nightmare” makes for a jarring terror-filled episode.
Michael Peña takes over the role of Mr. Roarke in the 2020 film adaptation, which promises to place Fantasy Island firmly in the realm of horror. While it remains to be seen whether this iteration of the character is more rooted in evil, the truth is that the property was never too far from the genre in the first place. The only real question is, what took so long?
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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