Horror DNA

Just discovered Fantasy Island is streaming on Tubi.

The original one with the Mexican, or the remake with the Brit?

The original!!

And the little Frenchman!

I forgot/never realized how fucking rapey he is in this.

He always plays a rapey pervert in everything.

I meant to say, it looks surprisingly decent. Plus, this first episode is in widescreen. Wth?

They had a dvd release didn't they? Friends is also widescreen now on HBO. Everything's widescreen, granddad. You and shiki go on with your wires and square TVs.

I honestly didn't think it was filmed in widescreen. I bet it's just the first episode. I'll know soon.

Holy shit, it IS widescreen. Huh.

I can't wait until Roddy McDowell shows up.

Alien Redrum wrote: ↑Sun Jun 13, 2021 3:12 am Holy shit, it IS widescreen. Huh.

A lot of TV shows were actually filmed in much bigger aspect ratios and then cut down to 4:3 or whatever during editing. It doesn't surprise me that Fantasy Island was, since it started out as a big-budget show and the whole look was really important to it. So it's probably filmed in a bigger aspect ratio and then they just cut down and shaped the scenes how they wanted them, if that makes sense.

Friends on HBO is widescreen, and that's how it's widescreen. In the pilot episode there is a scene where Phoebe is talking to a guy sitting on a couch, from across the room. HBO widescreen shows Phoebe is also sitting next to him on the couch, and it looks pretty dang goofy. When it originally aired 4:3, she had totally been cropped out from the couch, but the widescreen restoration had to put her back in.

So, I haven't watched multiple episodes in a row of Fantasy Island since it originally aired probably. Just an episode here and there.

But watching one after another now, holy fuck is this show dark. I mean, Roark is a fucknugget. He pretty much hates his guests. It's obvious.

The first episode deals with a woman who was gang raped not once, but twice in her life. Jesus.

And Tattoo will sometimes get so rapey, Roark will all but ask him why he's the way he is.

Look for the TV movies that started the series. I think they made two of them. Not unlike Kolchak, the series was a much lighter fare than the movies were. The movies were a lot more mysterious and I think one intimated that Rourke was the devil himself, if not an agent of the devil. He essentially taught his guests lessons using their fantasies against them.

As for rapey Tattoo, well you really need to put the show in the proper context.

People don't really realize it now, but Fantasy Island was heavily inspired by The Man with the Golden Gun. No Mr Rourke's not an assassin, but if you remember the climax of the movie when bond is on his island, Fantasy Island totally falls into place.

Here is Christopher Lee in the white suit





Nick Nack didn't get a matching wardrobe, but did run around running all of the scenarios and machinations against Bond.



And in that movie he was very much a rapist.

If you keep watching this, I'm betting after the first or second season there is none of that rapiness. Like all shows by then it will have been whitewashed.

Maybe saying inspired by is not quite accurate. Supposedly Aaron Spelling was in a meeting with ABC and they kept shooting down all of his ideas, and he sarcastically said how about a show with a guy who sits on an island granting wishes? And they were like yep, and he suddenly had to put a show together about that. So it was more of a borrowing from and copying, than an inspiration.