Written by Myles Clohessy And Emma Harrell And Phil Harrell
Directed by Myles Clohessy
Rafael (to Troy): "If I can't have you, no one will."
I said earlier in the month that I'd be doing more LGBT themed blogs for Pride Month and I meant. This movie wasn't even remotely on my radar until a few hours ago and I wish this was a positive review but eh, it's not gonna be I'm afraid.
Last year we had a romcom movie of the same name that had a nice positive buzz to it and a few months after it, we had American Horror Story: NYC, which had it's own Fire Island themed episode. Both of those were much more entertaining than what was on display here.
The movie opened with a young girl being killed by a mystery killer and then we cut to Troy (Connor Paolo), the closest to a protagonist the movie has. He's heartbroken over a former boyfriend who killed himself during the pandemic and it's the last bit that I take a little issue with.
Most movies and shows in the last three years have largely handled COVID as a main plot badly and here it's no different. Anyways, Troy got himself roped into visiting the titular island by his friends, comprising of a lesbian couple and a bisexual woman with her boyfriend, unaware it's a holiday they won't survive.
One by one, each of the characters are bumped off by a killer who's revealed to be some random guy named Rafael (Jonathan Bennett). Rafael's taken a fancy to Troy and wants the latter to stay with him. Troy's less keen on the idea and does make an effort to get away from his homicidal admirer. You can take a wild guess as to what eventually happened to Troy and it's the least of the movie's problems.
Now I'm all for more gay themed horror and while I'm not always expecting something a little deeper, this movie had some interesting ideas that it just badly utilised. The COVID commentary felt a tad too late and Rafael definitely lacked for a horror baddie. I didn't find him scary and he wasn't campy in a fun way either. However he did come out on top though, so he had that in his favour.
- Other characters in the movie included a creepy Irish guy spooking out Troy, an older gay couple named Jason and Wes (killed), a determined detective named Santino (also killed) and another friend group for Rafael to target.
- Nice shout out to Mean Girls, given the actor playing Rafael as well as a Batman reference because why wouldn't you?
- Connor Paolo can sing pleasantly enough and even played the guitar during a bar scene.
- Chronology: It was set during the pandemic with characters wearing masks and talking about isolating at times in the movie.
Fire Island could've been an entetaining enough horror romp but it's largely a bit of a mess with most of the actors on autopilot (Connor Paolo being the only one to make an effort), the scares sorely lacking and yes, I know it sounds shallow but a little bit of guy on guy wouldn't have hurt either. I wouldn't say avoid but it's definitely not a must see either.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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