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‘Fire Island’ review – Pandemic-set queer slasher is too timely

Going to The Pines during the offseason sounds like a bad time, especially if you’re just looking for crowds and parties, but for an escape from hectic life, it seems ideal. Sadly, for the five friends in Myles Clohessy ‘s movie Fire Island (also known as Love Island ), they will find no peace. Only death. Or rather, more death after escaping the Pandemic hotbed that is home.

The scenic beauty of The Pines is always something to look forward to whenever the movie randomly shifts into horror mode. From the requisite opening kill to the hapless locals picked off along the way, the story delivers slasher fodder before going after the main party. Considering the close quarters the central characters are in, killing them off too soon would cause immediate alarm. Fire Island , on the other hand, wants to create a sense of complacency before reminding Troy and the others of death’s boundless reach.

Fire Island quickly puts the Pandemic metaphors to work, and they don’t let up until the end. If the movie isn’t implying something about COVID, it’s saying it out loud. Subtlety is nowhere to be found here. Connor Paolo ( Stakeland ) plays Troy, the depressed loner whose friends force him out of social isolation. Sam ( Annie Fox ) and everyone’s intentions are good, but unwittingly they put Troy, as well as themselves, in danger. Had everyone just continued staying safe and not gone out in public, maybe they would have lived longer. Or maybe if the authorities had been honest about the deaths, people could have been better prepared. The finger-wagging messaging becomes blurred, though, when isolated characters also fall prey to the area’s own serial killer. They followed the rules and still died. Again, Fire Island wants to assure the audience that no one is safe during these trying times.

General COVID dread isn’t enough to explain Troy’s sadness; he has survivor’s guilt after his boyfriend died of suicide right before the Pandemic officially began. This era of horror is surely defined by grief, cursory or otherwise, but the personal history also makes Troy’s overall sense of uncertainty and fears less ambiguous. It’s not just Paolo’s character who is weighed down by paranoia; his friends occasionally drop their upbeat acts once reality sets in again.

Fire Island ‘s tender moments are more memorable than its kills. Troy finally opening up to his friends and receiving their unconditional support is comforting. Yet as soon as the antagonist — an ax-wielding maniac who dons an antlered skull and claims a ridiculous motive for his or her murders — barges into the story, then the movie devolves into a predictable killing spree. There is hardly any tension, particularly since the villain’s identity is practically spelled out early on.

Obviously Fire Island was made during the beginning or height of the Pandemic, and it’s only now seeing a wide release. Audiences seeing it today will be split about the setting and feeling the worst sort of déjà vu; it wasn’t that long ago when COVID death tolls were announced daily, and masking and quarantining were routine. Undoubtedly the general public wants to forget those discomforting feelings and anything associated with them, including this movie.

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Fire Island

Connor Paolo (Troy) Jonathan Bennett (Rafael) Timothy V. Murphy (Murph) Robert Clohessy (Detective Jack) Kahyun Kim (Zoe) Annie Fox (Sam) Arielle Diaz (Maria) Liam Burke (Matt) Kresh Novakovic (Detective Santino) Lukas Hassel (Ron)

Myles Clohessy

The perfect summer vacation quickly spirals out of control for a group of friends on the infamous, picturesque party getaway of Fire Island as they find themselves caught in a web of sex, lies and cold blooded murder.

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Fire Island (2023)

A group of friends embark on a dreamy summer vacation, seeking the perfect getaway on the renowned Fire Island. However, their idyllic plans take a dark turn when they become entangled in a dangerous mix of illicit affairs, deceit, and chilling homicides.

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Movie has great background music thst fits perfectly. The use of LGBTQ characters for Fire Island was spot on. Robert Clohessy portraying both a serious detective and a drag queen is hysterical. Jonathan Bennett only gets more handsome with age! A little corney but is like a 1950’s thriller or horror with woke improvements! So I suspect the director and writers were almost criticizing the old age of more closed minded Hollywood!

Watched it on Showtime. Has an Entertaining and very funny drag queen show scene! Enough blood for me! and multiple suspicious characters to have you wondering who is killing everyone one of the vacationers. Some hotties for us Lgbt follks. Overall a combination of a thriller and scary movie with humor thrown in.

Looks like a 1950’s type thriller/horror but upgraded to represent modern liberalism. Most acting was very good. Connor Paolo is quite cute; especially in his shower scene! Jonathan Bennett; an LGBTQ icon gives a truly scary performance!! Tim Murphy as the psycho vagrant is spot on! Be prepared for more of a thriller, with a surprise ending! For a low budget film, this movie hits the mark.

The bad news is that Fire Island isn't great, the good news is that it only fills an hour twenty five minutes of your time on Earth. Unfortunately you won't find many thrills nor anything horrific in Fire Island directed by Myles Clohessy, nor will you find any fantastic photography of an Island I thought would display blue seas and golden sands. The length of the film as you will by now have worked out does give much time for any in-depth character development so all Fire Island leaves us with is a group of mid twenty somethings being chased by someone dressed as an antelope. Yes, the story is a bit more thought out than that but writers amongst you will find very little inspiration from it and if this is what we get when the writers guild are on strike then please stop and get back to work asap. Apart from a few death scenes of characters you know nothing about Fire Island doesn't do much and won't sadly be pushing for any awards. There are much better out there. The twist is indeed a twist but won't be a surprise to anyone, if my Jack Dempsey fish could talk I am sure they would say they saw it coming a mile off too. Fire Island is one of those you may end up watching but please expect to be somewhat disappointed by the vast majority of it.

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Fire Island review: A sweet, queer romcom that takes aim at Jane Austen’s ‘hetero nonsense’

Joel kim booster’s breezy reimagining places ‘pride & prejudice’ in the context of contemporary gay culture, article bookmarked.

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Dir: Andrew Ahn. Starring: Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, Margaret Cho, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Zane Phillips. 105 minutes.

What’s more radical: reimagining the canon or getting rid of it altogether? That’s the lingering question of Fire Island , a queer, modern-day update of Pride and Prejudice – one which, in its very first scene, dismisses Jane Austen ’s marriage plot as “hetero nonsense”. The romcom, written by and starring comedian Joel Kim Booster, doesn’t quite make the most of its conceit. On a purely structural basis, its story is a little too reverential to the original novel in a way that, for example, Clueless ’s spin on Emma wasn’t.

But it’s undoubtedly compelling to see Fire Island interrogate Austen’s social commentary – particularly those ideas of “pride” and “prejudice” – in the context of contemporary gay culture. The battles of wits don’t take place here in the intimacy of an aristocratic ballroom, but in the clubs and glass-walled summer homes of Long Island’s famous gay travel destination. The island of the title is where New Yorkers can find that rare escape from the suffocating smog of heteronormativity. But that doesn’t immediately make it a paradise for all. As Kim Booster’s Noah points out early on – largely for the benefit of straight viewers – “race, masculinity, abs [are] just a few of the metrics we use to separate ourselves into upper and lower classes”. Someone offhandedly brings up the fact that Grindr is still plagued with bios shamelessly demanding “no fats, no femmes, no Asians”.

Fire Island , at its core, is an examination of how two friends – Noah and Bowen Yang ’s Howie – internalise those prejudices and allow them to shape their own self-perception. When we first meet Noah, he’s in the middle of kicking a hook-up out of his apartment for having too much “boyfriend energy”. He’s decided the only way to never get hurt is to never take things too seriously. And, you know what? It works for him. Meanwhile, Howie’s self-esteem has been almost entirely whittled away. He’s never been in a relationship, though he silently craves romantic perfection.

Noah, Howie, and their “sisters” – their found family – set off on their annual vacation to Fire Island, described here as “gay Disney World”. But news that their older, matriarchal lesbian friend Erin (Margaret Cho) has to sell her long-time home on the island pushes the entire group into crisis mode. Director Andrew Ahn shoots the film’s central locale lovingly, all sun-tinged and hazy. But the film doesn’t let us forget that those dreamy days are swiftly slipping out of these men’s hands. Soon, they’ll have to face up to the rest of their lives.

Noah, then, is determined, in a very Emma -like way, to make sure Howie gets laid by the end of the trip. In fact, he’s made it a priority above his own pleasure, as perfect as the object of his affection – new arrival Dex (Zane Phillips), a hunk who’s read Dossie Easton’s The Ethical Slut – may seem. Thankfully, Howie almost immediately bumps into the very eligible Charlie (James Scully), though wooing him requires rubbing shoulders with his rich, white, rude and polo-wearing clique. The snobbiest among them is, perhaps, Will (Conrad Ricamora), a permanently disgruntled lawyer who doesn’t walk so much as skulk.

Will, as you might have guessed, is the Mr Darcy figure here. But even in Austen’s novel, the idea of a walking red flag with the secret heart of a prince already played as a high-flung fantasy. That doesn’t necessarily translate to Fire Island ’s world, which is otherwise populated by grounded, recognisable people. It’s nice to see Yang, particularly, already a standout on Saturday Night Live , get such rich material to work with.

But it should be said that what’s layered and complex on paper comes across as sweet, breezy and fun on screen. There’s a particularly good scene where the ensemble argue about the relative cultural currency of Marisa Tomei versus Alicia Vikander. Fire Island is a true, escapist romcom at a time when audiences are still undernourished when it comes to queer romances that don’t end in death and despair. I even like to think that Jane Austen would agree about all that “hetero nonsense”.

‘Fire Island’ is streaming on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US from Friday 3 June

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Fire island review: andrew ahn’s gay rom-com is a remembrance of things to come.

The film is filled with a subtextual nostalgia for a fleeting youth and the urgency of figuring things out before it’s too late.

Andrew Holleran describes Fire Island’s geography in his exquisitely provocative 1978 novel Dancer from the Dance as “nothing but a sandbar, as slim as a parenthesis, enclosing the Atlantic, the very last fringe of soil on which a man might put up his house, and leave behind him all—absolutely all—of that huge continent to the west.”

Indeed, Fire Island has for decades represented the idea of escape and renewal for members of the queer community who continue to fill its beaches and dance floors every summer—a means of gleefully abandoning both the pressures of the city and the prying eyes of heterosexual society. And this is exactly what it means to the group of friends who arrive by ferry to join the party at the start of director Andrew Ahn’s romantic comedy Fire Island , buzzing with horny anticipation as they continue their tradition of an annual group getaway.

Noah (Joel Kim Booster) is the group’s de facto leader, cute and smart and slutty in a way that earns him affectionate jabs from his friends. And while Noah certainly looks forward to the trip each year with his eyes firmly on the prize—one that briefly emerges here in the form of the hunky and ruggedly handsome Dex (Zane Phillips), whose intentions ultimately prove dubious—his primary goal for the week is to get his nerdy and somewhat curmudgeonly best friend, Howie ( SNL ’s Bowen Yang), laid, by whatever means necessary.

After an encouraging smile aimed Howie’s way during the group’s first foray to the tea dance from Charlie (James Scully), who’s standing nearby with his own friends, the two groups begin to begrudgingly endure each other for the sake of the budding romance. And the antics that follow—flirtations gone awry, drug- and booze-fueled mishaps to spare, and sweetly satisfying conclusions to the intertwined Austenesque romantic plots—delightfully meet audience expectations without straying too far from convention, sticking instead to the tried and true.

The pleasures on offer by a vacation narrative are based on the fantasy that we can become someone different for the duration of our time away from home, and the same promise of temporary escape is made by the rom-com, which serves up a reality carefully constructed to elide many of our darker truths. This writer couldn’t help but recall the scene in Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart when the unbridled joy of a colorful and sweeping shot of raucous Fire Island partygoers in skimpy bathing suits is cut short by the spectacle of a young man coughing and then collapsing on the beach.

That scene signals the arrival of HIV and the end of a particularly decadent era of gay life that Fire Island had come to represent. But the ghosts of our past are silent for the duration of Ahn’s heartwarming romp, almost as if they’re standing back to allow for some uncomplicated joy to set up shop in the same places where we once experienced some of our greatest sorrows.

The group of friends at the heart of Fire Island , which was written by Booster and based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and his trips to the titular resort town, are already nostalgic for a past that they’re still living through, quite literally in the form of the impending loss of their friend Erin’s (Margaret Cho) vacation house, where this found family has been making memories together every summer for years. But there’s also a subtextual nostalgia for a fleeting youth and the urgency of figuring things out before it’s too late.

“What do you want?” Noah asks Will (Conrad Ricamora), a friend of Charlie’s who by the end of Fire Island has become Noah’s erstwhile romantic interest. The two of them are sitting side by side on a pier at sunset contemplating what comes next after the vacation inevitably ends, and Noah has just answered the same question in a roundabout way, realizing that he has so much more to learn about himself and what he wants from the world. In response, Will just turns to glance lovingly at an elderly gay couple he’s noticed dancing slowly together just a few feet away, staring into each other’s eyes as they sway to music only they can hear. “I want that ,” he says—both the possibility of love and the possibility of a future.

“Who can waste a summer on the Island?” quips a character early in Dancer from the Dance , responding to another man who’s just expressed his weariness about coming back every year to do just that, being shuttled by taxi toward the ferry like a prisoner through pastoral Long Island suburbia and wondering aloud how summer on the island had become such a magnet for himself and others like him. “Why, it’s the only antidote to death we have.” Fire Island then, both as destination and idea, comes to represent the evolving nature of queer life and all the possible forms it can take, and Ahn’s film, however light-hearted and easily digestible, still adds value to the cultural history of an island that for many people over the years has represented the only place where they could really be—and sometimes find—their true selves.

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Richard Scott Larson has earned fellowships from MacDowell and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and his debut memoir is forthcoming from the University of Wisconsin Press. He’s also a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

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In the opening moments of Fire Island , Noah (played by Joel Kim Booster , who also wrote the screenplay) directly quotes the film’s source material, Jane Austen ’s Pride and Prejudice . Later on, Noah’s best friend Howie ( Bowen Yang ) quotes another famous modern update of Austen’s work, Clueless . Fire Island , from director Andrew Ahn , certainly wears its Austen love on its sleeve, and while this latest take on Austen’s oft-adapted work is a solid addition to the long lineup of adaptations, Fire Island works best when the film is on its own terms.

Fire Island follows Booster’s Noah on his way to the titular vacation spot for a week-long excursion with his friends. Noah puts aside his intentions to get laid in order to help Howie—who has never had a boyfriend—get some. Noah and Howie are joined by their group of friends (played by Matt Rogers , Tomás Matos , and Torian Miller ) who discover soon after arriving at the island that the vacation home they always stay at, run by their lesbian friend/replacement mother type Erin ( Margaret Cho ) is being sold after this season—making this vacation one big final bash for this group of friends. As Noah tries to help Howie find someone to have fun with, Noah meets Will ( Conrad Ricamora ), who couldn’t be more different from him, the Mr. Darcy to Noah’s Elizabeth Bennet.

Booster script does a satisfactory job of adapting Austen’s novel in a way that hits the themes one would expect, but without feeling like an extraneous new take on this tried-and-true story. Booster manages to maintain the exploration of class and status by looking at the different factions of gay men, stating that race, masculinity, and abs are all metrics used to separate various groups. Even without the overt references to Austen, Booster’s script utilizes the elements of the novel when it matters, but doesn’t feel beholden to it.

RELATED: Set Sail for an Epic Summer Vacation in New 'Fire Island' Trailer

Which is great, considering that some of Fire Island ’s best moments are when this group of friends is just hanging out and riffing off each other. Matos and Rogers in particular are hilarious together, whether when partying too much, or getting way too into their Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny impressions. Also, equally great are Booster and Yang, as their bond is the focal point of this story, and key to much of the film’s heart. Their varying approaches to love and hooking up are integral to the film’s most touching moments, and Yang, in particular, shows a more dramatic side that is particularly effective. Fire Island could’ve easily been about this group of friends goofing around with each other, and it still would’ve been extremely warm and hysterical.

However, Booster’s script does contain a completely unnecessary narration that mostly just explains the obvious, or things that the audience could figure out on their own. Thankfully, the rest of the film feels very lived-in and honest, charming without being too cloying, and full of great comedic moments. Fire Island is a rom-com that can both include a discussion of Alice Munro works, and a giant orgy scene. Fire Island contains multitudes. Ahn’s last film, 2019’s Driveways , was a quiet, thoughtful film about kindness, and that tone finds its way into Fire Island occasionally, a tone that surprisingly balances well with Booster’s sense of humor.

That mixture of Ahn and Booster’s sensibilities, along with a great cast that plays beautifully off each other, gives Fire Island more heart and poignancy than one might imagine. Under the Austen homage and witty jokes is a lovely story about a found family that might be saying goodbye to each other. As the week spent together ticks away, Fire Island also feels like a countdown for these friends, who will never experience this vacation destination or these dynamics in the same way again. Through Booster and Yang’s evolution of what love can mean, and through this friend’s final bash together, Fire Island is also a story about growing up, moving forward, and enjoying the present, as who knows what tomorrow could hold.

Fire Island is a strong update to Austen, full of charm, heart, and friendship, yet Booster's screenplay works best when it is not relying on the source material and having fun with this fun concept. With an excellent cast and a perfect blending of Ahn and Booster's talents, Fire Island is an extremely enjoyable trip.

Fire Island is now streaming on Hulu.

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Fire Island

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Brought to life by a tremendously talented cast, the breezily entertaining Fire Island proves there are still fresh ways to update Austen.

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Fire Island REVIEW – A Riotous Fun Time

We love this movie.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is infinitely adaptable – you just need to know what to do with the story. Fire Island is a perfect example of how to do a proper adaptation, so kudos must be offered here to Joel Kim Booster, who wrote the screenplay. The roots and inspiration are clearly there. We have characters based off the entire Bennett family, the Bingleys, and of course, Mr Darcy himself. Yet, at the same time, the movie’s using those roots to shape something entirely new.

Noah’s (Booster) favourite time of year is heading to fire island with his gay family. They go there to hook up and have fun, as well as spend time together. Given that this may be the last year they make the trip, Noah’s taken it upon himself to make sure his closest friend Howie (Bowen Yang) finds someone for some copulative fun. Howie, on the other hand, doesn’t want a quick fling. He wants romance, courtship, a boombox raised overhead type of love, though he’s reached the point where he despairs of ever finding it.

And then he bumps into Charlie (James Scully), who’s a total catch, but it becomes apparent that they’re from totally different worlds. We may be in the 2020s, hundreds of years after the setting of Austen’s novels, but class differences still exist. As the gang head over to a house at Charlie’s party – reminiscent of the Bennetts attending the first party Bingley throws – the disparity becomes more blatant. Even the alcohol they consume is different.

We meet Will (Conrad Ricamora), Charlie’s friend, who’s kind of aloof and separate from everyone else. Much like how Elisabeth overhears Darcy’s quips about her family and how she’s not “handsome enough to tempt” him, Will says something to similar effect, which hurts Noah’s pride and creates conflict between them. The scenes between Booster and Ricamora are probably the best parts of the movie. The two have blazing physical chemistry, and their conversations are rife with witty banter and humour.

Fire Island has a few similar set pieces to the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, like the confession in the rain and the dance scene, even the ending has similar visuals to what we got in the Joe Wright version. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a copy/paste job. Far from it, the ideas explored in these various scenes are not the same. Noah is not Elizabeth, and Will is not Darcy. Noah, more than anything, desires to belong, but is afraid to put himself out there for fear of being rejected. Instead, he finds it easier to indulge in these quick flings than allow himself to be vulnerable in a relationship. And yes, Will is quick to form a prejudiced opinion, but he’s also far more vulnerable and open than Darcy allows himself to be.

Since this is a rom-com, there is of course a musical performance, which was quite enjoyable. Yang is incredibly funny, and brings such Jane Bennett energy in his relationship with Noah. The only weak part is the Dex (Zane Phillips) subplot, whose actions can’t quite match the scale of what Wickham did in the original novel. The whole thing is also quite easily resolved, so Will’s actions don’t seem quite as tremendous in comparison.

But then again, Fire Island isn’t about a stroll into happily ever after. The movie makes it clear that these unions exist in the now, and there aren’t any plans for marriage or even monogamous relationships. Does it matter? After all, relationships don’t have to last forever in order to mean something. Maybe that should be the truth we universally acknowledge.

READ NEXT: 10 Best Jane Austen Adaptations You Should Watch

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clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

‘Fire Island’ puts a raunch-com spin on Jane Austen

Actor and screenwriter Joel Kim Booster’s sunny summer romp is an ode to the eponymous gay vacation spot

Actor and screenwriter Joel Kim Booster gives Jane Austen a brisk, lighthearted refresh in “Fire Island,” a hedonistic — but disarmingly sincere — ode to the eponymous gay vacation spot.

As the movie opens, Noah (Booster) is on his way to meet his friends for their annual pilgrimage to Fire Island, where untold sybaritic pleasures await. He’s just left a hunky guy in bed, but, as he informs viewers in his voice-over, “he had boyfriend energy, and that’s just not me.” Noah is all about hookup culture, sexual exploration and giving the middle finger to the “monogamy industrial complex,” which, he quips later, “was invented by straight people to make us less interesting.”

The recipient of that piece of wisdom is his best friend Howie, a bespectacled romantic played with low-key sweetness by “Saturday Night Live” player Bowen Yang . Like any good Austen protagonist, Noah takes it upon himself to make sure Howie has a satisfying sexual encounter before their week on Fire Island has ended — meaning an assignation that is hot, naughty and emotionally shallow. Howie reluctantly goes along with the plan, even though he harbors a deep-seated longing for love and commitment.

Can this raunch-com be saved? The good news is that “Fire Island” doesn’t need saving. Snappily directed by Andrew Ahn (“Spa Night,” “Driveways”), this sunny summer romp checks just about every box when it comes to the pleasures of the genre. From the jump, Booster-slash-Noah gives the audience a biting tutorial on millennial gay culture, affectionately referring to his posse using the f-word, then quickly adding, “Don’t cancel me,” noting that for his “sisters,” it’s a term of endearment.

Through catty remarks, snappy comebacks and quippy one-liners, “Fire Island” provides a primer on the cultural norms of the gay community, including how “race, masculinity and abs” are just a few of the metrics by which it sorts itself. Noah, Howie and their friends are a decidedly down-market segment of the population, staying with their surrogate mother Erin (Margaret Cho) at her cozy cottage in the Pines and gazing longingly at the rich, handsome, physically fit specimens flexing their way through such beloved seasonal rituals as the Tea Dance and the Underwear Party.

Things heat up when Howie makes eye contact with Charlie (James Scully), who’s staying at a spectacular glass-walled mansion on the beach, and whose snobby friends look askance at the pushy, slightly tacky interlopers suddenly in their midst. An L.A. lawyer named Will (Conrad Ricamora) — channeling Mr. Darcy by way of Mr. Spock — is particularly chilly, his judgy demeanor both attracting Noah and driving him to fits of petulant rage.

If the plot machinations sound familiar, where “Fire Island” is heading won’t be a mystery. But Booster and Ahn still manage to make the contrivances feel fresh, even if the tonal zags — praising promiscuity and Dionysian excess one minute only to turn earnestly sincere the next — occasionally don’t play well with each other. Yang and Booster develop an easygoing chemistry, and Ahn surrounds them with equally convincing supporting players: Matt Rogers, Tomas Matos, Torian Miller, Nick Adams and Zane Phillips deliver memorable turns as characters who seem familiar without ever being caricatures.

The energy of “Fire Island” lies somewhere between “Sex and the City” and “Looking,” kept afloat by the eye candy of guys in Speedos, in-jokes about everything from Cherry Grove to Cherry Jones, and a poppy soundtrack dominated by Charli XCX and Perfume Genius. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that Howie and Noah’s journey will end with valuable life lessons about friendship, self-acceptance and belonging; genuinely amusing gags about Marisa Tomei, Alicia Vikander and heteronormativity are bonuses. As Noah observes, not every single man is necessarily in want of a wife — but figuring that out is more than half the fun.

R. Available on Hulu. Contains strong sexual material, crude language throughout, drug use and some nudity. 105 minutes.

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Fire Island review: Pride and Prejudice goes to the Pines in a lively gay update

They're here, they're queer, they can't wait for their summer share.

The generous work of Jane Austen seems to have endless room for adaptations, her 200-year-old stories applied like a master key to everything from marauding zombies to as-if teens . Still, even she could not have had the bandwidth to foresee the queer Pride and Prejudice fantasia of Fire Island (on Hulu June 3), a classic tale of love and class-consciousness dragged kiki-ing and screaming into the contemporary realm of Britney karaoke and buttless bikini briefs.

Actor-comedian Joel Kim Booster wrote the script and stars as Noah, a broke thirtysomething nurse with an Adonis body, a socially anxious best friend ( Saturday Night Live 's Bowen Yang ), and a precious week to spend in a summer share on a legendary strip of land off the coast of Long Island thanks to an old coworker, a loopy lesbian named Erin ( Margaret Cho ). The house fills up fast with their giddy crew, and so does the drama: There's intrigue with a dreamboat doctor for Yang's Howie, and a terse, handsome lawyer ( How to Get Away with Murder 's Conrad Ricamora) Noah can't seem to stop sparring with or running into on the docks. (He's called Will, not Mr. Darcy, but you know where this is headed.)

The mere fact of a mainstream romantic comedy centered on gay characters of color — underwritten by Disney, no less — is still a little bit extraordinary in 2022, though the movie also feels notable for not subduing or soft-peddling its voice for the hetero normies who may or may not tune in, presuming by default to be catered to. Fire 's aim is true, though its tone tends to veer wildly, ricocheting from cutting AbFab wit to the kind of swoony soft-focus tropes Bridgerton wouldn't shake a powdered wig at. Tender teachable moments about racism or depression or midlife ennui ride alongside indie-pop needle drops and broad, breezy punchlines about tea-dance orgies and ketamine.

In that context, judging Fire Island too harshly as a film feels a little bit beside the point: Director Andrew Ahn (who helmed the microbudget coming-out story Spa Night and the lovely, low-key indie Driveways ) works like a loose ringmaster here, aiming mostly for function and fizz. There's a sitcom-ish tilt to it all that seems scaled for small-screen viewing (albeit with an 18+ parental lock), and the performances range from poignant to blithely cartoonish, often within a single scene. But when the actors and the storyline find their rhythm — Yang sliding off a giant deck chair in an MDMA haze like a human Slinky; Ricamora stiffly submitting himself to a dance-off, a flailing robot in deck shorts — it's almost impossible not to be charmed. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a very small swimsuit must be in want of a rom-com to call his own; Fire Island sets the stage, messy and sweet, and lets its freak flag fly. Grade: B

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Fire Island

A group of queer best friends gather in Fire Island Pines for their annual week of love and laughter, but a sudden change of events might make this their last summer in gay paradise. A group of queer best friends gather in Fire Island Pines for their annual week of love and laughter, but a sudden change of events might make this their last summer in gay paradise. A group of queer best friends gather in Fire Island Pines for their annual week of love and laughter, but a sudden change of events might make this their last summer in gay paradise.

• Joel Kim Booster
• Margaret Cho
• 104 User reviews
• 64 Critic reviews
• 72 Metascore
• 7 wins & 17 nominations total

• (as Tomás Matos)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Was first developed as a series titled "Trip" for the now-defunct streaming television network Quibi.
• Goofs On Sunday, Will is seen eating an ice cream cone in Cherry Grove and ducking into the Ice Palace. It's implied that Noah is there soon after having left his Pines house. Cherry Grove is a distance from the Pines, and an earlier scene also mentions that the journey is either by water taxi or a long way by foot.

Noah : We're going to Fire Island. It's like gay Disney World.

• Crazy credits At the beginning, several characters from the film sing the Searchlight Pictures theme over the logo's own theme.
• Connections Referenced in Big Gay Fiction Podcast: Ep 394: Dante's Cove Recap - Season 3, Episode 2 (2022)
• Soundtracks Home Written and Performed by Ruu Campbell Courtesy of CAPP Records Inc. & Gravelpit Music

User reviews 104

• Jun 3, 2022
• How long is Fire Island? Powered by Alexa
• June 3, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Fire Island, Long Island, New York, USA
• Searchlight Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 45 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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• DVD & Streaming

Fire Island

• Comedy , Drama , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Joel Kim Booster as Noah; Bowen Yang as Howie; James Scully as Charlie; Conrad Ricamora as Will; Zane Phillips as Dex; Margaret Cho as Erin; Tomas Matos as Keegan; Matt Rogers as Luke; Torian Miller as Max

Home Release Date

• June 3, 2022

Distributor

Movie review.

Disney tapped its Searchlight Pictures subsidiary to produce this extremely raunchy rom-com set on a resort island that its characters call a “gay Disneyland.” It appropriates a Pride and Prejudice- like storyline while labeling itself as an “examination of queer romance.”

The film seems intended to bring realistic depictions of gay culture and lifestyle to mainstream audiences. Along the way, Fire Island does pack in plenty of typical romcom formulaic beats. But, frankly, this pic’s bawdy gay jokes, foul profanities and extremely graphic sexuality is—as one TV show used to put it—not ready for primetime.

In fact, this depiction of the gay hook-up culture is so raw in spots that we deemed it inappropriate to describe and review in the way we normally would. However, because it’s streaming on Hulu, we also wanted to offer a strong warning to anyone who might inadvertently start watching it under the misconception that it’s a traditional romcom. It isn’t.

So we’ll just leave it at this: Fire Island is as hard-core and pornographic as an R-rating can stand.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Fire island.

Directed by Myles Clohessy

The perfect summer vacation quickly spirals out of control for a group of friends on the infamous, picturesque party getaway of Fire Island as they find themselves caught in a web of sex, lies and cold blooded murder.

Jonathan Bennett Connor Paolo Timothy V. Murphy Robert Clohessy Annie Fox Lukas Hassel Arielle Díaz Kahyun Kim Olivia Larsen Kresh Novakovic Jared P-Smith Sal Rendino Ramsey K. Heitmann Liam Burke Brian Foyster

Director Director

Myles Clohessy

Writers Writers

Myles Clohessy Phil Harrell Emma Harrell

Alternative Titles

Love Island, Fire Island 2023, 火之岛

Horror Thriller

Releases by Date

01 jun 2023, releases by country.

90 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by kowalski 🫀 ½

i am convinced they named this fire island just to get views from dumb queer ppl who were looking for the 2022 film. i will not confirm or deny if i am included in the dumb queer ppl who fell victim to this crime

Review by zubats ★

The editing time code shown at the end of this film is indicative of how much time and love went into this. 

Completely uninteresting, forced, and overall a bit of a waste of time.

Review by aetll ½

i sat through the entire thing before realising i watched the wrong fire island. i will admit that

Review by BeBraveMorvern ★★

A promising, low-budget slasher that goes off the rails in its final stretch. The movie ironically locates the action in an idyllic summer destination. It also feels retro in offing only the horny characters. 

For a while, it’s tight and spooky. Connor Paolo makes an engaging lead, mourning his recently deceased boyfriend. One intense shot has characters running through the night, their flashlights shining into the camera, the glare intermittently obscuring the killer chasing them. And director Miles Clohessey effectively builds suspense by framing windows and open doors behind characters. 

Then it falls apart with a laughable motive and a simplistic depiction of mental illness; if there’s an actor who could’ve breathed life into this phony concept, they didn’t hire him. Another character, who was too obviously menacing to be the killer, annoyingly turns out to be a pointless, unexplained red herring.

Review by Michael ½ 1

The audacity to put a straight sex scene in a movie titled Fire Island!

Review by nate ★½

twink death: the film.

Review by Michael Shawn ★

This was such a hot mess I honestly don't even know where to begin. Maybe first I'll address the fact that it's a movie set on Fire fucking Island and yet the only sex depicted is hetero and the only nudity is female. The "horror" is anemic and mostly consists of cutaways every time a kill is made, followed by some lame CGI blood splashing up against a black screen. The direction and editing are amateurish, with a timecode actually being left in the damn film as it cuts to the end credits. The acting is tepid and the characters have very little development beyond the superficial. Of course, everyone on Fire Island is superficial, so maybe that was a…

Review by Ashley Magro ★

They should have named this movie Fyre Island because, much like Fyre Festival, it was a failure.

Review by Kaydin ★★

For how bad it tried to be a good slasher, it couldn't see the light. I wanted to give this credit but god damn did I lose interest after some parts. I even started rooting for the villain.

Review by Corey Hotsenpiller ½

A film taking place on fire island with only the straight couple having sex and only has female nudity. 🤔 This isn't a horror film by any means. It's beyond stupid. The killer reveal was predictable and dumb. Wtf is there a visible time code at the end? Even the opening credits are all over the place. Easily the dumbest film I've seen in the past 23 years.

Review by ZacharyBinx ★½

This is just one of those MTV horror movies with all of the fun sucked out of it. Extra half star for Connor Paolo being all cute with his little beard. But seriously, don't watch this. It's not worth your time.

Pride Month watch 45/60

Review by raeven ★½

the concept of a queer slasher set on fire island during the height of quarantine is really camp. but that doesn't mean it's... good

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Fire Island (2023): Bambi’s Revenge!

Fire island (2023).

Motion Picture Rating: R

Production Company: Barefoot Kid Productions, Ident Films, JARS Productions

Director(s): Myles Clohessy

Writer(s): Myles Clohessy, Emma Harrell, Phil Harrell

Cast: Connor Paolo, Annie Fox, Arielle Diaz, Timothy V. Murphy

Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, LGBTQ, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, Thriller

Release Date: 06/01/2023

By  Rob Price

Friends on a getaway to Fire Island, begin getting killed.

Spoiler Level: Mild

A group of friends consisting of a lesbian couple, a straight couple and a gay male who recently lost his boyfriend to suicide, venture to Fire Island for a weekend of sex, drugs and general debauchery.  Set during the pandemic, the friends try to enjoy themselves as they attempt to coax Troy out of his depression after the death of his mentally unstable boyfriend. Suddenly strange things start to happen, and one by one the friends begin to disappear.  Add an older gay couple living on the island, are recovering from the serial killings that took place a couple years before, where the killer, who is thought to be dead, may not be.  Mix in a police chief who is trying to keep this all hush hush and a strong willed detective trying to figure it all out, and an old crazy Scottish man spouting lines from Macbeth, and what do you have… a bloody freaking mess!  Normally I would end my first paragraph of a review with something like, “Who will survive the onslaught?  Watch and find out!”, but I cannot in good conscience recommend this movie.

The acting itself isn’t bad, but like a lot of modern horror films, there aren’t a whole lot of likeable characters and without someone to root for the movie is pointless.  You do feel for Troy (Connor Paolo) and his best friend Sam (Annie Fox) who are trying to make it through the isolation of the pandemic as well as dealing with the trauma of losing a friend to mental illness.  The two actors do a decent job of conveying appropriate emotion and creating a bond with the audience.  The real problem with the film is the storyline and the plot in general.  For the first 30 odd minutes nothing really happens to move the plot forward.  A couple of deaths occur, but for seemingly no reason.  Then all the sudden there is a guy dressed in a deer skull mask killing people.  The reason he is wearing that mask is never explained and why he killed the people in the beginning of the film is never elaborated on, plus the dear skull mask with antlers is getting somewhat cliched being used in several other horror films of late.  In the meantime, crazy Scottish man Murph (Timothy V Murphy) tries to warn Troy that he shouldn’t be on the island, spouting out lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.  Although I found this sort of interesting, how he knew something was wrong, why he was warning Troy, or who this character actually was is never exposed to the audience.  The film was only 120 minutes long, they definitely had time to tie up some of the loose ends and add in a cohesive story.  But they didn’t. Setting the movie during the Covid-19 pandemic also seemed unnecessary, unless the reason was so they didn’t have to pay a lot of extras to make it look like a crowded Fire Island, using it as an excuse as to why the place is deserted.  Using Fire Island as a setting was a mistake, considering another movie of the same name came out in 2022, and there are other places in the world this could have been set. But maybe the worst atrocity this movie commits is the unsatisfactory end which leaves the audience with a “feel bad” vibe devoid of all hope, and of course open for a sequel.

The whole movie wasn’t bad, and I do like to call out the good things I see.  The use of sound effects as opposed to actual blood and gore is something I appreciate, and there was some interesting camera work and lighting effects that subtly added some creepiness to the film.  A shadow of antlers traveling over Troy while he is sleeping for example.  These were just few and far between and were completely overshadowed by the lack of story and a good script.

Final Thoughts

I normally don't do this, and where I can honestly say I have seen much worse movies, I still can’t give this one a recommendation and I highly suggest you avoid it.

Fire Island can be seen on Showtime.

• Writing - 5/10 5/10
• Storyline - 5/10 5/10
• Acting - 8/10 8/10
• Music - 8/10 8/10
• Production - 7/10 7/10

User Review

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Author:  Rob Price

Check out new weekly comic releases at comixology.com, related posts, accurate review.

That was the perfect review for the movie. I found out after watching it that it was a sequel but I don’t think it matters that I did not see the first one. However I do wonder if Raphael was in the first movie? I guess it was the same killer in both movies. I kind of thought it might be Troy’s boyfriend. But they literally don’t mention Rafael at all in the whole movie except for the older gay couple who briefly mentioned him but not by name or anything specific. Truly not a good movie at all. The story wasn’t there but kudos to the actors because they pulled off making it interesting enough for me to watch the whole thing even though they had really nothing to work with as far as the script was concerned.

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‘Fire Island’ Review: Oh, the Summer Nights

The quips are almost as hot as the sexual tension in Andrew Ahn and Joel Kim Booster’s loosely paced but endearing romantic comedy.

• Share full article

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

The fairly banal title, which refers to the famously hedonistic New York gay haven, reflects the degree of originality deployed by Andrew Ahn’s “Fire Island.” This, after all, is a rom-com that deploys not one but three genre staples — a party game (here a session of Heads Up!), a karaoke outing (Britney, naturally) and a dance scene — and where every plot development feels preordained.

Yet it’s also impossible to resist a movie that uses “Legally Blonde” as a verb and in which two men adorably bond over Alice Munro short stories. Noah (Joel Kim Booster, who also wrote the screenplay and has a Netflix special due June 21) and his similarly underfunded buddies have descended on the Pines for a last week of summer fun before their host (Margaret Cho) sells her house. Noah is busy playing wingman for his friend Howie (“SNL” cast member Bowen Yang), a hopeless romantic who fears he will never find a boyfriend, while himself steering clear of emotional attachments — until he develops a suspiciously intense antipathy for the uptight, taciturn lawyer Will (the fetching Conrad Ricamora, from “How to Get Away With Murder”).

The movie lightly recasts Jane Austen tropes, with Noah as the reluctant anchor of friends fumbling to form attachments beyond their own cozy circle, while the social commentary is updated to barbs at Fire Island’s racial, financial and sexual stratification. The pace is slacker than it should be, but still, “Fire Island” fits neatly alongside Kristen Stewart’s lesbian Christmas movie “Happiest Season” on Hulu’s rom-com shelf.

Fire Island Rated R for sexual shenanigans. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Watch on Hulu.

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Bowen yang in ‘fire island’: film review.

The 'SNL' regular stars alongside screenwriter Joel Kim Booster in Andrew Ahn’s Jane Austen-inspired romantic comedy set in the cruise-y gay getaway spot, also featuring Margaret Cho.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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The gold standard for contemporary riffs on Jane Austen remains Amy Heckerling’s supremely witty Clueless . But Fire Island , Andrew Ahn ’s queer spin on Pride and Prejudice , is a delightful addition that straddles the divide between an early 19th century comedy of manners and a frothy modern-day rom-com with disarming sweetness. While the marketing sells toned bodies, hard partying and nonstop quips to a pulsing dance beat, the actual movie, streaming June 3 on Hulu , brings surprising heart and even sensitivity to its affectionate observation of gay men of color navigating relationships. Or avoiding them. None of that should be unexpected coming from the director of Spa Night and Driveways .

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Much of the initial attention will focus on Bowen Yang in a self-deprecating role that makes more consistent use of his talents than Saturday Night Live , where he’s too often let down by patchy material. But the breakout here is screenwriter Joel Kim Booster , a Los Angeles-based stand-up comic with extensive TV credits who has written himself a plum role as Noah, the Lizzie Bennet of the scenario, as well as its narrator.

Fire Island

Release date : Friday, June 3 Cast : Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos, Torian Miller, Margaret Cho, Nick Adams Director : Andrew Ahn Screenwriter : Joel Kim Booster

Sensible “sister” Jane to Noah’s Lizzie is Howie (Yang), who flies in from San Francisco against his better instincts for the annual weeklong Fire Island reunion with their chosen family; they all met 10 years ago working at the same “cursed brunch spot.”

The group includes thirsty mess Luke (Matt Rogers); his inseparable bestie, gender-fluid queen Keegan (Tomás Matos); and the more grounded, bookish Max (Torian Miller). Their host is lesbian den mother Erin ( Margaret Cho ), who bought a house in the Pines with a lawsuit settlement after finding glass in her food at a popular Italian chain restaurant. But that was the end of her sound investments; she’s now broke and has to sell the place, so this looks like the group’s last summer together.

While that melancholy reality hangs in the air, the principal plot driver is Noah’s mission to get Howie laid, promising to put his own sexual pursuits on pause until his friend gets lucky.

Both these spiritually bonded men have absorbed the blithely offensive gay hookup-app exclusion of “No fats, no femmes, no Asians,” but each has responded in different ways. Noah has built an armor out of his tight gym body and become a voracious player — but smart, as in he reads Alice Munro. He swats off potential boyfriends and convinces himself that monogamous relationships are of zero interest. Howie has internalized the marginalization, his low self-esteem making him feel invisible. He’s 30 and has never been in a relationship, but he’s actually far less hungry for the horny sex than the swooning rom-com fantasy.

Howie’s insecurities aren’t helped by being in “gay Disney World,” where “hot, white, rich, with 7 percent body fat” is considered the top of the desirability spectrum. Each year he vows not to come back. His culturally diverse, low-income group stands out conspicuously when they drift into the social flow of the well-heeled vanilla gays, whose palatial mansion puts Erin’s cozy house to shame.

The connection by which these seemingly incompatible factions intersect is Charlie (James Scully), an adorably guileless pediatrician on the rebound from a failed relationship. He’s instantly attracted to Howie, who’s too chronically awkward to believe the cute stranger’s interest is genuine, let alone act on it. Then there’s aloof L.A. lawyer Will (Conrad Ricamora), whose dour, taciturn demeanor doesn’t quite hide his attraction to Noah, even if the latter is slow on the uptake.

There’s no doubt as to where all this is headed, especially to anyone familiar with Pride and Prejudice . But Ahn’s light-touch direction, the appealing cast and the frisky humor and stealth soulfulness of Kim Booster’s script keep it breezy and captivating as the predestined romantic partners butt heads or drop in and out of each other’s orbits when faced with various obstacles.

The part of the film where the Jane Austen parallels feel a little strained is in the obnoxious company that Charlie and Will — respectively the Charles Bingley and Mr. Darcy of the makeover — seem content enough to keep. Charlie is painfully nice from the get-go, even if his constant beaming assertions that Howie and his friends are so “funny and different” grow wearisome. Has this guy really never met anyone who wasn’t a narcissistic Speedo model? Likewise, Will, despite his chilly veneer, is inevitably revealed to be decency personified — notably when he steps in to rescue ditzy Luke (read: Lydia) from public shaming at the hands of a sexy party boy of dubious character (Zane Phillips) in one of the cleverer twists on the original novel.

But Charlie and Will’s hosts in the Ocean Walk House are beyond toxic. One of them, Braden (Aiden Wharton), unfailingly greets Noah, Howie and their posse with, “Can I help you?” every time they set foot in the airy Architectural Digest spread, invited or not. And controlling Cooper (Nick Adams) is as openly disdainful as he is manipulative, doing his best to sabotage any possible romance that would keep the interlopers around. He makes the caustic Caroline Bingley seem like an angel.

“Top-shelf stuff hits a little different than well,” says Cooper with snarky superiority when Howie gets trashed at one of their parties and spends the night throwing up in the bath. Cooper even calls in reinforcements by summoning Charlie’s ex, Rhys (Michael Graceffa), another hunky, vapid asshole, to drop in from Manhattan and edge Howie out of the picture.

The notion that neither Charlie nor Will, who’s biracial Asian, would be unduly troubled by the classist, racist meanness of their housemates becomes hard to swallow. But it’s essential to the plot mechanics and makes it all the more gratifying when they finally do come to their senses and shrug off the disapproval of Cooper and company.

Ultimately, it also works because the screenplay is sufficiently rooted in personal experience to touch on the openly discriminatory way in which a lot of white power gays dismiss “otherness” of any kind. There are also amusing digs at the opposite extreme, the fetishization of Asian men by white serial “rice queens.” It’s to the filmmakers’ credit that those elements are smoothly woven into the mix, never preachy.

The script is loaded with fun references to queer movie favorites, whether it’s a dance remix of “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory ; a celebrity name game challenge, with My Cousin Vinny providing the key clue; a shout-out to the merits of Neighbors 2 over its predecessor as a Zac Efron showcase; or a casual homage to Clueless : “Way harsh, Tai.” I laughed at Noah’s admiration for Will’s lawyering skills in the Luke incident (“You Legally Blonde d him!”), and even at throwaway gags like Erin’s WiFi password (Ch3rryJon3s).

The shuffle of EDM with snatches of Bach and Vivaldi deftly reaffirms the story’s foundations in a period piece, while music also plays a lovely role in loosening up two stiff characters — Will in a goofy dance-off and Howie doing a tender karaoke version of Britney Spears’ “Sometimes,” with Luke and Keegan on backup. Even when it’s shamelessly sentimental, the movie’s charms hold up; Ahn handles the change of pace to bubblier material than his first two films — both of which were gentler, more interior dramas — with assurance.

In terms of gay destinations, I’ll confess I go for the relatively mellow vibe of Provincetown over the circuit-party hedonism of Fire Island. But even if the glossily rendered setting is not your scene, there’s a lot to like here. Charlie, the pretty white guy, is not the prize but instead, after a bunch of dumb missteps, has to prove he’s worthy of Howie’s affections. That in itself feels like a plus in a pleasurable mainstream entertainment that puts queer characters of color first — just as Jane Austen was among the earliest female writers to foreground strong women characters. Fire Island gets points for representation and has a good time waving the flag.

Full credits

Distribution: Hulu Production company: Searchlight Pictures, JAX Media Cast: Joel Kim Booster, Bowen Yang, Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos, Torian Miller, Margaret Cho, Nick Adams, Zane Phillips, Michael Graceffa, Aidan Wharton, Peter Smith, Bradley Gibson Director: Andrew Ahn Screenwriter: Joel Kim Booster Producers: John Hodges, Tony Hernandez, Brooke Posch Executive producer: Joel Kim Booster Director of photography: Felipe Vara de Rey Production designer: Katie Hickman Costume designer: David Tabbert Music: Jay Wadley Editor: Brian A. Kates Casting: Jessica Munks

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Alicia Vikander is the titular “Firebrand,” starring as Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. But the movie that reframes her legacy as a free-thinking and vengeful radical is only fitfully fiery itself.  

Jude Law  actually steals the show as the corpulent and capricious king. Every time he’s on screen, director Karim Aïnouz’s film roars frighteningly to life. This ordinarily beautiful man subsumes himself to the grotesquerie, delivering a performance that’s at once hammy and terrifying.  

Otherwise, Aïnouz’s film, written by Henrietta and Jessica Ashworth and based on the historical fiction novel Queen’s Gambit  by Elizabeth Fremantle , is too often a muted period drama. Much of that is by necessity: Katherine must remain stealthy in her pursuits of intellectual and religious freedom or risk befalling the same fate as the previous five wives. It is literally a matter of survival. Vikander is an actress of understated grace, but here, she rarely gets the opportunity to indicate her character’s inner turmoil. The eyes of the court are on her always, and spies are everywhere. 

This is especially true during a brief period in 1544, when Henry is off fighting in France and Katherine holds the temporary position of regent. She’d already been serving as a mother figure to Henry’s children from earlier marriages, Elizabeth ( Junia Rees ) and Edward ( Patrick Buckley ), the young heir to the throne. But now she must lead meetings about boring bureaucratic stuff with advisers who side-eye each other at her suggestions.  

Katherine also uses the opportunity to visit with a childhood friend who’s become a charismatic preacher: Anne Askew ( Erin Doherty , hugely compelling in a brief role), who dares to have progressive notions about the church and be a woman at the same time. “Firebrand” truly sparks in this early scene, as we can see the charge of excitement running through Katherine’s body as she reconnects with someone who genuinely understands her, perhaps on multiple levels. The prospect of a romantic flirtation lingers in the thick forest air. 

But then it’s back to palace intrigue, full of whispers in dark corridors and hangers-on strenuously playing both sides. Chief among them is Eddie Marsan as Edward Seymour, uncle of Prince Edward through his late sister, Jane Seymour , Henry’s third wife. He and his brother, Thomas ( Sam Riley ), aim to remain in the volatile king’s good graces. There is also the undercooked suggestion that Katherine and Thomas may have had some kind of fling, which prompts the arrogant king’s jealousy. Mainly, these men are called upon here to mutter their manipulations beneath voluminous beards. Aïnouz rarely builds tension through these machinations; surprisingly, given what’s at stake, “Firebrand” is often a bit of a slog. 

What is effective, though, is the way the tone of a scene can flip instantly based on Henry’s whims. Moments at court that are meant to be joyous turn dangerous and perhaps even deadly if the arrogant king feels crossed. Aïnouz also depicts vividly the way Henry’s worsening leg infection causes him to deteriorate both physically and mentally. It is a gnarly thing to behold; we can practically smell the wretched stench emanating from the gash. 

But “Firebrand” also puts the prodigious skills of French cinematographer Hélène Louvart (“Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “ La Chimera ”) to more artful use in her rendering of the British countryside. Mist wafting through the hills gives the film a moody and mysterious feel, and even a horseback ride across a sunny field seems ominous, particularly with the accompaniment of Dickon Hinchcliffe’s woozy, string-heavy score.  

“Firebrand” eventually becomes a waiting game, as Katherine tries to keep her schemes hidden long enough for Henry to die. Once the king can no longer rage by flickering firelight, the revisionist history is significant. And while the film’s final moments may feel satisfying on a primal level, they feel unearned from a narrative one. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Firebrand (2024)

120 minutes

Alicia Vikander as Katharine Parr

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The until dawn movie: confirmation, cast & everything we know about the video game adaptation.

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The until dawn movie latest news, the until dawn movie is confirmed, the until dawn movie cast, who is making the until dawn movie, the until dawn movie story.

• Until Dawn: Further News & Info
• The popular video game Until Dawn is confirmed to be adapted into a film by Screen Gems, with a writer and director already attached.
• Director David F. Sandberg, known for horror films like Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation , will helm the project.
• The film will need to find a way to incorporate the game's butterfly effect narrative while selecting the best aspects of the game's choices or creating its own narrative.

The widely acclaimed horror video game Until Dawn is being brought to the big screen, and there are already several updates concerning the next hit gaming adaptation. Released in 2015 and developed by Supermassive Games, Until Dawn draws heavy inspiration from horror movies of the past and follows a group of young people who are tormented by evil forces while staying in a remote cabin. The game was specifically designed to terrify the player, and it was made with a cinematic edge, including recognizable actors in the main roles.

While the gameplay itself was rather light, Until Dawn scored points with critics for its brilliant story, well-written script, and the performances of stars like Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, and Peter Stormare. Follow-ups were developed, and a spiritual successor, The Quarry , was released in 2022, which scored equally high marks from gaming critics and fans alike. Naturally, with such a cinematic game, it only makes sense that Hollywood would want to adapt Until Dawn into a feature film.

The Until Dawn Video Game Movie Adaptation Already Faces Two Major Issues

Until Dawn was a widely successful horror video game but its upcoming movie adaptation will face two major issues that it needs to overcome.

The First Four Cast Members Are Announced

no details about whom the actors will be playing have been revealed, and it's clear from the casting that the original stars of the game probably won't be back.

Months after the video game movie was first announced, the latest news sees Until Dawn add its first cast members . Though little is still known about the highly anticipated gaming film, it has now been confirmed that Ella Rubin ( The Idea of You ), Michael Cimino ( Love Victor ), Ji-young Yoo ( Expats ), and Odessa A’zion ( Hellraiser ) will all appear. However, no details about whom the actors will be playing have been revealed, and it's clear from the casting that the original stars of the game probably won't be back.

Nearly 10 years after the game's debut, it has officially been announced that Until Dawn will be adapted into a film by the studio Screen Gems. While little is known about the project at this juncture, a writer and director are already attached, which seems to suggest the project is in good hands. Director David F. Sandberg will helm the movie while screenwriter Gary Dauberman has handled the adaptation . Screen Gems aims to deliver an R-rated interpretation that will do justice to the original game's story, which was written by Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick.

Several Newcomers Are Attached To The Project

With so much about the upcoming horror game adaptation being kept under wraps, it's impossible to guess whether any of Until Dawn 's original cast will reprise their roles . Award winners like Rami Malek added a level of gravitas to the 2015 game, but there has been no word regarding his or any other cast member's return. However, Until Dawn has added several newcomers to the ensemble, suggesting that the movie adaptation will feature a brand-new cast of returning stars.

Though nothing is known about the characters each of the actors will be playing, The Idea of You 's Ella Rubin joins the likes of Michael Cimino ( Love Victor ), Ji-young Yoo ( Expats ), and Odessa A’zion ( Hellraiser ) . Cimino and A'zion are no strangers to the horror genre, with the former appearing in Annabelle Comes Home which was penned by Until Dawn director Gary Dauberman. It's expected that more cast members will be added, since the game has a crowded ensemble of supporting characters.

The confirmed cast of Until Dawn includes:

An Accomplished Horror Pedigree

While Screen Gems is producing the film, the most exciting news about the project so far is that director David F. Sandberg will helm the new movie . Sandberg initially wowed with his low-budget horror film Lights Out in 2016, and moved on to bigger projects like Annabelle: Creation and the box-office smash Shazam! for the DCEU. Besides his experience with horror, Sandberg is also no stranger to big-budget projects, which makes him a more well-rounded director than most horror mavens .

Likewise, the script is partially penned by Gary Dauberman , who is responsible for the most recent draft after it was initially written by Blair Butler. Dauberman has penned a slew of films in the Conjuring universe , including The Nun , Annabelle , and its sequel Creation, where he worked alongside Sandberg. This familiarity between the screenwriter and director is a good sign for the Until Dawn movie as the duo have found great success together in the past.

The Game's Branching Narrative Presents Challenges

Nothing has been revealed about the story of the upcoming movie, but it can be assumed that it will follow the plot of the game in some way . The idea is rather simple, with a group of young people staying in a remote cabin where they are tormented by a deadly force that resembles the stuff of nightmares. The biggest challenge that the film will face is finding a way to incorporate the game's butterfly effect narrative .

The Until Dawn video game features 256 distinct ending possibilities.

Unlike other games that lock the player on a designated story track, Until Dawn allows the player to make choices that radically affected the outcome . Whether it was character deaths, branching storylines, or even different endings, Until Dawn the movie will need to select the best aspects of the game's myriad of choices. On the flip side, the movie could simply create its own narrative that uses the basic framework of the game.

Until Dawn (2024)

Until dawn: further news & info.

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The Watched's Ishana Night Shyamalan reveals unexpected Love Island influence

"It just felt like there was an uncanny moment for me."

The new movie – titled The Watchers in the US – sees artist Mina (Dakota Fanning) stranded in the Irish forest, before she finds shelter with three strangers in the coop, where they are watched by mysterious creatures each night.

In the coop, there's not much to do, but Mina discovers a tape of reality show Lair of Love to wile away the long nights.

Talking to Digital Spy , writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan revealed that the fictional show was inspired by Love Island , which she was watching as she wrote the script. "It just felt like there was an uncanny moment for me," she recalled.

"I felt how much this experience of what I was doing of voyeuristically watching through a box every single day of my life and being so invested in these characters was so related to what was happening to our four characters in the coop.

"So it felt like both a way to ground the experience and make it feel very alive and very modern, while commenting on the high concept of the movie and the high eeriness of the film."

While she has directed episodes of Servant , as well as serving as second-unit director on Old and Knock at the Cabin , The Watched marked Shyamalan's feature directorial debut.

For her debut, she chose to adapt A.M. Shine's book The Watchers for the screen, which she described as a "process of preservation".

"I feel like myself as someone who loves reading and loves watching movies, that kind of discourse of like, 'Did you do the book justice?' was something I felt very aware of from the beginning," she explained.

"I also think A.M. Shine, the author, is just such an artist in his own right, I wanted to honour that. So it was very much just about, like, building out sequences or certain elements, while maintaining all the structure and ideas that I felt were most important in the book."

The Watched will be released in UK cinemas on June 7.

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

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‘A Desert’ Review: Joshua Erkman’s Debut Feature Is an Intriguing but Murky, Horror-Adjacent Mystery

The Mojave swallows unwary visitors whole in a slow-burn indie thriller that never quite catches fire.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

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It’s easy to get lost in the desert, a fate that befalls Joshua Erkman ’s debut feature. While his protagonists eventually get dangerously close to some lurid, lethal goings-on, this self-described “neo-noir horror” leaves a vague and rudderless final impression despite its intriguing-enough buildup. “ A Desert ” aims for the enigmatic, supernaturally-tinged mystery of something like Lynch’s “Lost Highway,” but in the end lacks the tension and atmosphere to pull that tricky gambit off. Nonetheless, its arty sojourn through backroads-thriller terrain is likely to gain some supporters as a Tribeca Fest midnight section premiere.

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Somewhat improbably, Alex lets them bully their way into his room, then coerce him into swigging from a bottle of unknown intoxicant. He wakes up alone the next day with a splitting headache and little memory of whatever shameful deeds were done. But his real mistake lies in subsequently letting Renny guide him to some locations that “no photographer has seen before.” 

Erkman, whose first feature comes after a series of well-received shorts, gets good performances from the entire cast. There is consistent visual interest in Jay Keitel’s cinematography, which echoes the desolate desert aesthetic of Alex’s still imagery, while indie rock veteran Ty Segall contributes an attractively diverse, sparely applied score played by his Freedom Band. 

But the slow-burn approach that works well during the first act grows wearying later on, when bad things start happening on an accelerated schedule, yet the pacing still feels draggy. There’s just not much suspense generated, even after initially puzzling glimpses of a bunker-like studio for questionable transmissions get somewhat elucidated. Too many fateful late occurrences seem to happen by unlikely coincidence. A sense of unpinnable but pervasive evil is something the film would like to communicate, but lacks the stylistic finesse to achieve. The narrative ultimately vanishes down a rabbit’s hole that feels less like a frightening, otherworldly trap than an exasperatingly fuzzy dead end.

Still, the teasing suggestion of some nefarious, labyrinthine occult and/or criminal enterprise will probably be enough for some viewers, who can project their own imagined explanations onto the fadeout. “A Desert” does have its share of diverting quirks, notably the inevitable late-night-TV horror excerpt that turns out to be James Landis’ 1963 cult favorite “The Sadist,” with Arch Hall Jr. as another trashy young psychopath haunting the backroads of Southern California. 

Reviewed online, June 1, 2024. In Tribeca Festival (Midnight). Running time: 102 MIN.

• Production: A Yellow Veil Pictures, Capes & Fog production. (World sales: Yellow Veil, New York/Los Angeles.) Producers: Hugues Barbier, Joshua Erkman, Justin Timms, Joe Yanick. 
• Crew: Director: Joshua Erkman. Screenplay: Joshua Erkman, Bossi Baker. Camera: Jay Keitel. Editor: Star Rosencrans. Music: Ty Segall.
• With: David Yow, Kai Lennox, Sarah Lind, Zachary Ray Sherman, Ashley B. Smith, Rob Zabrecky, S.A. Griffin, Bill J. Stevens, Bill Bookston, Alexandra Ryan.

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