Many Love Islanders have slow-mo walked out of that villa onto bigger and better things. Zara McDermott has become a bona fide reality star after appearing in Made in Chelsea and has also been a presenter for multiple documentaries. Love Island 2017’s Olivia Attwood hosts podcast So Wrong It’s Right (for us!) and Love Island 2019’s Maura Higgins has taken to the US and become the presenter for Love Island: Aftersun in America.
However, only one Islander so far has made the leap from Islander to scream queen, and that’s Samira Mighty. An OG Islander from Love Island 2018, Samira was a fan-favourite and chose to leave the villa on day 40 to pursue a relationship with Frankie Foster. Which went about as well as anyone other than Samira predicted.
Since leaving, she has appeared in Mamma Mia! and Dreamgirls in London's West End as well as competing on The X Factor: Celebrity alongside fellow Islanders Eyal Booker, Wes Nelson and Zara McDermott as group No Love Lost.
As if her burgeoning music career wasn’t enough, Samira has now hit the big screen. She revealed the news on Instagram, writing, “I always wanted to be in a horror film 👀 Bambi: The Reckoning- coming soon 🎬.”
As well as Samira, the film stars musician Jas Rivers and Hollyoaks’ Roxanne McKee - talk about star-studded. Bambi: The Reckoning is an upcoming independent horror movie loosely based on Disney’s Bambi. It is the fourth instalment in The Twisted Childhood Universe franchise which made waves last year with Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which got one star from our friends at Empire.
One look at the poster, which features a blood-soaked Samira, will tell you that this film is obviously not for kids. According to IMDB, the film follows a mother and son who find themselves hunted by Bambi, “a mutated grief-stricken deer on a deadly rampage seeking revenge for the death of his mother.”
While many view Love Island to be horrifying in its own right- specifically any challenge that involves passing food from mouth to mouth- this is definitely a career shift. Although we love seeing Islanders launch Pretty Little Things collections and doing #sponsored posts about teeth whitening kits, we're ready for a change.
Grab your popcorn, Love Island fans.
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Sarah O'Byrne has written about Love Island for heat and Closer since May 2023, and as a lover of both horror films and Love Island, she was born to write this story.