I Wish - Faites un voeu

I wish I may, I wish I might, make a demand that might cost someone's life? That's not the way the rhyme goes, but this parody is pretty representative of the theme of my latest review. Robbie K here, this time covering Wish Upon the latest horror genre flick to flood the silver screens across the country. The "disturbing" trailers paint the picture of the next spine tingling film, but the PG-13 rating suggests it could be a little timid. What's the verdict? Hopefully I can fill in some answers to help answer that question. Let's get started!

LIKES:

Shorter Run Time: I know what you're thinking, not good if this is a like, but it's nice to see a movie stick around the 90-minute run time when there isn't sustenance to keep it running longer. Wish Upon fills its short run-time purpose with the thrills you want, and keeps it concise, a sign of good directing and editing in an era what that so suffers.

Joey King: Singling out the actors in this rather new actor cast, Joey King reprises her horror acting in a "two thumbs up" manner. King plays the role of a distressed teenager with class, bringing a delicate balance of drama, screaming, and shallow happiness to the character. In many PG-13 or teenager focused films, the lead character often suffers from overacting or extreme tangents in directing. For me, King was able to keep things in good proportions and didn't have me rolling my eyes (a first in a long time.) While certainly not an award-winning performance, King gets props for carrying the load of the movie.

A Nice tangent: Despite the common trend of demons, spirits, and ghosts… Wish Upon at least brings a slight twist to the themes of horror movies. The wishing factor is a nice gimmick to get sold onto and see what desires will tempt her to risk lives. It set a nice pace for the movie to build upon, and made it a little dynamic in regards to whom would pay the blood price for Clare's (King) decisions and selfishness. The wish factor also presented some character development, shallower but existing, that really worked in their favor.

Not overly graphic: A PG-13 horror movie is often a lot lax in their grim depictions of death. Wish Upon continues that trend, forgoing gross, exaggerated, drawn out torturous deaths in favor of ridiculous, and still horrible, deaths that are quickly executed. One can think of this as Final Destination meets Unfriended, which boils down to coincidental deaths with a filter. Unfortunately, it means you have seen a majority of the executions via the commercials, but you will get a few sequences that have escaped the public eye up until now.

DISLIKES:

Very simplistic: Despite the deaths being filtered and less intense, they were also very simplistic and not as impressive. Yes, they were still awful (as death is), but the hype up of the trailers was sadly dropped with the simplicity of the deaths. There was no extra edge factor to them, and the lack of suspense, which left the ridiculous nature of the deaths the eye-rolling component of the film. If you want the mindless, over the top deaths without the blood… well your wish has been granted I guess. Story: Wish Upon's tale has some decent character development in it to highlight the underlying theme of the horror movie. It was great seeing Clare's transitions and her attempt to find the solution to the curse kept in the box. However, outside of that, the story tanks. It's the same predictable mess that most of this genre is, with little sustenance so that they could cram more deaths into the movie. The cool wish concept brought about a lot of potential to interact with the entity, as well as opportunities for a more suspenseful uncovering of the source of the evil. I would have liked to see what the creature looked like, or at least more interaction with the invisible evil that dwelled within. Other plot elements could have been a little more detailed in the delivery as well, to add the emotional impact I think they wanted.

The VERDICT:

Wish Upon isn't the worst movie to grace the theaters. This PG-13 movie brings a unique angle to a stale concept that is concise, decently acted, and not overly graphic. Unfortunately, the execution is still in need of work on a variety of areas. A lackluster story that was underdeveloped and the lack of suspense are two key areas the potential sequel can bring to the table. As for this film though, if you aren't looking for a filtered death movie, you might skip this until haunts Netflix. For those looking for a simplistic horror film though… you've got a ringer in the theaters this summer. One thing is certain though…be careful what you wish for.

My scores:

Fantasy/Horror/Thriller: 6.0 Movie Overall: 4.0

'WISH UPON': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

The new supernatural horror flick about a girl that gets a strange music box from her father, that she realizes will grant her seven wishes. She also later learns though, that there's a very violent and horrific price for every wish. The film was directed by John R. Leonetti (who's also helmed other horror flicks like 'ANNABELLE' and 'THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT 2'), and it was written by Barbara Marshall (who also wrote the horror flick 'VIRAL', from last year). The movie stars Joey King, Ryan Phillipe, Elisabeth Rohm, Ki Hong Lee, Sydney Park, Shannon Purser, Mitchell Slaggert and Sherilyn Fenn. The screenplay was voted to the 2015 Black List, and the film was made on a budget of just $12 million. It's received mostly mediocre reviews from critics, and viewers, but I enjoyed it.

Clare Shannon (King) is a high school student that's constantly picked on by the popular girls at school, and she's also severely embarrassed by her 'dumpster diving' father (Phillipe). Her mother (Rohm) committed suicide too, when Clare was young, and Clare is still traumatized by it. Then one day her dad brings her home a mysterious music box, that he found in a dumpster, which says it will grant her seven wishes. Clare decides to entertain the fantastical idea, and then she's amazed when her wishes start coming true. Then Clare becomes haunted by the box though, when people start dying (seemingly) as a result of her making wishes.

I enjoy horror movies, especially really good quality thrillers, but even B-horror flicks too. This is definitely a B-horror movie, but for me it was a lot of fun. I could really relate to Clare, and the concept of the movie is really interesting to me as well. I'd even go see a sequel (which the film is definitely set up for). The death scenes also reminded me a lot of the 'FINAL DESTINATION' franchise, which I also liked (at least at first). I think this is a horror movie that most B-horror fans can enjoy (like I definitely did).

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I dug around for this movie because it has Joey King in the lead role and I think she is one of the better young actresses today. I got it on BluRay from my public library.

Early on we see that the mother apparently hung herself. No explanation why. The daughter (King) grows into a high school teen with usual teen difficulties. But her dad is a "picker" and brings home some sort of ancient Chinese box, it looks like a music box but she can't open it. We soon find out it grants wishes, as many as seven. But there is a price, for each wish a loved one dies.

Eventually this creates all kinds of problems for the girl and she has to figure out a way to undo them. It turns more difficult than she ever imagined.

I enjoyed this movie, King of course does a great job, and the last scene was quite unexpected. Then there is another short scene during the credits. Overall a bit better than its current IMDb rating would suggest.

Of note, it was written by a woman.

Overall not very good but watchable as it moves quickly through all the cliches you can expect in a very uneven manner. Decent backstory, some effective scenes including the end and the cast do their best. Let down often though by poor direction/script and story development. This really needed a lot more work to approach being a good film. However watchable as undemanding B movie horror.

Wish Upon is a typical teenager horror movie. High school kids will probably enjoy this flick more than adults. The only thing I liked about it was the different ways of dying in it. That was creative. But the problem is that there is no element of surprise at all. You all see it coming and that makes a movie without any suspense. And for a good horror movie you need a bit of suspense. The acting is what it is, just average. The story isn't that bad but with the lack of suspense it all feels a bit boring. I would probably have liked this movie more when I was sixteen but unfortunately (or not?) I'm not anymore. But there are way worse movies than this one that's for sure, but also way better, luckily!