So I checked out Wish Upon today, a horror movie that has wisely decided to open against War for the Planet of the Apes. Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: this girl finds a magic box that promises seven wishes… only to find out the box is EVIL and she should be careful what she wishes for. Yeah, you’ve seen this movie, tv show, or book before…
But that doesn’t mean it’s bad… a rote story can be told so well it feels new. This movie is not that good but it’s actually better than I thought it was going to be. Especially since it’s directed by the auteur behind Annabelle, The Butterfly Effect… 2, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. I mean…. just wow. It’s a real trick to work up such a terrible back catalog of sequels that embarrass the low bar that were the originals.
To be fair, this is a competently made movie. It’s not memorable and will be forgotten in a couple days but it’s not such a terrible watch that if you catch it late night some time it would be worth watching while playing Soduko or a solitaire. The script is reasonably solid, the characters were not generic, and the directing wasn’t terrible.
Joey King, the cute little girl actress who has startling become a teenager, is given an EVIL music box that grants seven wishes. Not three like those rip-off genie lamps… seven! And each wish demands a blood price so if you didn’t wish harm on someone, someone has to die in the most PG-13 version of Final Destination kills possible.
In most evil wish movies, the wishes have an ironic payoff… but nah. In this flick you get what you want and someone in your life just randomly dies. You still got your wish though without any ironic turn-abouts. So the evil yaoguia (a Chinese demon) seems like a pretty upfront kind of guy in that regard.
Now Joey King is a good actress and plays a slightly awful character well. Her wishes are all selfish as maybe a teenager would do but she does continue to use the box even after its obvious something evil is going on. Your ability to like the character will then depend on if you think she’s still being awful or if she’s being manipulated to hang onto her precious box (yes, Gollum-style). I think it was the later so I didn’t mind the character even if she continued to do dumb, selfish things.
Anyhow, that’s really all there is to say. I was mildly distracted and a little bored but I didn’t think the movie’s plot, dialog, or characters were stupid. The movie held together… it wasn’t very scary and certainly wasn’t very original. So that’s why, yeah, its forgettable but its not a terrible flick, despite the advertising’s best efforts.
Score: 72