Wish Upon review: John R. Leonetti cautions ‘be careful what you wish for’ in new teen-centric horror, Wish Upon.
Wish Upon review by Kat Hughes.
Wish Upon Review
Teenagers used to be the chosen kill subject in near enough all mainstream horror cinema, from Friday the 13th and Halloween, to Scream and Valentine, audiences couldn’t get enough of scared teenagers. In recent years however, things have shifted to a more mature protagonist, or failing that, a family. The likes of Insidious, The Conjuring and Sinister all focus on families being tormented by all manner of ghastly things. It’s been a while since teens have really taken centre stage, but new movie Wish Upon seeks to return to what has come before.
Joey King stars as Clare, a teenage girl from the wrong side of suburbia whom has never gotten over her mother’s death. She lives with her dad (Ryan Phillippe) whom makes a living scavenging junk, much to Clare’s embarrassment; school is not much better as she’s the target of the resident mean girl. All this changes though when her dad finds a mysterious Chinese wishing box whilst out on one of his scavenges. He gifts the box to Clare and she takes no time in using it to wish for all her heart desires, from the mean girl getting her comeuppance, to being rich and having her popular crush fall head over heels for her. All starts well, but soon she discovers the dark consequences of the box – each wish has a blood price, and once members of Clare’s community start dying off she soon realises that the box is to blame. Can she stop the wishing box or will Clare and her friends become the latest victims?
Wish Upon Review
First things first, Wish Upon is never going to win any prizes for originality. The story has been told many times over, the wishes are pretty much identical to the wishes made by the girls in The Craft, and cursed wishes is a straight lift from Wishmaster, but Wish Upon isn’t afraid to have a little fun. An example of this sense of fun comes within the first twenty minutes after Clare has made her first wish – that her bully would ‘just rot or something’. Upon arriving at school she hears the news that the girl in question has a rare skin condition which is causing her to rot, at this moment the camera zooms in close as King stares wide-eyed and shocked looking not too dissimilar to the emoji – rot that’s exactly what she said…
Where things get really fun though is in the death sequences. As the box seeks to claim it’s blood sacrifice there are countless extended death scenes, all of which could have easily come from one of the Final Destination films. Much like in Final Destination the deaths are built up slowly, with a range of red herrings and so much teasing and misdirection along the way. They are genuinely hilarious in how absurd they get. The stand-out sequence involves Twins Peaks’ Sherilyn Fenn, a waste disposal and a gas stove. It’s a genius scene, played to perfection by Fenn and paced just so by director John R. Leonetti.
Wish Upon Review
Wish Upon whips across at a break-neck pace; within the first thirty minutes Clare’s already used up almost half of her wishes. This pace can’t hold forever though and the middle third seems to drag a little. Maybe if some of the first third was expanded upon, it wouldn’t feel so long. There’s also an abundance of coincidence within the film, isn’t it handy that Clare’s school teaches Chinese (does this happen a lot in the US?) and that her classmate just happens to have a cousin who specialises in ancient languages and antiquities? These are of course nothing new to the genre, horror films have relied on them forever, but it’s a shame that a better way to weave things together wasn’t thought up.
Wish Upon Review
King does a very commendable job heading up proceedings and she’s backed up by an excellent cast of television’s finest. Sherilyn Fenn relishes her role as Clare’s surrogate mother, Clare’s BFF’s are played by The Walking Dead’s Sydney Park and Stranger Things’ Shannon Purser (Barb lives folks!). Park is all sass and witty one-liners, Purser is the moral compass. It’s also nice to see Ryan Phillippe back in the genre that helped make him a star, and he’s definitely bringing sexy back (you’ll see). Wish Upon is one of those rare teen horrors that oozes fun, it’s sure to become a camp guilty pleasure, much like I Know What You Did Last Summer.
A modern-day, teen-centric re-telling of ‘The Monkey Paw’, Wish Upon is strongest when it’s having fun. Overloaded with inventive death sequences that will have the Final Destination films green with envy, Wish Upon is a great genre starting point for teens everywhere.
Wish Upon review by Kat Hughes, July 2017.
Wish Open opens in UK cinemas on Friday 28th July 2017.
