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Wish Upon
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
The tail of a magical talisman granting wishes, but at a terrible price, is nothing new. In fact it’s probably one of the most widely copied horror tales on the market today (besides the big hulking slasher who chops up teenagers for no apparent reason). To my knowledge, the first tale that ever employed this technique was a 1902 short story called The Monkey’s Paw (which was subsequently remade into a film in 1948 as well as 2013) about a mysterious magical monkey’s paw that grants three wishes, but only at a terrible blood price. That scenario has been made and remade a dozen times over with films like The Box or even Final Destination (which the deaths in Wish Upon seem to take inspiration from). I really wasn’t expecting much AT ALL from Wish Upon, but came out of the viewing enjoying the snot out of it. Sure, it’s not a perfect film, especially since it’s a teen horror film with a PG-13 rating. But it’s actually a lot of fun (besides too many teenage slang which gives it the vibe of The Monkey’s Paw meets Mean Girls), and the director’s cut adds a bit more gore and gooeyness to the picture, pushing it into the R-rated category.
Clare Shannon (Joey King) lives with her single father, Jonathon (Ryan Phillippe) in a worn out dump. 12 years earlier Clare witnessed her mother (played by Elisabeth Rohm) kill herself in the attic. A movie that left Jonathon a wreck who makes his living dumpster diving to find items to sell, while Clare has become introverted and shy. Basically the loser of the entire school. However, her luck changes one day when Jonathon brings how a mysterious and beautiful looking Chinese puzzle box for Clare (found on one of his daily dumpster diving sessions). Knowing a little bit of Chinese from her classwork, Clare deciphers enough of the lettering to figure out that it’s whats known as a wish box. Randomly wishing for a bit of revenge on a classmate, Clare soon finds out that the box has a bit more power than she anticipated.
However, there seems to be something weird going on. Every wish that Clare makes seems to end in disaster for someone else. A neighbor dies a horrible scalping death in her kitchen. A rich uncle passes away under strange circumstances and the list keeps growing. Using her friend Ryan (Ki Hong Lee), Clare soon finds out WHY strange things are happening. It seems that for each wish she makes, someone’s life must end as a blood sacrifice. Desperate to keep her newfound social status and wishes, Clare hides the magic box, but the box has a mind of its own, and soon the young teenager finds out that her wishes may very well consume her.
Interestingly enough Director John R. Leonetti came out with an interview stating that he had a director’s cut that was 11 minutes longer than the PG-13 theatrical cut, and that it housed more gore and some great character development scenes. Naturally I was curious about the differences, but after A/Bing the two it looks like this director’s cut is only 1 minute longer than the theatrical, which is a massive disappointment considering Leonetti had been pimping that 11 extra minutes for months. However, the director’s cut IS slightly beneficial. There’s a few seconds of extra gore on several scenes, with the major one being the neighbor lady and the dishwasher disposal, easily pushing it back into the R rated category. It's cheap, it's trashy, but it's the FUN kind of cheap and trashy.
Rating:
Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic elements and language
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
• "Attic Tour with Joey King" - Featurette
• "Directing Darkness: John Leonetti and Cast Talk About Developing a Horror Film" - Featurette
• "Motion Comics: Lu Mei's Curse and Arthur Sands Reveal The Stories Behind The Previous Owners Of The Box" - Featurette
• Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles
Final Score:
Teen horror and PG-13 usually don’t go together, but I was really surprised how much I enjoyed Wish Upon. It’s a bit cheesy and aimed more for the teen crowd in many ways, but the slightly extended director’s cut amps up the gore and the characters really started to grow on me. Ryan Phillippe is someone I feel is under rated in his older acting days, as he is no longer the bland pretty boy he was in the 90s, and Joey King was actually really personable. I had forgotten that she was the little girl in The Conjuring a few years back, but I do remember loathing her character in Independence Day: Resurgence. That being said, with great audio and video, plus some decent extras, I have to give it a solid thumbs up for a Halloween watch.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Joey King, Ryan Phillippe, Ki Hong Lee
Directed by: John R. Leonetti
Written by: Barbara Marshall
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS 5.1
Studio: Broad Green Pictures
Rated: PG-13 / Unrated
Runtime: 90 Minutes (Theatrical) / 91 Minutes (Director's Cut
Blu-ray Release Date: October 10th, 2017
Recommendation: Solid Watch
