This is not the most entertaining movie of 2017 (though at times it certainly aims high), but Wish Upon is one of the most *2017* of 2017 movies. It's a story of selfishness and the worst impulses people tend to go to, especially when they're inconsistently written; Joe King's Clare starts off in the story seeming like one of those smart but decidedly outsider-ish teenagers (you know, the ones who are fairly normal until up against the bitchy 'mean girls' of the school like the one who gets the first wish upon to "rot"), perhaps like a second- rate but recognizable Daria type: artistic, witty, someone we might root for... and this falls apart very quickly as soon as she gets the wish box, and all of her wishes are the most shallow crap.
Of course, one can't have a Monkeys' Paw horror story like this without a character making some foolish decision, but this takes it to the limit and BEYOND. This movie takes that concept - remember that Treehouse of Horror segment from The Simpsons? Good, this is *almost* as funny as that, whether intentional or (especially) not - and gives it the Final Destination treatment. It's not like random people become dead due to Clare's wishes (aka the "Blood Promise" from each wish granted) - it's people (including, spoiler, a dog) who Clare knows and (sometimes?) cares about, but what's uproariously, hysterically, WTF-are-they-smoking-in-crack-form funny about it is how at times the sort of 'fate' type of murder scenarios play with the victims like a cat with a string.
This is a movie where every death scene is elongated and, while in PG-13 somewhat without blood or gore, are still effective for what they can get away with... and the director can't help but tease every single death to comic lengths (i.e. an old man getting into a bathtub we think is dead hitting his head, but he gets up and, as if out of classic Stooges short, his his head on the *faucet* above him and that is what gets him to shuffle off the mortal coil. But it's not just that - it's *every* death scene that gets the Final Destination treatment, even in moments where it would be so easy for a death to occur (where's Tony Todd when you need him!) Every death carries some level of humor, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out if the director (former cinematographer turned director Leonetti) was in on the joke or sincere with his set pieces.
And all the while, Clare becomes so much less sympathetic that she becomes the villain of her own story. This could become interesting, and Wish Upon feels like it's stepping up to the ledge of perhaps being a kind of horror/thriller satire of sorts, maybe looking at the way that young people become totally engrossed in their own self interests (Clare's friend dutifully points out she didn't try to wish for world peace, or any wishes for her friends). But it never really goes over the ledge, or feels like it's knowing entirely what it's supposed to be, like Get Out earlier this year certainly did. At any rate, we have in this movie things like Ryan Phillippe as Clare's dumpster-diver-ex-sax-playing father (in the backstory, Clare's mother committed suicide, but the how and why is so lame to tie back into the plot you can see it a mile away if you try), and he's here to... get a check I guess. And there's other odd things going on like a class where students learn Chinese in what appears to be Anytown, USA (is it some weird comment about how movies are pandering to Chinese audiences? I don't know if this even *is* a movie that would play in China anyway)
The movie is a mess, but it's highly entertaining, and I had many, many ,laughs while watching. Was it at its expense? I don't know. But if you're hankering for a Final Destination light experience, this is a decent one to seek out. Is it scary? I wish.
Of course, one can't have a Monkeys' Paw horror story like this without a character making some foolish decision, but this takes it to the limit and BEYOND. This movie takes that concept - remember that Treehouse of Horror segment from The Simpsons? Good, this is *almost* as funny as that, whether intentional or (especially) not - and gives it the Final Destination treatment. It's not like random people become dead due to Clare's wishes (aka the "Blood Promise" from each wish granted) - it's people (including, spoiler, a dog) who Clare knows and (sometimes?) cares about, but what's uproariously, hysterically, WTF-are-they-smoking-in-crack-form funny about it is how at times the sort of 'fate' type of murder scenarios play with the victims like a cat with a string.
This is a movie where every death scene is elongated and, while in PG-13 somewhat without blood or gore, are still effective for what they can get away with... and the director can't help but tease every single death to comic lengths (i.e. an old man getting into a bathtub we think is dead hitting his head, but he gets up and, as if out of classic Stooges short, his his head on the *faucet* above him and that is what gets him to shuffle off the mortal coil. But it's not just that - it's *every* death scene that gets the Final Destination treatment, even in moments where it would be so easy for a death to occur (where's Tony Todd when you need him!) Every death carries some level of humor, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out if the director (former cinematographer turned director Leonetti) was in on the joke or sincere with his set pieces.
And all the while, Clare becomes so much less sympathetic that she becomes the villain of her own story. This could become interesting, and Wish Upon feels like it's stepping up to the ledge of perhaps being a kind of horror/thriller satire of sorts, maybe looking at the way that young people become totally engrossed in their own self interests (Clare's friend dutifully points out she didn't try to wish for world peace, or any wishes for her friends). But it never really goes over the ledge, or feels like it's knowing entirely what it's supposed to be, like Get Out earlier this year certainly did. At any rate, we have in this movie things like Ryan Phillippe as Clare's dumpster-diver-ex-sax-playing father (in the backstory, Clare's mother committed suicide, but the how and why is so lame to tie back into the plot you can see it a mile away if you try), and he's here to... get a check I guess. And there's other odd things going on like a class where students learn Chinese in what appears to be Anytown, USA (is it some weird comment about how movies are pandering to Chinese audiences? I don't know if this even *is* a movie that would play in China anyway)
The movie is a mess, but it's highly entertaining, and I had many, many ,laughs while watching. Was it at its expense? I don't know. But if you're hankering for a Final Destination light experience, this is a decent one to seek out. Is it scary? I wish.