'Wish Upon' is ridiculous horror-lite
This is a spooky teen story that's not particularly heavy on the scares and over-delivers on the unintentional giggles.
'Wish Upon' is ridiculous horror-lite This is a spooky teen story that's not particularly heavy on the scares and over-delivers on the unintentional giggles. Check out this story on yorkdispatch.com: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/entertainment/2017/07/14/wish-upon-ridiculous-horror-lite/474160001/
Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service (TNS) Published 12:01 a.m. ET July 14, 2017
From left, Joey King stars as Claire, Alice Lee as Gina and Ki Hong Lee as Ryan in the film "Wish Upon." The movie opens Thursday at Regal West Manchester Stadium 13, Frank Theatres Queensgate Stadium 13 and R/C Hanover Movies.(Photo: Broad Green Picture)
Joey King and Ryan Phillippe star.
What to make of the curious, ridiculous horror-lite "Wish Upon"? This is a spooky teen story that's not particularly heavy on the scares and over-delivers on the unintentional giggles, almost ensuring it a spot as a cult movie, like the hilariously misguided "The Room," though this sports a far bigger budget and higher profile names among the cast and crew.
Written by Barbara Marshall and directed by "Annabelle" helmer John R. Leonetti, "Wish Upon" plays on the haunted object premise, with a mysterious Chinese wish box wreaking havoc on the life of Clare (Joey King), who can't stop making wishes, even as her loved ones drop dead around her.
Young Clare has had a hard life. Her mother (Elizabeth Rohm), as we see in a prologue, committed suicide, and things haven't been easy since then. Her dad (Ryan Phillippe) dumpster dives for scrap metal, and Clare is a bit of a misfit at school, a target of violent, crazy outbursts from the local mean girl (within the first 15 minutes, a truly epic cafeteria cat fight goes down).
When dad brings home a dumpster treasure — a mysterious box engraved with Chinese characters — Clare facetiously uses it to wish ill upon her enemy.
And that wish comes true, gruesomely. So Clare keeps wishing for things like popularity, love and money. Later, she claims that she just wanted to feel "normal," though it's unclear how she wasn't normal before, and how suddenly becoming a wealthy, popular girl overnight somehow is "normal."
Things would be ideal if all these people around her weren't meeting untimely deaths in unlucky circumstances. But by the time Clare gets the ancient Chinese characters translated, the box has turned her into its Gollum.
"Wish Upon" is an odd horror film, because the monster is also our heroine. It's not like the box itself is all that terrifyingly compelling; the worst thing is how it transforms its owners. So even though she willingly puts her friends and family in fatal danger because she wants to keep making out with the popular guy, we have to keep rooting for her.
"Wish Upon" isn't over-the-top wacky or campy, and in fact feels slightly low-energy at times, but it's the kind of simple filmmaking coupled with absolutely insane writing and plot points that make it an ideal candidate for so-bad-it's-good viewing.
There are so many opportunities for midnight movie audience interaction too — bizarre and strange little motifs practically screaming out for a handful of popcorn to be thrown at the screen. Clare wishes her dad were less embarrassing, and he starts playing sweet, sweet sax solos around the house. What?
There's an exceptionally ghastly unfinished painting of a woman's head on a surreal green landscape that keeps hanging around in the background of Clare's bedroom and is beyond distracting. And every line uttered by Paul (Mitchell Slaggert), the dum-dum popular guy, deserves the chant-a-long treatment, from "haters gonna hate" to "I was trying to think of something dope to say before I kissed you."
"Wish Upon" is an entirely harmless, defanged horror flick for the younger set. It's never all that scary, but it is pretty darn funny — a curio to be enjoyed for its silliness more than anything else.
'WISH UPON'
Cast: Joey King, Ryan Phillippe, Elizabeth Rohm, Ki Hong Lee, Shannon Purser, Sydney Park
Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic elements and language.
Read or Share this story: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/entertainment/2017/07/14/wish-upon-ridiculous-horror-lite/474160001/
'Wish Upon' is ridiculous horror-lite
This is a spooky teen story that's not particularly heavy on the scares and over-delivers on the unintentional giggles.
'Wish Upon' is ridiculous horror-lite This is a spooky teen story that's not particularly heavy on the scares and over-delivers on the unintentional giggles. Check out this story on yorkdispatch.com: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/entertainment/2017/07/14/wish-upon-ridiculous-horror-lite/474160001/
Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service (TNS) Published 12:01 a.m. ET July 14, 2017
From left, Joey King stars as Claire, Alice Lee as Gina and Ki Hong Lee as Ryan in the film "Wish Upon." The movie opens Thursday at Regal West Manchester Stadium 13, Frank Theatres Queensgate Stadium 13 and R/C Hanover Movies.(Photo: Broad Green Picture)
Joey King and Ryan Phillippe star.
What to make of the curious, ridiculous horror-lite "Wish Upon"? This is a spooky teen story that's not particularly heavy on the scares and over-delivers on the unintentional giggles, almost ensuring it a spot as a cult movie, like the hilariously misguided "The Room," though this sports a far bigger budget and higher profile names among the cast and crew.
Written by Barbara Marshall and directed by "Annabelle" helmer John R. Leonetti, "Wish Upon" plays on the haunted object premise, with a mysterious Chinese wish box wreaking havoc on the life of Clare (Joey King), who can't stop making wishes, even as her loved ones drop dead around her.
Young Clare has had a hard life. Her mother (Elizabeth Rohm), as we see in a prologue, committed suicide, and things haven't been easy since then. Her dad (Ryan Phillippe) dumpster dives for scrap metal, and Clare is a bit of a misfit at school, a target of violent, crazy outbursts from the local mean girl (within the first 15 minutes, a truly epic cafeteria cat fight goes down).
When dad brings home a dumpster treasure — a mysterious box engraved with Chinese characters — Clare facetiously uses it to wish ill upon her enemy.
And that wish comes true, gruesomely. So Clare keeps wishing for things like popularity, love and money. Later, she claims that she just wanted to feel "normal," th
ough it's unclear how she wasn't normal before, and how suddenly becoming a wealthy, popular girl overnight somehow is "normal."
Things would be ideal if all these people around her weren't meeting untimely deaths in unlucky circumstances. But by the time Clare gets the ancient Chinese characters translated, the box has turned her into its Gollum.
"Wish Upon" is an odd horror film, because the monster is also our heroine. It's not like the box itself is all that terrifyingly compelling; the worst thing is how it transforms its owners. So even though she willingly puts her friends and family in fatal danger because she wants to keep making out with the popular guy, we have to keep rooting for her.
"Wish Upon" isn't over-the-top wacky or campy, and in fact feels slightly low-energy at times, but it's the kind of simple filmmaking coupled with absolutely insane writing and plot points that make it an ideal candidate for so-bad-it's-good viewing.
There are so many opportunities for midnight movie audience interaction too — bizarre and strange little motifs practically screaming out for a handful of popcorn to be thrown at the screen. Clare wishes her dad were less embarrassing, and he starts playing sweet, sweet sax solos around the house. What?
There's an exceptionally ghastly unfinished painting of a woman's head on a surreal green landscape that keeps hanging around in the background of Clare's bedroom and is beyond distracting. And every line uttered by Paul (Mitchell Slaggert), the dum-dum popular guy, deserves the chant-a-long treatment, from "haters gonna hate" to "I was trying to think of something dope to say before I kissed you."
"Wish Upon" is an entirely harmless, defanged horror flick for the younger set. It's never all that scary, but it is pretty darn funny — a curio to be enjoyed for its silliness more than anything else.
'WISH UPON'
Cast: Joey King, Ryan Phillippe, Elizabeth Rohm, Ki Hong Lee, Shannon Purser, Sydney Park
Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic elements and language.
Read or Share this story: https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/entertainment/2017/07/14/wish-upon-ridiculous-horror-lite/474160001/