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Wish Upon (2017), PG-13, ★


Don't you wish on things to go well for you? You can have two different arguments on whether or not if the grant will work for you. One could be that you receive glad tidings and great gifts but the opposite side of the coin is that you could be selfish and narcissistic. You would not think of others as to question you and your loyalty as to how you receive these gifts. However, these are questions that are being brought up when you are watching a psychological thriller, not a horror movie. Because of my experience with this horror movie and bringing up these questions and insights about wishful thinking, I was left cold with this heartless and terrible experience. This movie was rather unpleasant.

17-year-old Clare Shannon (Joey King) is having a rough lift as she is haunted by her mother's suicide by hanging. Her father, Jonathan (Ryan Phillippe), who dumpster dives as a hobby, gives her a Chinese music box. She is able to decipher an inscription on the box, known as the "Seven Wishes". However, the bottom line is whenever she wishes for something that would benefit Clare, a price has to be paid on her behalf. Like, for example (a bit of a spoiler), when Clare wished for something bad to happen to her bully, Darcie, her dog, Max, is dead as rats are eating it alive. But, the movie goes on and on as she figures out what it actually means and Clare finds a way to get rid of it.


What can I say? This was a terrible movie that is supposed to be scary by all these precursors of death that happens to every innocent bystander that is close to Clare. But, it is just stupid, manipulative behavior that is so reminiscent to The Ring, a much better movie in which an object is someone's possession and that is the symbol of an innocent person's death. But, the difference between this movie and The Ring is that the latter produces some chills and actually some tension in the story between a mother and her son. Here, it seems that the female character is so full of herself in getting everything she wants and she is not caring about anybody else.

The reason why it's a one-star movie and not a zero-star is because of Joey King's performance. She has some echoes of a Scream Queen, but her character is one-dimensional and her character arc is predictable as I outlined how she will use her seven wishes and how to wrap the story up. I wanted to cleanse myself after this terrible experience because this repetitive nightmare was soulless and morbid that it feels like I wanted myself to actually provide an intervention to let go of this depression from this experience. This movie will make your day pretty sad. I do not think I want to see this awful horror film, or so as it is aptly described, again.

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