NEW BLOOD: WISH UPON

WISH UPON
Broad Green
2017 color
89 Mins.
Horror/Thriller
Joey King, Ryan Phillippe, Ki Hong Li, Mitchell Slaggert, Shannon Purser and Sydney Park  star.
Written by Barbara Marshall
Directed by John R. Leonetti
Rated PG-13 for language, violence and gore.

So... I'm embarrassed to admit it but I kinda liked this movie. Now I know most of you will be rolling your eyes as I would have before I saw it but it's really pretty good and pretty bad but in the right ways. Now the setup is quite familiar girl finds haunted object makes wishes, those around her have to pay the price for them. Some of the wishes consists of making a girl rot, dating the school's hunk, making her dad less embarrassing even though that involves a ridiculous Saxophone and popularity of course amongst others. Some of the prices involve a garbage disposal, a chainsaw and a very large statue with very big horns amongst others.  Although it's really just a longer Tales from the Crypt episode "Wish" offers a fair amount of solid entertainment even though there's not much depth to it all.

 Leonetti of the recent overly mediocre Annabelle directs. He fares much better with teen horror and even amps up the suspense in a few spots, One in particular involves someone on an elevator mixed with someone fixing a car. Leaving the audience wondering who will meet their gory demise. There are of course some unintentional giggles throughout from some of the forced character building moments, some PG-13 edited death sequences and one hell of a ridiculous looking final kill. Now, you have to understand I really went in with the lowest of expectations I mean I didn't hate Annabelle but it's hard to deny that it was a bad movie. I also had a shot before seeing this and that might have helped as well. However, I do believe that the film's two saving graces are the death sequences, some of which are surprisingly violent for it's rating and it's solid cast.

Joey King is really impressive in the lead and even when her character is doing horribly selfish things, she's easy to root for. She's gives her character some much needed depth and manages to side step some of the more horrid dialogue by conveying a true sense of genuine ownership of the part. Not an easy commitment but she nails it. Also impressive are her friends Shannon Purser a.k.a. Barb from  Stranger Things and Sydney Park from The Walking Dead. Both have some great moments and Park is spunky and memorable in her role. All of this merits a light recommendation. Wish Upon doesn't reinvent the genre or even make a solid dent in it. But as teen popcorn horror it's quite entertaining even when it results to making Ryan Philippe play the saxophone repeatedly and coming off supposedly cool like this is a late 80's cinemax after dark flick. But it's in that goofiness that the film remains oddly endearing because it's both pretty good and unintentionally funny in spots. It's a blend of Final Destination and Mean Girls  mixed with Wishmaster, it does however fare much better than the latter and much better than Annabelle and presents a tasty if forgettable offering for Horror fans desperately in need of a theatrical outing. ***.25/5