Wish Upon - If Disney did Horror

Wish Upon (2017) watches like a gory-er Disney Channel Original Movie – and when it does that, it’s surprisingly enjoyable. When it doesn’t, it fails.

The premise: a girl finds a box that grants her wishes, but it comes at a deadly price.

And yes, the premise gives away the entire movie – we know how this will play out. But that doesn’t always mean a film is bad. Some take a well-worn premise and do something slightly different, take a different angle, or just do a really satisfying job.

Wish Upon’s first half fell into that last category. The predictability made it somewhat enjoyable. Clare (Joey King) makes a few childish wishes without realising the cost of them – and the way they come to fruition is creative at least. (E.g. “go rot.”) And that’s something that can be said for the deaths in this movie too – someone has worked hard to find some very roundabout ways to die.

And the childish wishes that come from the school bully being mean to her, or her father being embarrassing are what makes the film seem like a Disney Channel movie in the style of Geek Charming. It’s more well-trodden boards of Clare being grateful for the family and friends she had without her wishes.

Only…she doesn’t, really. And even when she finds out the price of the wish box, she’s only fazed when someone she’s really close to is the cost. Never does she seem to really weigh up the wish that she wants against the cost of a life. That is what makes the well-known premise interesting. The internal conflict of the character is what makes it enjoyable.

Clare doesn’t have that. She is a selfish character – and selfish in the way that as she learns of the stakes, she still makes some very mundane wishes – and her regret doesn’t seem genuine. There is never a moment where she seems to regret the wish to change her father (Ryan Philippe). At least Disney movies give their characters morals. There are lessons to be learnt. There never even seems to be a 'careful what you wish for moment.'

That being said, there is a message in Wish Upon. The dangers of Pokemon Go, apparently. (Even though it’s really our protagonists fault for that, because of her own greed.) Every scene where the characters have this game up, you can hear the baby boomers screaming about millennials being addicted to their phones in the background.

But I will say this – the solution to the movie and the final wish is interesting, at least. Not sure if it fits in with the rules of the universe, but at least its slightly different.

Overall, Wish Upon has the elements of an enjoyably bad teen flick with some interesting and gory deaths but it’s character work makes it fall short of the honour of Disney Channel.