Wish Upon is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by John R. Leonetti, written by Barbara Marshall and starring Joey King, Ki Hong Lee, Sydney Park, Elisabeth Rohm, and Ryan Phillippe. The film follows a teenage girl who finds a magic box that grants wishes but kills someone close to her each time.
It was released in theaters by Broad Green Pictures and Orion Pictures on July 14, 2017. It received negative reviews from critics and has grossed $20 million worldwide.
Video Wish Upon
Plot
Clare Shannon, a 17-year old, is haunted by the memory of her mother's suicide. Her father Jonathan, a former musician and compulsive hoarder who dumpster dives as a hobby, finds a Chinese music box and gives it to her as a gift. Clare deciphers one of the numerous inscriptions on the box as "Seven Wishes," and absent-mindedly wishes for Darcie, her tormentor and school bully, to "rot," at which point Darcie develops necrotizing fasciitis and is admitted into the ICU. That same day, Clare's dog Max dies in her house's crawlspace after seemingly being eaten alive by rats. Clare realizes that the box grants wishes, but does not realize her wishes come with consequences.
Clare makes a second wish that a popular boy named Paul falls in love with her. As a result, her wealthy uncle dies. Upon hearing the news of his death, Clare then wishes that she and her father will be in the will. As it turns out, the relative leaves everything to Clare including his mansion. She enjoys being rich and shares her new wealth with her friends, Meredith and June. Consequently Mrs. Deluca, a friendly neighbor of Clare's, suffers a fatal accident. Clare, still bothered by the inscriptions she cannot translate on the box, enlists the help of her classmate Ryan Hui and his cousin Gina. They find out that the box can grant seven wishes and when the music ends, "something" is paid. On her way home, Clare spots her father dumpster diving. Angry and embarrassed, she makes a fourth wish for her father to stop being an embarrassing loser. Jonathan immediately has a personality shift. Soon after, Gina deciphers the meaning of the phrase which says "When the music ends, the blood price is paid." After she warns Ryan, she dies when she trips and gets her head impaled on a sculpture. Ryan finds her body and confronts Clare about making wishes on the music box, which she denies.
Clare makes a fifth wish that she is popular. Everyone in school pays attention to her, but Clare doesn't find herself happy and finds herself losing her relationship with her friends. After understanding the full extent of what Ryan told her, Clare consults Meredith and June who attempt to talk her into trashing the music box. She is reluctant because all her wishes will come undone if she does so. That night, they all go to a school bonfire and scavenger hunt. Clare realizes that Paul has been stalking her. Horrified, she breaks up with him on the spot. The consequence of her fifth wish starts to take effect and June almost dies after a fire bull from the bonfire almost crushes her, but Meredith is able to pull her to safety in time. The three hang out in the lobby of a hotel where Meredith decides to separate from the two to explore. She uses the elevator and is killed when the cable snaps on her way back down.
Clare hides the music box in the vents of her room. Ryan reveals to her that she missed other inscriptions in the box which tell her that after the seventh wish is granted, the music box will claim the soul of the owner. After a few attempts to destroy the box, she returns it to the vent from where it disappears, reversing all of Clare's wishes. She loses her popularity and everything else she wished for. Clare discovers that June has stolen the box and after stealing it back, Clare uses her sixth wish to wish that her mother had never committed suicide. On her birthday, Clare's mom appears alive and well at her bedroom door along with two younger sisters. Clare later rummages through her mom's paintings and sees a picture of the music box. She concludes that her mom was one of the previous owners of the music box and that it must have led to her original suicide.
Suddenly, Clare realizes that her dad will pay the price. Before she can save him, he is killed. Clare uses her seventh and last wish to travel back in time, before her father found the box. Clare suddenly snaps awake alongside her dog Max. She calls Meredith, who is alive and well, and joins her father, Jonathan, to go dumpster diving with the intention of secretly retrieving the music box and preventing her father from finding it. She then asks Ryan to bury the box. Clare believes all is well but she is killed when her bully Darcie accidentally hits her with her car. The music box can be heard after Clare's death, indicating that the seventh wish to reverse time would be balanced by her own death.
In a mid-credits scene, Ryan prepares to bury the music box but becomes intrigued by the inscription and starts to think.
Maps Wish Upon
Cast
- Joey King as Clare Shannon
- Raegan Revord as Young Clare Shannon
- Ki Hong Lee as Ryan Hui
- Josephine Langford as Darcie Chapman
- Sydney Park as Meredith
- Ryan Phillippe as Jonathan Shannon, Clare's father
- Elisabeth Röhm as Johanna Shannon, Clare's deceased mother
- Victor Sutton as August Shannon, Clare's wealthy uncle
- Mitchell Slaggert as Paul
- Shannon Purser as June
- Kevin Hanchard as Carl Morris
- Sherilyn Fenn as Mrs. Deluca
- Alice Lee as Gina Hsu
- Jerry O'Connell as Alex (uncredited)
Production
The film's screenplay was voted to the 2015 Black List. On July 27, 2016, it was announced that Wish Upon would be directed by John R. Leonetti. The film is produced by Sherryl Clark from her production company, Busted Shark Productions, and is written by Barbara Marshall. On August 2016, Joey King was cast in the film as the lead role. The film began production in November 2016 in Toronto. On November 9, 2016, Ki Hong Lee was announced to have joined the cast.
Release
The film's teaser trailer was released on February 9, 2017. The first trailer debuted on March 22, 2017. The film's second trailer was released on May 22, 2017. Wish Upon was released in theaters on July 14, 2017 in the US, and in the UK, July 22, 2017.
Marketing
Broad Green Pictures is granting 7 fan wishes submitted via the film's official website.
Reception
Box office
As of August 11, 2017, Wish Upon has grossed $13.8 million in the United States and Canada and $6.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $20.2 million, against a production budget of $12 million.
In North America, Wish Upon was released alongside War for the Planet of the Apes, as well as the wide expansion of The Big Sick, and was projected to gross $8-10 million from 2,100 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $376,000 from Thursday night previews at 1,659 theaters and $2.3 million on its first day. It went on to debut to just $5.5 million for its opening weekend, finishing 7th at the box office.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 17% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Wish Upon is neither scary nor original, but its fundamental flaws as a horror movie may make it destination viewing for after-midnight camp genre enthusiasts." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 32 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.
References
External links
- Official website
- Wish Upon on IMDb
- Wish Upon at Rotten Tomatoes
- Wish Upon at Box Office Mojo
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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