Wish Upon - Blu-ray

Film: As a young child, Clare (Joey King) had to watch her mother take her own life. Since this traumatic and to this day inexplicable experience, the girl lives alone with her father Jonathan (Ryan Philippe) in simple circumstances. Jonathan earns a modest living for himself and his daughter by collecting scrap metal, which is often quite embarrassing for Clare. One day, while rummaging in a garbage can, he finds an already decorated box that could surely fetch him a lot of money. Nevertheless, he prefers to give it to Clare, who is immediately fascinated by the box and its inscription. It says that seven wishes will be granted to its owner. At first Clare doesn't believe it, but when her first two wishes come true, she decides to use this miracle for a better life - unaware that each wish comes at a very high price.

Wish Upon is director John R. Leonetti's next attempt at the horror genre after Annabelle and Wolves at your door. For this one, he borrows rather unabashedly from other genre entries like Final Destination, Death Note, and at one point, the Butterfly Effect, a sequel Leonetti himself directed. No real surprises should be expected here - perhaps with the exception that the ending is a little unexpected in some respects. Otherwise, familiar clichés, wooden dialogue, and troubled actors like Joey King and Ryan Philippe dominate the proceedings.

This doesn't really sound like a positive thing - but it's not quite as negative as it might seem. Because for what the film wants to be, it offers some decent moments of suspense and enjoyable entertainment value. Yes, the story is full of logic holes and the dialogue is occasionally laugh-out-loud bad. But since this demonic wishbox doesn't pretend to be anything more than enjoyable teen B-horror, the negative aspects don't weigh quite as heavily. And Joey King, who has proven in films like Wish You Were Here that she is definitely one of the great talents of young Hollywood, really struggles to add some depth to her very one-dimensionally drawn character.

If you're just expecting harmless teen horror fun without much blood or surprises, Wish Upon won't disappoint either. Those who really want to be creeped out and also like their horror served up with unexpected twists and a good script might well be tempted to wish this film to hell. Still, the bottom line is a decent: worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The technical realization of the Blu-ray is on a good level. The image sharpness is good and still offers decent detail even in the many dark moments. The colour scheme is kept atmospheric and thus underlines the positive overall impression. The same can be said for the sound. While it remains largely restrained, it does offer a very effective soundscape, especially during the creepy moments. Good.

Extras: Bonus features include three mini-featurettes about the Attic set (approx. 2:10 mins), about the box (approx. 2:32 mins) and about the horror it brings (approx. 2:31 mins). It goes without saying that with such a short running time, you shouldn't expect in-depth info. In addition to these promo features, there is also a two-part motion comic (2:05 + 1:38 min.) about the background of the box. The trailer and other film tips round out the very manageable additional offerings.

Conclusion: Wish Upon strains at many clichés, blithely steals from other genre representatives, and features many a deep logic hole. Nevertheless, the film is largely entertaining and can then actually pull out something with its ending. No masterpiece, but a nice pastime for a home theater evening. The Blu-ray is technically on a good level. The bonus material is very short, but the tour of the attic set and the motion comics are well worth watching! So overall, for fans of not-too-gory teen horror: recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp