Be Careful What You Wish Upon

A great teen thriller with shades of horror. The premise is a bit familiar: a naive person is given a magic box which grants the recipient 7 wishes. As she makes these wishes, she metaphorically opens a Pandora's box as well. The opening is engaging as we see a brief flashback and then are spun forward about 10 years into the future where we are introduced to Claire. She's a typical teen looking for excitement and she gets it in ways that reap terrible consequences. There are a few things that stand out about this film. First, you have a stellar cast of teens. In the beginning of the story we see an awesome fight scene between Claire and her nemesis-bully Darcie, which is acted out credibly and broadcasts the ongoing tension between them and sets us up for Claire's first wish quite nicely.

Then you have Claire's two best friends, Meredith and June (Shannon Purser, Stranger Things) who turn out to be amazing and loyal, even once Claire continues to make wishes when she realizes that they are actually coming true and are creating fatal consequences. Her buddies serve as her conscience and they both have such redeeming and believable qualities. The deaths are unique and relatively brief so the gore factor is nil (a good thing). This isn't just some scary movie, though. There are lessons to be learned. And this movie shows what happens when we become too self-centered and don't seriously consider the effect of our own actions.

#WishUponReview #ShannonPurser #joeyKing #SherilynnFenn