In the latest horror thriller from the director of ANNABELLE, 17-year-old Claire Shannon (Joey King) is barely surviving the hell that is high school, along with her friends Meredith (Sydney Park) and June (Shannon Purser). So when her dad (Ryan Phillippe) gifts her an old music box with an inscription that promises to grant the owner's wishes, she thinks there is nothing to lose. Clare makes her first wish and, to her surprise, it comes true. Before long, she finally has it all: money, popularity and her dream boy. Everything seems perfect - until the people closest to her begin dying in gruesome and twisted ways. Now, with blood on her hands, Clare has to get rid of the box, before it costs her and everyone she loves the ultimate price. Be careful what you wish for.
This movie is a totally unoriginal idea and seems to follow in the footsteps of POSSESSION, FINAL DESTINATION, and WISH MASTER. I was hoping this would bring new and interesting things to the genre, but it almost seems as if people have given up on making original horror movies in exchange for movies full of jump scares, kills that have been done to death, and characters who get stupider as the movie goes on.
Why would you continue to make wishes through a box if those you love die? Plus, this movie makes the main character, Claire, seem like a complete idiot. She isn't a total loser and high school isn't exactly hell for her. She has a couple of really good friends and she has at least one boy who really wants to date her, yet they want the audience to believe that her life is a total hell. I'm sorry but it isn't. A real hell in high school is someone who is beaten up every day, someone who comes from an abusive household, someone who is bullied constantly and doesn't have any good friends. Claire has more than some students get, plus she has a father who loves her more than life itself.
The backstory on the box is lacking, and yet at the same time it feels as if there was more information about the box than there was about Claire and her family. We are never told why the father is not working or why he does what he does. Plus, the audience doesn't get any information on how Claire and her father are living since we have no idea where they might be getting money.
This movie is a mashup of other movies, and the ending was entirely too predictable. Not only was the movie predictable but several of the death scenes reminded me of the movies FINAL DESTINATION, where death plays around a little before it kills ya. And honestly as a horror movie this was not at all scary. There I sat, alone, in a dark theater, all by myself, watching a "horror" movie, did I mention I was alone in this theater?! And not once did I jump, not once did I feel frightened or anxious about what was going to happen, and in fact, since I was alone in the theater, I freely checked the time wondering how long before the movie was over.
This was not a good movie. It wasn't scary, it wasn't thrilling, and it wasn't interesting.