The Final Wish takes ‘be careful what you wish for’ to interesting, if still familiar places in this supernatural horror with a wry sense of humour.
Synopsis: After the death of his father, Aaron returns home to help his grief-stricken mother and to confront his past. Going through his dad’s belongings, he comes across a mysterious item that is more than it seems.
As a concept, The Final Wish feels reasonably familiar – a mysterious object grants someone the ability to make wishes but the wishes are granted in unpleasant and unhelpful ways. While not entirely successful, The Final Wish delivers its premise with enough of a wry smile to sustain interest throughout the runtime.
Where The Final Wish does succeed is in the tonal debt it owes to Final Destination, which is perhaps no surprise with Jeffrey Reddick as one of the screenwriters. Final Destination does well to draw tension and enjoyment out of events by presenting those events as inevitable, before pulling the rug out from underneath the viewer in a last-second surprise. The Final Wish doesn’t use this energy quite as readily as Final Destination, but that skill in toying with audience expectations and having a lot of fun with it is certainly present.
Lin Shaye delivers an incredibly energetic performance as grieving widow Kate Hammond, swinging from moments of quiet emotion to full-blown hysteria. Tony Todd, although featuring fairly prominently in promotional materials plays a similar role as in Final Destination, proving once more that it is possible to deliver exposition in a charming and pleasingly sinister way.
However, it is Michael Welch who takes centre stage as Aaron – a would-be lawyer who is forced to return to his hometown following the death of his father. Aaron is quite possibly one of the least likeable protagonists I’ve seen in some time, so all credit to Welch for making this character work. A scene where he discovers that former flame Lisa (Melissa Bolona) is involved in an abusive relationship results in him explaining that she only has herself to blame for not being in a relationship with him instead is a particular low point. Still, there are no huge attempts at redemption here with Aaron’s inherent selfishness and desire to break away from his home town to a better life drive the narrative in a variety of ways. It almost feels refreshing to have a character like this at the centre. Aaron is presented as difficult, struggling to take responsibility and so a near-magical transformation to a typical hero would feel less fulfilling. There is something rather brave about not succumbing to this usual pattern of a character suddenly developing all the traits they were lacking at the outset.
Despite those strengths, there are still some elements that feel too worn. Numerous scares are punctuated by loud scare chords and are never quite as effective as they should be. These are some genuinely creepy scares involving some excellent makeup effects, but the scares lean more towards the louder, cheap scare kind for the most part. The supernatural force behind the wishes is light on explanation and not entirely convincing but the film holds its cards close to its chest until late enough in the runtime that the audience is placed in the same position as the characters in terms of understanding the threat.
The Final Wish will appeal to those who are looking for something energetic that plays with audience expectations and a few horror tropes, supported by numerous engaging performances.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
The Final Wish is released by Signature Entertainment UK on May 25th
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