- Sensibility: The film gets away with a lot using the magical/demonic portions of the film, but not everything is easily explained with this excuse: some bits around a cat, the effects of the wish, and Nikki's intermittent
attachment all make for some challenges to suspending disbelief.
- Cinematography: Visually brilliant. Great costuming and makeup choices add so much to the gory elements of the film. Only weaknesses are in a shoddy rag-doll transition in a violent car scene and
- Energy: Propelled by top-notch acting performances from the main cast, brilliant sound design and score, and great editing, it's impossible to take your eyes off this film. Color-grading and lighting gives everything a kind of washed, dark, and dim feeling which
enhances the film's horror elements at the expense of some of the visual splendor of the gore. However, I think the color-grading choice also gives the life of the four friends a stronger sense of realism, where
these people's lives are fairly ordinary, like the coloring, outside of the spectacular events that take place in the film.
- Narrative: A brilliant concept executed to near perfection. The group of four characters are all different, realistic, and well-defined with excellent dialogue nuances. The
plot development is a very typical kind of love-triangle found in older friend groups but with a brilliant, horrifying, demonic layer added on top. In the midst of a thrilling drama, there are a few
monologues that are so strong on their own that they gave me chills, notably a reading of some of Nikki's writing and a speech regarding darkness being a color. It's rare to find a
story so well written that the characters are strong enough for a movie before the main plot driver, the One Wish Willow, comes into the story at all. The film captures a brilliant mess of romance,
horror, gore, comedy, and drama that is unforgettable.
- T-Points: The film received five bonus points: one for the first scene after Bear's wish where Nikki switches on and off, one for a shot of Nikki's glowing eyes as she stands in a dark doorway professing her feelings, one for a scene where Nikki watches Bear sleep and her questioning "how's this?" with a grin the morning after, one for a brutal scene where Bear
tests different gun positions in a mirror and swallows pills, and one for Inde Navarrette's unbelievable performance which stands out to me as potentially one of the greatest all-time horror film performances.
Absolutely blown away by this film. Everything clicks perfectly: brilliant writing performed to perfection and layered with beautiful imagery, sound design, and editing makes for a power-house horror film.
Easily a contender for one of my all-time favorite horror films. I loved it so much I watched it on back-to-back days because it gave me so much to think about.
Number of Watches: 2
