Director: Timothy Woodward Jr.
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After hearing of his father’s death, a struggling lawyer returns to his home-town to help his mother put the past behind her, but when he discovers that among his father’s belongings was a special antique urn that he inadvertently discovers causes the fulfillment of wishes with dire outcomes and races to save his friends from the urn.
Review:
This was a woefully underwhelming genre effort. Most of the problems stem from the film’s rather bland premise that tends to provide no real motivation to get involved with any other aspect of the main storylines. There’s nothing here about the various people around town reacting to him being back in town and getting into trouble with everyone from his past life as this goes through the various meetups and reacquaintances with friends he left behind that isn’t interesting, scary or threatening in the slightest. These are boring, painfully dragged out and pound the idea of him being such a loser that it’s all going to turn itself around anyway so it doesn’t register anything special at all.
The other incredibly detrimental part of this one is the utterly cliched and underwhelming explanation for the supernatural action that supposedly takes place here. The concept of the tortured device in the father’s possession that turns wishes into darker versions of themselves is unbelievably hackneyed and comes across with so little impact that it’s nearly impossible to believe it would take nearly an hour into the running time to believe that would finally be unearthed and explained. The monster isn’t creepy or scary and everything about what’s going on here is so unimpressive that there’s very little fear to be had with the creature being so infrequently showed, lowering this even further. All in all, these elements here really undo so much of the potential for the film from the get-go.
There’s not much at all to like here. The main genesis for what works here is tied mostly to the antics of his mother as she loses her mind in connection to the wishing carried out in more detail. The switch between doting but clearly mentally-lost mother to cruel, vindictive and hurtful and back to psychotic happiness makes for quite a fine dichotomy that has plenty to like here. As well, some of the action that picks up in the final half creates a little action and intensity where it’s needed, focusing on the twist with the demon taking on the look of various characters to propel the action forward in somewhat energetic fashion even though what takes place here doesn’t really amount to much. Still, these are about all that work here.
Overview: */5
Not really worthwhile in most regards beyond a few inconsequential scenes, this one is a woefully generic and terribly bland genre effort that doesn’t have too much appeal to most fans. Only give this a shot if you’re a die-hard genre completist or a fan of the creative side while those with more discerning tastes should heed extreme caution.
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