Summary
Overview
The How Did This Get Made podcast tackles 2017's Wish Upon, a teen horror film starring Joey King and Ryan Phillippe. The hosts dissect this Final Destination-meets-Monkey's Paw story about a music box that grants wishes but kills innocent people with each one. They explore the film's confusing rules, questionable teen dialogue, and bizarre deaths while debating whether the protagonist actually outsmarted the cursed box or met her inevitable fate.
The Premise and Opening Trauma
The hosts introduce Wish Upon, describing it as a horror film about a teenage girl whose dumpster-diving dad gives her a cursed Chinese music box that grants seven wishes. They immediately focus on the film's traumatic opening where the protagonist Claire witnesses her mother's suicide as a child, setting up years of dysfunction. The hosts debate the timeline of the box's journey through various owners and question the mother's motivations for her final act.
- The movie opens with Claire's mother committing suicide after wrapping the cursed box and putting it in the trash
- Ryan Phillippe plays Claire's father, a 'dump jumper' who finds items in dumpsters to sell
- Jerry O'Connell has a brief cameo as a previous box owner who dies in a house fire
- The box seems to only travel within a few feet of people in this town
" When it's revealed that the mom had the box the whole time. The box seems to only travel within a few feet of people in this town. "
The Rules of the Box (Or Lack Thereof)
The hosts attempt to decode the box's operating principles, debating whether deaths are caused directly by wishes or if the box merely exploits existing dangerous situations. They discuss how the box grants seven wishes but kills an innocent person with each wish, and takes the wisher's soul after the seventh wish. The confusion around whether giving away the box undoes wishes or just stops the cycle leads to extensive debate about what actually happens in the film.
- Each wish granted by the box results in the death of an innocent person as 'blood payment'
- Claire wishes for her bully to 'rot' and the girl gets necrotizing fasciitis from a salon visit
- The hosts debate whether the box creates death scenarios or exploits existing dangers
- Getting rid of the box supposedly undoes wishes but doesn't bring dead people back
" She is terrible at having a magic box. The worst. She's not doing it good at all. "
" I think you're a selfish bowl of bitch sauce. "
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