10 Movies That Prove You Should Be Careful What You Wish For

Your wishes can come true, but in cinema there’s always a catch. Be careful what you wish for with these ten essential cursed wish movies…

Some ideas become tried and trusted in the movies. One such is the cursed wish gone wrong. From horrors to comedies, it can often result in the protagonist on a quest to try to reverse their wish. From old folk tales like The Three Wishes (and its subsequent variants) to the famous short fable, The Monkey’s Paw (by W. W. Jacobs), which has been adapted several times, the gift of a wish (or three) rarely turns out well.

Of course, when it comes to literature or cinema, it wouldn’t add much drama or conflict were that wish for a million bucks to come without any hitches or some kind of moral lesson. We, as the audience, revel in it all going awry. So here are ten films about being careful what you wish for…

Obsession

We’ll start with the breakout surprise hit of the year, Obsession. Curry Barker went from a YouTube sensation to becoming one of the most sought-after new voices in horror cinema, with a sub-one-million-budget indie film that has become a pop cultural phenomenon among the Gen-Z crowd. It’s been billed as everything from the resurrection of the micro-budget indie movie to a revolution in horror cinema. It’s certainly hyperbolic for a film that doesn’t necessarily actually break much new ground, but what Barker does do is take the monkey paw/cursed wish plot and deliver it with aplomb.

A big part of that is down to Barker’s simple but effective approaches, never intrusive in style. Even more so, it’s down to great casting throughout the picture, with an excellent lead performance from Michael Johnston as Bear, whose One Tree Willow wish for his unrequited love, Nikki, to love him more than anyone else in the world, goes spectacularly wrong. Then there’s Inde Navarette as Nikki, who delivers one of the most incredible and barnstorming performances in not just the genre, but of late. Absolutely and without hyperbole, exceptional. She’s destined for greatness if she can navigate through potential pitfalls like typecasting or being trapped in big-budget mainstream dross with cardboard cutout characters. Needless to say, Bear’s wish definitely didn’t turn out as he’d hoped.

Labyrinth

“I wish the Goblins would come and take you away, right now!” A throwaway wish, half-meant, can still result in things going wholly awry. Still, for Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), the irksome task of babysitting a bawling baby bro proves too much, and she accidentally wishes him away into the clutches of the Goblin King. On the surface its a kids’ film with puppets, songs, and adventures through a dazzling, all physically constructed fantasy kingdom. Under the surface, it’s a dark psychological tale where growing up comes with bouts of paranoid schizophrenia.

I wish I could unsee David Bowie’s bulge, but that’s a whole other story. Sarah spends the entire movie rectifying her error, whilst learning about taking personal responsibility. The film bombed on release but quickly cultivated a devout following on VHS and beyond. Some 40 years later, Labyrinth has spawned countless spinoff stories, both official and innumerable examples of fanfiction, whilst the film proves immensely popular in retrospective screenings (especially sing-alongs). As far as misplaced wishes, this is an adventure that doesn’t end badly.

Stalker

Stalker takes a whole other approach to seeking your wishes to come true. The titular Stalker is a guide who helps a Writer and Professor traverse a dangerous and cordoned-off zone to find ‘The Room,’ a place that will grant your deepest wishes. The ambiguous threats within the Zone seem to unnerve the travellers the closer they get to the promised land, as they ruminate on their ultimate wish.

Andrei Tarkovsky’s timeless arthouse masterpiece that takes a minimalist approach to the Sci-fi elements, in favour of raising philosophical questions, takes us on an enveloping journey into self-reflection. The Stalker also warns of the tale of Porcupine, a man he once guided to the room and who got a wish granted, but it was not the one he craved out loud. So horrified by his desires, Porcupine killed himself. Tarkovsky raises the question about one’s deepest, darkest, subconscious desires. It’s probably not a million bucks or a 15-inch chopper. What do you really want? The answer may just terrify you.

Wishmaster

Robert Kurtzman directed a film that promoted itself, almost deceptively, as a Wes Craven film (who was an exec producer). Still, he does a good job of showing his horror chops, even if the film was greeted with mediocre reviews. In time, the appreciation has grown for a film that’s certainly a mixed bag. It’s in that awkward early period in CGI where many a film wanted to play with the new-fangled technology, and the results, as far as those FX aren’t great. However, in 1997, whilst some fiddled with the knobs of CGI, most still rested heavily on practical work, and it’s here in the gruesome and inventively bloody horror where Wishmaster stands out.

The film is a lot of fun, Andrew Divoff is great as the maniacal Djinn whose wishes always come with a horrifying caveat (that the wishee discovers all too late), and the bloodletting doesn’t disappoint. Its popularity has definitely grown in time, as suggested by its sequels and persistent reboot whispers.

Bedazzled

Before the Brenaissance, there were Brendan Fraser’s peak years. Hot off the success of The Mummy, he starred in a remake of the 1967 movie of the same name, Bedazzled. Fraser got to work with one of the best comedy directors in the business, Harold Ramis. He’s a Mr Nice Guy, trampled on at every turn and disrespected. That’s about to change, though, when the devilish Liz Hurley (at the height of her movie fame) comes to give him three wishes. Much like Obsession, a major object in Elliot’s mind is Nicole (Frances O’Connor), the woman with whom he worships from afar.

Elliot gets his three wishes, in the hope that, aside from riches and fame, he can also get the girl, even if he forgets that her autonomy is in question. This is a comedy, though, so those deeper questions aren’t really touched upon, but Fraser and Hurley have a good rapport, and the film, whilst not in the upper pantheon of Ramis’ CV, is good fun with no shortage of comical consequences from the cursed wishes.

Talk to Me

The Philippou brothers broke out in a big way thanks to their spin on the monkey paw, taking elements of that folk tale and spinning it into a dark and unsettling spiritual horror. An embalmed severed hand turns out to be a conduit to the spirit world and the plaything of drunken Gen-Z’ers. Sophie Wilde plays Mia, a young woman struggling to deal with loss, and thus her inevitable grip with the cursed hand is going to play on her wish to be reunited with her late mother.

Mia’s desire causes her to break the strict rules of use, whilst those malignant forces can also read her desires and play upon them. Filled with impending dread and dripping in atmosphere, Talk to Me was the Obsession of 2022. It became the watercooler indie horror of the year.

Pumpkinhead

Stan Winston took his expertise in makeup and special effects and made a pretty stellar directorial debut with cult favourite, Pumpkinhead. Lance Henriksen stars as a backwater rest stop owner whose son is killed in a tragic accident by passing punks. Vowing vengeance on them, he makes a deal with the local witch (always useful to have a local witch out in Nowheresville, USA), and a huge demon called Pumpkinhead is conjured to wreak havoc.

Winston has taken a trick or two from the many genre directors he’s worked with and brings with him a great team to handle visual effects. Stan wished for a fearsome antagonist, and he got it. The film has great cinematography, too, and the payoffs are fantastic. It did well enough to spawn a franchise, but Winston’s first is by far the best.

Hellraiser

Frank finds a malevolent and mysterious puzzle box and wishes for sensory pleasures of the flesh, but he gets more than he bargained for and a one-way trip to ultimate and eternal torture and pain (there’s a marriage joke there somewhere, but my wife might kick me). This is horror, from the mind of Clive Barker, so it goes hellishly wrong for Frank. Followed by his brother’s wife, Julia, whose cold outward demeanour masks a raging sexual lust for Frank.

The first and best, the kinkiest and weirdest, of a long franchise that has since been rebooted. Barker, also making his directorial debut, is untethered by convention and, aside from a shonky creature at the finale, nails every gruesome, bloody, and slimy landing. It also made its cover star, Pinhead (Doug Bradley), a horror icon, even if it wasn’t originally intended to be sold so heavily on his image (given his actual screen time is brief here). Still, the guy had pins stuck in his head and a posse of mutant gimps. Buddy, you’re gonna be the star attraction!

The Substance

It’s not that Demi Moore rubs a lamp, but as Elizabeth Sparkle, a desire to retain her youth and keep her relevance leads her to take the titular substance. Out of her is born not a younger version or clone, but the ‘best’ of her in the dazzling form of Margaret Qualley. As with a number of films about misplaced wishing that come with strict rules, those rules are invariably bent and broken to increasingly disastrous and gruesome effect.

For Moore, the film was a revelatory comeback. She’s never been better. For director Coralie Fargeat, it was an auteur vision of such immaculate delivery that it’s a surprise she’s not been the subject of a lot more passing rumour and solid offers. Not a single shot or cut feels like it didn’t come out exactly as envisioned. A film filled to the brim with female nakedness but from the female gaze feels inherently different, whilst the inevitable transition into grotesque body horror skews those images wildly. It’s gleefully gross, right through its excess in butt shots, up to its divisive and blood-soaked finale.

Beetlejuice

Say his name three times, or maybe not. Betelguese (Michael Keaton) is primed and ready to burst out like a genie and do as you wish, but this jovially malevolent spirit won’t deliver quite what you ask for, and even when he does, as a recently deceased couple, Adam and Barbara find, they realise they’ve gone too far.

This is pure, unadulterated Tim Burton at a time when his films felt affably handmade and brimming with quirky energy. He’s backed by Danny Elfman at his most bombastic. Colourful, funny, short and sweet, this mines from a cacophony of influences from B-picture monster movies to German expressionist cinema. The film goes further with the new homeowners of the ex-living Maitland’s old home, so fascinated by having ghosts that they incur dark spirits to try and manifest them (to near doubly fatal consequence) before their daughter (Winona Ryder) also curses herself to an eternity of marriage with Betelgeuse, while trying to save her spirit friends. This lot needs to stop wishing for shit. Hell, we wished for a sequel, and look how that turned out.

What’s your favourite film about a wish gone wrong? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…

Tom Jolliffe