Lin Shaye’s horror resume stretches far beyond her modern day hit franchises Insidious and Ouija.  From early cameos in slashers Alone in the Dark and Nightmare on Elm Street, to small roles in Critters and Critters 2 and 2001 Maniacs with the previously covered Robert Englund, Lin Shaye has established herself as a fan favorite due to her range and the emotional depth she gives her characters. Also, she always seems like she’s having a good time with the roles she takes. From cannibal grandmothers to grieving widows, she makes them entertaining to watch. 

• Directed by: Timothy Woodward Jr.
• Screenplay: Jeffrey Reddick, William Halfon, Jonathon Doyle
• Starring: Lin Shaye, Michael Welch, Melissa Bolona, Spencer Locke
• Bonus Cameo: Tony Todd

Based on that, I knew if I picked a movie where she had a decent amount of screen-time, I would probably enjoy it. The Final Wish did not disappoint—mostly.  

There will be spoilers ahead and maybe a bit of a lengthy breakdown; jump to the end if you want to avoid. 

Recap and Spoilers Ahead!

The Final Wish starts with a strong cold open: a young woman returns home to find her mother brutally murdered—cut in half—with her father holding the murder weapon and smiling wickedly.  

From there, we jump to one of the less likeable leads I’ve come across in a while. Aaron (Michael Welch) has been struggling to get hired as a lawyer. During an aggressive overreaction to a bad interview, he reveals his desperation to change people’s minds about his education and his humble origins, only to fail and then discover that he’s being evicted due to missed payment. Oh, and then his ex-girlfriend, Lisa, calls to tell him his estranged father has passed away. 

Aaron’s father was an antique dealer and his house is filled with appropriately creepy artifacts. Lin Shaye plays Kate, Aaron’s mother, and the pained indifference with which she greets her prodigal son says everything the viewer needs to know about their relationship. They reconcile enough to reminisce before Aaron puts his foot in his mouth and the tension returns. 

After the wake, Aaron continues his homecoming tour, taking it upon himself to sell his father’s possessions, without his mother’s permission. This casual selfishness fractures the relationship further and finally puts him in contact with the urn that kicks off the horror part of the tense family drama. Even after being told to put everything back in the house, Aaron tries to sell the urn online for his overdue rent money, but his computer shuts down, preventing him from listing it.

Time to Start Wishing

His old best friend Jeremy shows up, and Aaron gets to complain more about how everything isn’t his fault. They go out for drinks, and we get the first clue that something isn’t right with the friend from both the framing of the scene and how the waitress interacts with Aaron. It’s subtle but a nice touch. Lisa’s current BF, Derek (Kaiwi Lyman), who is also the Sheriff, shows up to be a dick and announce himself as the human antagonist. He’s fun. 

Aaron stops at a gas station to buy a lottery ticket. For some reason, the guy behind him is like over 6 feet tall and in clown makeup. This is never explained. His first ticket isn’t a winner, so he tries again. He does not at any point in this sequence make a wish. He does however win on the next one.  

After that, he wishes for the neighbor’s dog to shut up, and it ends up dead. Then he wishes he was handsome; up until this point, I didn’t realize that he had a scar on his lip. The solution for this wish is for him to be hit by a car and require surgery to fix his face. The before and after is such a minor thing, but everyone, including his mom, reacts like he was truly disfigured before. It’s either a glimpse into an overly critical society, or maybe just not going far enough with effects.

Wish for Better Problem Solving Skills

Aaron next wishes that he could do something to make his mother happy again, which puts her in some weird, manic state. He hangs out with Jeremy again, but their visit is cut short when Aaron discovers his mom dancing with his dead dad in the barn. She’s slowly losing her mind. Aaron goes to get help from Jeremy, but it turns out his best friend has been dead for a year. Aaron then wishes for his dad to stay dead, and finally figures out that the urn is causing his problems. 

With nowhere else to turn, he goes to Lisa for help and she in turn brings him to Tony Todd. Or rather Colin, librarian and antiquities dealer. Colin fills them in on the history of the urn, a vessel to house a demon or djinn, and the previous owner, Williams, last seen in the cold open after killing his wife and cutting out his own tongue. Before they leave, Tony Todd warns them: “For there to be life there must be death”. 

Well, Now He’s Dead

Afterwards, a storm kills the neighbor for no reason. Or maybe since Aaron wished his father was dead, maybe the neighbor was really his dad? IDK? Wish logic is getting fuzzy here.

Lisa and Aaron go to see Williams’ daughter and find out more about the urn; she in turn takes them to her still-alive father, currently living in a mental hospital. Turns out he cut his wife in half because he loved her so much, he wished there were two of her. Huh.  Williams warns him, in writing. not to make seven wishes or the djinn will take his soul. 

Aaron tries to avoid the djinn and not make any wishes, but soon discover that his mother has hanged herself in the barn. While Aaron contemplates killing himself, the djinn appears and taunts him, appearing as multiple people before finally tricking him into wishing that Derek never hurts Lisa again. 

After a rather convoluted scheme, involving the djinn pretending to be some people and manipulating different people, including some omitted from this already way–too-long breakdown (sorry Tyrone), everyone but Aaron is dead. Aaron then uses his seventh wish to wish that the car accident killed him instead of fixing his face, undoing the back half of the movie but trapping his soul forever. 

The movie ends with Kate handing the urn to Lisa for good luck as Lisa heads off to Chicago.

When to Wish

Before we get completely clear of spoiler territory, the biggest problem I have with The Final Wish is the ending. Wish-based horror movies can be tricky to pull off. There needs to be rules or structure; otherwise, any random thought could be a wish. The main character successful wishing themselves out of their predicament, or not, should require a degree of cleverness and thought. For Aaron, unraveling the djinn’s machinations at the perfect moment could have been simple.

Had Williams never found the urn, it never would have passed to his father, and Aaron never would have made any wishes, undoing everything that occurred. This potentially sets up an interesting paradox: can your seventh wish be a seventh wish if it also undoes the previous six? As it is, it’s a decent enough ending; Aaron certainly pays for his moral failings and the cycle is set to continue, but it left me with questions and not the good kind. 

End spoilers

So, was it any good?

At times, yes. While slow paced, the beginning of The Final Wish sets up a fractured family and a selfish individual who views their life as a failure, while abdicating responsibility for their own actions. This is an ideal setting and character for a wished-based evil. Thematically, the movie wants to address grief and estrangement but leaves a lot unresolved in the end.

The actors do well with their parts. Michael Welch handles the grief and insecurity of Aaron better than the fear, but that could be because those are generally stronger parts of the script. Aaron never gets very likeable, but he is relatable, and that can be harder to pull off. 

The movie plays fast and loose with its internal logic; the rules for wishing aren’t well established and the djinn seems to operate in different ways. Sometimes it affects things directly, like with Aaron winning from scratch-off lottery tickets, and sometimes by manipulating people, like the whole complex ending sequence. It almost works, if you don’t spend a lot of time picking it apart.

There are enough subtle details and foreshadowing to make watching and rewatching fun and interesting, especially as the wishes start piling up and the djinn’s presence grows. I watched it twice while writing this and I had fun with it both times. I do realize this may be more about my tastes than a ringing endorsement. 

How Was Lin Shaye?

She’s given a LOT to work with here. Kate goes through it, from quiet grief and cold rage, to supernatural-induced mania and finally, acceptance. It all feels genuine and at times, intensely creepy. Her performance, and especially the ending, left me with questions, the good kind, about how much Kate knew about the urn and its contents.

Final Thoughts

The Final Wish is a slow-burn thriller that chooses mood and atmosphere over gore and jump scares. Not for fans of more extreme horror or anyone looking for a real test of their courage. If you’re a fan of more mystery based spooky stories, you may enjoy The Final Wish. 

The Final Wish is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Check out my other horror movie reviews here:

• Nosferatu
• Wolf Man