Wishmaster (1997)

Truly Dreadful Film

A different way of telling a story

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This 1997 horror film stars Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff and Robert Englund. This focuses on gemologist, Alexandra (Lauren) who unwittingly unleashes an evil genie, a Djinn (Divoff) that's been imprisoned in a ruby who intends on becoming mortal, but needs her soul. As a way of getting to her, he starts granting wishes to people with deadly results and she can see visions of them. Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) plays Beaumont, an antique collector. This isn't that bad, except for some of the acting. Divoff is creepy in it, Harry Manfredini's score is chilling and there's some gruesome make-up effects. Kane Hodder (Jason Goes to Hell), Tony Todd (Candyman), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm), Ted Raimi (Army of Darkness), George 'Buck' Flower (The Fog) and Joe Pilato (Day of the Dead) make brief appearances as well as K.N.B. make-up artists, Greg Nicotero, Howard Berger and Robert Kurtzman. If you're into horror, give this a try at least once.

Another typical clichéd horror outing boasting "Wes Craven Presents" before the title (at least it's not as bad as MIND RIPPER though), WISHMASTER is a painting-by-numbers affair which is slick, superficial, and instantly palatable. The story is your usual one of murders and serial killers, with a slimy genie taking the place of scarred Freddy Krueger. No originality exists in the film, so you're coming to the wrong place if you're looking for that. Scenes have been taken from ALIEN 3, HELLRAISER 2 and HELLRAISER 3, even BRAINDEAD, and the laughing at the end titles is more than slightly reminiscent of the end of EVIL DEAD 2.The film does, however, boast an extraordinary cast of horror film actors, and it's fun playing 'spot the actor', just like in THE DEMOLITIONIST. Angus Scrimm narrates, while Danny Hicks and Josef Pilato turn up in tiny, blink and you'll miss 'em roles. Reggie Bannister also appears (Phantasm's ice cream man), and I'm even sure I saw Tom Savini in there somewhere. However, main interest lies in appearances of four "luminaries" (at least in some quarters) in the horror genre. Kane Hodder (all-round stuntman and actor inside Jason's hockey mask) has a brief and ill-fated appearance and is at the receiving end of the Djinn's curses. Similarly, Tony Todd has another small role as a bodyguard, and makes the most of his material. Just to emphasise the links to Craven's earlier works, Robert Englund has a large role (slight bias here?) as an antiques dealer, who vomits up something nasty. And the fourth actor? That'll be Ted Raimi, who has made fleeting appearances in more films than I can remember, who is killed right at the beginning (when is this guy going to get lucky?).Tammy Lauren is sadly totally annoying and incompetent in her large role and overreacts and screams a lot (just like the obnoxious Penelope Ann Miller in THE RELIC), while Andrew Divoff is a suitably charming but purely evil bad guy who gives us the typical wisecracks (and also is strangely reminiscent of the Emperor from RETURN OF THE JEDI. What was I saying about originality?). Apart from watching out for the actors, there's also a lot of gore (a heck of a lot of gore, and the film is uncut...ironically, however, it's far more gory than some of the video nasties were). The various deaths throughout the film are well staged, while the torture parties are excellent, with blood spraying and internal organs coming out. The highlight is the skeleton at the beginning of the film which pulls itself out of someone's body and attacks another innocent victim! (ARMY OF DARKNESS anyone?). There is also a good scene with statues coming to life (although rather too JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS for my liking), and obviously CGI plays a big role again, but is not too noticeably bad here. WISHMASTER is a popcorn movie, nothing more, but it's entertaining enough for what it is and it could have been a lot worse (just thinking of MIND RIPPER gives me a headache). And I never thought I'd say this, but it's good to see a monster movie instead of the wave of boring slashers filling the cinemas at the moment.

Receiving a rare gem at work, a gemologist finds that it contained a power genie known as a Djinn that is now targeting her and her friends to make the wishes needed to give it the strength to free its fellow entities.Overall this one was quite an enjoyable effort with a lot to really like here. What really works here is the fact that this one really has a lot of fun here with the title creature and his powers which is pretty much constant throughout this. It starts off nicely here with the opening massacre of the old-time court of the different grisly actions befalling the troupe as people get their limbs and bodily features morphed into various monstrosities, a person's skeleton rips itself free of its body, demonic hallucinations and other rather fun encounters here that makes this such a fantastic opening display of his powers which is continued throughout here with a rather nice amount of wish-granting. The main factor of generating all kinds of twisted fates and occurrences that befall the minor characters he runs into that propels the first half here which not only makes it fun to see how he twists around their wishes but also manages to get this one pretty gory and bloody here in regards to how he kills those is quite appealing here and generates the kind of enjoyment in the plot it makes this one even more fun. Even better here is the more physical torments unleashed here, which provides this with the kind of action required here to help this along as scenes like the trip inside the stone to see where he had been imprisoned to show the inner mass of the wailing wall of crying souls, a throne of skulls and twisted stone pieces and the giant monster-like dog that patrols the different hallways and corridors in a pretty chilling sequence, while the finale party here gives this one an incredibly enjoyable end with the absolutely crazy assault on the guests, the numerous chasing around by the various beings under its' control and the fantastic deaths that are a part of the tormenting done against her to force her into action, and to wrap it all up in the manner here of finally trapping it against really gives this one quite a lot to like here. There's not a whole lot here that doesn't work, which all centers around the first half here which falls into a really predictable manner of meeting up with strangers and changing around their wish to suit him while she experiences the flashing image of the attack, a process itself that comes and goes whenever it's convenient for the story, but the repetition of it all does seem to cause this one some pattern that drops a lot of suspense from the tactic. As well, the joking nature of this one might wear thin for some, but there's not a whole lot that really hurt this one as beyond that, it's still quite a bit of fun.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Wishmaster (1997): The Good, the Bad and the Reminiscent Synopsis: A long lost artifact that plays host to a Djinn (which is an ancient demon) is found and comes into the possession of a young appraiser. Mysterious events begin to unfold until the Djinn finally reveals his plan: to grant three wishes to the woman and release his kind from their realm to rule the Earth.The Good: I really like the concept of this movie. The idea is a fascinating one, which is no surprise given Wes Craven has made a living out of coming up with good ideas. The idea of taking the old "genie in a bottle" myth and making it a fairytale told to cover up the existence of the Djinn is clever. The movie works well within the guidelines of that story. While the film is not at all scary, it has a number of really good, effective scenes... even by today's standards. The party scene near the end of the film is beautiful chaos and very well imagined by the director. Some of the effects are dated a bit, but it is disturbing nonetheless. The acting is adequate and the script isn't half bad. The actor who plays the Djinn in human form is actually more effective than the Djinn in demon form. Also, the "wish" format is intriguing. Part of the Djinn's devious nature is tricking people into making wishes they thought were going to give them treasure, etc. In essence, the Djinn does in fact grant the wish, he just does it in a way that brings pain and sacrifice to the wisher. It's a pretty clever mechanism and makes the film work.The Bad: All the things I said about the originality of the idea aside, it could have been done better. I just felt that parts of the script (and possibly the budget) held up the idea that Craven created. The movie could have been a whole lot "bigger" in scope with the ramifications of a "Djinn invasion" not localized to one protagonist. It was like the only one aware of the Djinn and apocalypse heading for the planet was this one girl. I get that they tried to make her interesting... giving her a past that made her susceptible to weakness and ultimately, redemption. It just made the stakes too small for me. Craven has always done this though, so maybe it was more the limitations of the budget or quite possibly, it was that the idea is to be more single character-centered... like he did with Nightmare on Elm Street's Nancy. Most horror films do this though.The Reminiscent: Speaking of Nightmare on Elm Street, I found a lot of similarities with Wishmaster to Craven's cornerstone franchise. The evil comes from a parallel or dream-like state. The protagonist is a young female. Much of the dialogue feels much like the early Elm Street movies. The evil is trying hard to bust through into our world and finds a way to manipulate those of us on "the outside". This movie even has an unmasked Robert Englund. Some of the originality is lost in this, because at times it feels a bit like a newer Elm Street movie with less of the cheese factor. I also feel like a lot was borrowed from the Hellraiser series as well. Even some of the imagery was similar - like a man hanging with his chest ripped open by chains and hooks. By the end of the film, I felt like I watched a decent movie that had maybe borrowed one too many scenes from other iconic horror movies.