Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999)

You won't be disappointed!

Powerful

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It's been a long time since I saw this film and a long time since I saw the first one too, but it's been on my mind to say something about it. Wishmaster is a 10/10 film for me. It's a fantastic story of good vs. evil executed brilliantly.The second film just doesn't work as well for a number of reasons. It goes wrong very near the beginning, the first wish is too much of a stretch. The Djinn is only really supposed to be able to take a person's wishes and interpret them in a different way. When a police officer tells the Djinn to "Freeze" that isn't a wish. It's a command, and in my opinion the Djinn shouldn't have been able to freeze him and claim his soul. In addition, in Wishmaster 2 most of the wishes feel like set pieces. In the first film the wishes worked so well because they were an integral part of the plot, and each one moved the story forward in some way.The other thing that bothers me throughout the film is Andrew Divoff's performance. In Wishmaster the Djinn is charismatic and intelligent. He is malevolence incarnate. In Wishmaster 2 I get the impression that Andrew has been told the Djinn is supposed to feel awkward in human form, and he is to play it like that. As a result, the Djinn comes across as more like a robot than the confident super-natural being he is supposed to be. It makes me wonder if the director insisted Andrew play it like that.There are a few redeeming features though. Holly Fields performance is good, and she manages to carry the plot of the film well enough. The tag line "Evil never dies" is simple, but clever, philosophy and I like that. And although most of the wishes don't work very well, one or two of them do.If you are willing to persist with the series I found that both Wishmaster 3 and Wishmaster 4 are not as bad. They're nothing like as good as the original, of course, but they're watchable, and unlike this one, they don't make you wonder what on Earth the director was thinking.

WISHMASTER was an affectionate horror B-movie of the late '90s with a nice genre cast and a fun line in gruesome effects. WISHMASTER 2: EVIL NEVER DIES is the straight to video sequel, made with half the budget and half the talent, and it's pretty middling as B-grade horror flicks go. The whole character of the Wishmaster who always grants the wishes of his victims, but in a surprising, negative way, is clearly modelled on late-era Freddy Krueger and nothing more than a cheap imitation. Despite this, I did like Andrew Divoff in the role. Divoff played the villain in the first two films but bailed for the latter two, and he's one of the best things in this one: in fact, given the less-than-stellar calibre of the rest of the cast, he is the one actor who gives a fun turn. Essentially he seems to be trying to wear the same expression throughout the movie – a fixed grin, no less – and he succeeds.The lack of a storyline is lamentable and the film itself a string of gory deaths, enlivened by a larger scale climax in which the patrons of a casino are subject to all kinds of devilish horrors. The special effects are physical rather than computer generated, and they benefit from that in a cheap, rubbery way. I seem to recall that they stick pretty close to those you saw in the first film, but there's no harm in that; after all, this is a film in which the entertainment value comes from seeing how the Wishmaster twists the wishes of his victims, turning them into something horrific. The cell door death is probably the most extreme, but I did enjoy the carnage of the climax and the cheesy effects that accompany it.The female lead is awful and the guy playing the priest wooden in the extreme. The cast boasts cameos from two regular cameo guys: the hulking Tommy 'Tiny' Lister as a prison guard, and Robert LaSardo as a tattooed convict. Genre director Jack Sholder cut his teeth on three notable horrors from the 1980s: ALONE IN THE DARK, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2, and THE HIDDEN, but his talent seems to have dwindled since those days because he's stuck making films like this.

This is yet another Re-watch, ,I have seen this movie 3 times now, as I saw this before seeing the original.I really loved this movie, I found it to be a lot of fun but not as fun as the Original.This as some really nice gory deaths, which I really liked, effect are so fun to watch and some were just playing weird, even for the Wishmaster series. Andrew Divoff is outstanding playing the Wishmaster, his face just give you the creeps. The lead actress went bit over the top with some of her acting in the , some of cast were really bad in this, the most of them were decent, they could have done better. I loved the last scene in the movie, thought it's was so funny!, I didn't like some of effect near the end, I don't think it fitted well with other gory effect that worked really well with the rest of the movie. Not as good as the first but still a fun to be had in this gory sequel.6 out of 10

If anyone in the world knows writer/director Jack Sholder by name, it's probably because he directed "The Hidden" and more infamously, "Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge". Apparently he's somewhat of an authority on lackluster horror sequels, because as it turns out he's also the uhm, creative force behind "Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies". I have to say though, there's one truly good thing about it: Andrew Divoff is still on board in this installment, so it's not at all a complete waste of time. His performance is significantly less subtle this time around, but it's still consistently entertaining. The biggest problem with the movie is Sholder's weak script, which lacks inspiration and just feels very far-fetched and forced. I know the Wishmaster can bend pretty much everything people say to him into a wish, but here it just gets ridiculous. At one point a cop yells "freeze!", which somehow ables the Djinn to freeze him. How does that work? Little illogical things like those are all over this movie. It's not all bad though, because from time to time there are some cool scenes. I actually liked quite a few of the prison scenes, the deaths looked very good. This is not the worst of the bunch, but definitely not the best either.