WISHMASTER
RATING: ** (out of ****)
Live / 1:30 / 1997 / R (gore, gore, gore, gore, gore, language) Cast: Tammy Lauren; Andrew Divoff; Robert Englund; Tony Todd; Wendy Benson; Tony Crane; Jenny O'Hara; Kane Hodder Director: Robert Kurtzman Screenplay: Peter Atkins
The horror ... the horror. The horror of a horror film with no sense of horror. That statement would perfectly sum up "Wishmaster" were it not for one thing -- the movie's so laughably ludicrous that sitting through it is almost no chore at all. Don't go expecting legitimate thrills and chills, or you'll be quite disappointed; the words "Wes Craven Presents" have been plopped over the title in an attempt to get people buzzing about this hammy howler. The "Scream" director only serves as an executive producer here, but his reputation should remain intact after "Wishmaster" flops -- Craven has "Scream 2" scheduled for release this winter.
"Wishmaster" tells what happens when the gem-imprisoned Djinn (Andrew Divoff), sort of like Barbara Eden's evil mutant uncle, gets unwittingly released into modern society by a geologist named Alexandra (Tammy Lauren). Djinn gets his kicks by manipulating mortals to wish for all the usual stuff (everlasting life, vengeance against one's enemies), and then turning their requests against them in devious ways. An example: Djinn transforms a Structure salesgirl into a mannequin after she requests eternal beauty. If he can get three wishes out of Alexandra, then an army of Djinns will be released to take over the world. Or something like that.
If "Wishmaster" wasn't so unintentionally hilarious, it'd probably be a long, wooden bore. But there are so many scenes, situations and scares with the exact opposite effect than intended that the viewing experience is packed with many a hearty laugh. The gore is so frequent and macabre that it's downright hysterical -- one guy takes a mace in the head, and his cranium bears a large indent that'd be completely believable were he in a Warner Bros. cartoon. A jewel appraiser asks the Djinn to make him rich, so the plane carrying his wealthy mother explodes in take-off. And when an Ancient Persian party-thrower wishes for things to kick into high gear in the movie's grisly prologue, the guests begin tearing their own flesh off! Talk about killing the livelihood. Sheesh.
In the movie's production notes, the filmmakers guess that Djinn "could very well be one of the greatest horror figures of our time." Um, I don't think so -- he's not particularly frightening, but he is annoying. For some reason, Divoff insists on pronouncing his wannabe-scary lines phonetically ("Lis-ten to the mu-sic of their souls, Al-ex-an-dra!"). After you laugh and laugh and laugh at Wishmaster, you realize something sad -- the ideas here ain't half bad. If Djinn was a truly horrifying monster, if we were given a better protagonist than the annoying Alexandra, if there was a real story amidst the massive blood-letting, "Wishmaster" could have been a success. As it stands, it's strictly for bad movie buffs who couldn't get enough involuntary guy-puking from "Event Horizon."
© 1997 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews