Wes Craven Presents Wishmaster

Starring:Reggie Bannister, Ari Barak, Wendy Benson-Landes, John Byner, Tony Crane, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund, George 'Buck' Flower, Kane Hodder, Brian Klugman, Tammy Lauren, Chris Lemmon, Jenny O'Hara, Gretchen Palmer, Joseph Pilato, Ted Raimi, Ricco Ross, Angus Scrimm, Tony Todd
Studio: Live / Artisan
Product Type: DVD

Description

Magically powerful. Supernaturally evil. The ancient entity known in human legend as Djinn can grant a person's wildest dreams. And in the process, it unleashes your darkest nightmares. The moral of this explosively terrifying, special-effects-powered, horror-fantasy spectacular: Be careful what you wish for!

Customer Reviews:

Points For Originality.......2007-06-26

I saw this when it first came out. At that time, it seemed that any new ideas for horror films were a much missed thing of the past.
The story, and effects, in this movie rocked me. I didn't notice the faults much until viewing it a couple of times later. However, I defy anyone to name a horror film that DOESN'T have borderling crippling plot variables. The "Living Dead Cannibal Zombie" fims have scores (even the best of 'em).

There are several honestly skin-crawling scenes here: I can think if the apocalyptic opening scene and the "I am despair" scenes of the top of my head. Those two scenes, in particular, I'd rank with the best in horror. They are very easily worth the piddling price of the dvd.

Oh, and part two has its moments as well.

Could have been better.......2007-06-25

The concept of the Persian/Arab myth of the Djinn provides any creative director and writer with enormous plot opportunities. Unfortunately, neither the director nor the writer exploited them. Instead, all we got was lot's of employment opportunities for the special effects crew that specializes in rubber art mixed with syrup.

The idea of a Djinn or, "genie" in modern parlance, is exciting because you have a spiritual being who has seeming unlimited power yet is unable to exercise that power until someone wishes for something. So, what result? The Djinn gets an attitude and twists the meaning of peoples' wishes to result in the demise of the person wishing, as well as others who happen to be in the vicinity. So, if you wish, you better be sure that you possess impeccable logic that compels fulfillment of precisely what you wished for. Otherwise, be careful what you wish for. This theme seems to be an archetype for decisions people make in everyday life and the unforeseen and unpleasant results that occur due to the contingencies of life. The Djinn is the opposite of O'Reilly's no-spin zone; since, the Djinn is bent on giving a spin to the meaning of your wish that you did not intend, often to your demise.

The monotone voice was good. The wishes that the Djinn interpreted so maliciously, was rather unoriginal and lacking in imagination. The beautiful woman turned into the mannequin because she wanted to be eternally beautiful, the security gaurd who wanted to "escape" from his job ending up in a Houdini like escape water tank (straight jacket and all), the guy who did not want to see the aweful process of the Djinn obtaining a face in the mortuary, and so on were not at all that creative. Above all, the hideous features of the Djinn wasn't that creative unless you mistake goth for horror. And, ironically, the goth culture is grossly lacking in talent when it comes to depicting horror themes even though it claims an expertise of the same. Black eye shadow and lip stick is hardly horrific, let alone creative.

The gooey dog of the Djinn with the bird beak is almost deliberately unimaginative. All in all, the movie was rather poor, both in sloppy (I mean this literally) special effects and sloppy plot. The protagonist could have been a better looking girl. But, when you look like Wes Craven, you probably cannot get anything better than that.

Finally, the idea that the Djinn could be entrapped in a ruby through an incantation or that he could be defeated by his own wish process, seems a bit far fetched since only Jesus Christ can cast out demons. If an incantation could subdue an evil power, one must ask, what power lays behind the incantation? Ultimately, an infinite regress of heirachies of spiritual power results since there must be incantations to undue the previous incantation, and so forth. Diabolical forces are not subject to defeat by mortal man, and they are a reality (not the Djinn of course). Matching wits with an ancient being truly is a formidable challenge.

Becareful what you wish for.......2006-12-15

An original premise for a horror film. I didn't know much about the Djinn nor about their relationship to Islam until I did some research on Wikipedia. Even though the film is not what I would classify "Grade A", it did spark my interest on the topic. For those interested in the legend of the Djinn I recommend that you not only watch this film, but continue your curiousity with further research. Wikipedia is one option. After watching all the Wishmaster series, I wished that the person who freed the Djinn would wish that they would become a Djinn.

Wes Craven Wishes His Name Wasn't Attached To This Bomb.......2006-07-02

Seeing this online, I didn't look hard enough at the credits and thought Wes Craven directed this, but he didn't. This is possibly one of the worst "horror" movies to have Craven's name attached to it. The acting is so poor that some scenes are unintentionally laughable, and Divoff's villain's voice is so silly, that he ruins any chance of seeming threatening. Apparently there are enough viewers with no taste in decent horror movies, that they managed a couple of sequels to this dog.

Now it's not that I'm a purist. There are low budget horror movies with crappy acting that still come off creepy, like "Evil Dead", but Wishmaster was a waste of celluloid, pure and simple.

Wishmaster (1997).......2005-12-31

Director: Robert Kurtzman
Cast: Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund, Chris Lemmon, Wendy Benson-Landes, Tony Crane, Jenny O'Hara, Kane Hodder.
Running Time: 90 minutes
Rated R for horror violence, gore, and language.

Aimed directly at the "Fangoria" crowd, though not much fun for anyone else, "Wishmaster" is presented by executive producer Wes Craven and directed by makeup maestro Robert Kurtzman, so it's no surprise the movie emphasizes makeup and visual effects at the expense of plot and characterization. The story revolves around an ancient djinn (Andrew Divoff), trapped in an emerald for centuries and accidentally released in modern day America, whereupon it takes human form and grants various characters a series of "wishes", all of which backfire in gruesome fashion. For no discernible reason, the monster targets gem specialist Tammy Lauren, whose three wishes can release the djinn's evil minions from the Other Side. Naturally, she resists and the evil wishmaster goes on a torrid killing spree.

Stuffed full of "Fangoria"-friendly cameos (Robert Englund from "A Nightmare on Elm Street", Tony Todd, the evil hooked villain in "Candyman", Kane Hodder, Jason Vorhees from the "Friday the 13th" sequels, Ted Raimi, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, the Tall Man from "Phantasm", etc.) and visual references to earlier, better pictures ("Hellraiser", "The Thing", and countless others), the movie has the same kind of bland, homogenized script and production design which afflicts many similar movies from the same period, and the results couldn't be less appealing. Content to showcase a series of grisly set-pieces, most of which, admittedly, are ingeniously designed and presented, the movie hasn't an ounce of depth. Lauren carries the picture with her gutsy performance as the imperilled heroine, and Kurtzman orchestrates the mayhem with enough flash-bang-wallop to hide the scenario's shortcomings, but the story is worthless, despite a smart climactic twist. Not one of the better of its kind.

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