Not gonna lie, I forgot how much I enjoy this movie. Sometimes there are movies that you love and watch often, and then one day you have watched them enough they just slip to the back of your list. Well, at least that is in my experience.
Wishmaster is one of those films that doesn’t seem to get a lot of love, and I am not sure why. I am looking at its IMDB score and it only gets a 5.8 out of 10, and a 23% from Rotten Tomatoes. I enjoy that this movie has a character that was essentially a slasher but was focused on being clever in a time when we had a glut of mindless killers or slashers that lacked personality.
Their are so many greats from the slasher era in this movie it is a treat to see each of them.
One of the things I liked about them and all the other characters is that I felt like most of the characters in the movie had a backstory, like if the movie focused on them instead of Alex, we would still have seen some interesting wishes. Sure, they were not mold breaking, in many
cases, but I enjoyed most of the interactions before they died horrible deaths.
Maybe I am getting ahead of myself, for those of you that have never watched it, Wishmaster is about a Djinn that was trapped in a stone way back in the day. Fast forward to the “present day” and a mishap releases the stone back into circulation. Alexandra is asked to find its worth, and shortly after, the Djinn is released. She starts to get visions of the people that are killed after the Djinn grants their poorly worded wishes. She fights for answers as the Djinn works towards his endgame.
My
favorite part of this movie is that everyone dies by their own wishes, there is something about their death that is like the twist of a knife when he kills them because of the way they word their wishes.
Andrew Divoff makes a great Djinn. The Djinn is an immortal that existed before man and is smug in his knowledge that he has all the time in the world. Through most of the movie the Djinn seems to be enjoying himself, playing with his prey before striking. If there is one short coming, I would say that some of the wish sequences feel like there were more that never made it into the movie.
Once upon a time, I might have complained about the gore just for gore sake in both the party scenes, but I think that it serves a purpose to show that the Djinn has no interest in saving or protecting any form of human life, nor is he worried about hiding himself once he feels that his plans are near completion.
If you are looking for a slasher with a fun bad guy, I suggest giving this film a chance.
