Leofwine_draca 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.

Python Hyena Wishmaster (1997): Dir: Robert Kurtzman / Cast: Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd: Lewd and pathetic piece of trash that should be flushed down a toilet. An exercise in special effects containing no artistic talent. A genie is accidentally unleashed to cause destruction. When a clerk wishes not to lose her physical appeal he turns her into a mannequin. When a security guard challenges him to walk through him upon a threat we know the crap that follows and it is about as suspenseful as diarrhea. Director Robert Kurtzman is a better effects person than a director. Tammy Lauren plays the heroine who will run and scream and then run and scream some more until she collects her paycheck for the hard work. Andrew Divoff is an embarrassment as the evil genie. He is about as menacing as the Easter Bunny. Also appearing is Robert Englund and Kane Hodder who are better known as Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees, and this is hardly a compliment to them or those franchises they represent. They can deem themselves fortunate if they are never remembered for this garbage. Rather than address the dangers of greed, it becomes nothing more than special effects and really lame one-liners from one of the worst concocted villains ever imagined. My wish is that every copy of this film be destroyed. Score: 1 / 10

jessegehrig Suffers from the same ailments of all bad horror movies - bad lighting, bad sets, bad acting, bad writing, bad costumes, bad make-up effects and bad directing. Now to be fair the cast of Wishmaster are each and all talented or at least talented enough, but none of that mass of talent really makes it onto the screen. The lighting problem makes it appear as though every scene is shot on a set, instead of the desired intention of having it appear as though the actors exist in a real place. When the characters speak and move it looks fake, forced, the end result is that its obvious everyone is acting. This is a good movie to busy yourself with other tasks while its on. Wishmaster?

A_Different_Drummer One of those B movies that simply doesn't know its place, that gets better with each successive viewing. I am not going to give the credit to Craven, a talented director whose track record shows that, to milk yet more sequel out of a successful franchise (in this case, Wishmaster #2 to #4) he conveniently forgets the meaning of restraint (along with another word he forgets in his sequels, "quality"). But this was the first in the series, the best and the brightest, and I believe in its own way it has become a quiet classic. The actors all do their jobs, but it is Andrew Divoff as the genie who steals entire scenes from even more seasoned names. The man's voice is, in its own way, as unique as James Earl Jones and moreover his wacky diction ("wishes" becomes WISH-SAYS, with accompanying malevolent grin) gives his character an entirely new order of menace. High recommended. Avoid the sequels. And, needless to add, avoid the Djinn.