The Wisher

Hi, well i was in this movie, you might notice me as the texas teen killer, and also the nevada killer ( or whatever the hell the other guy was ) and I also was the set dresser for this film. I hate it, it blows. Rent this flick only to laugh at it and marvel at the incompetance of Gavin Wilding. This movie suck a lot, a whole lot.

Spliced (or The Wisher as it goes by in some circles) is an average addition to the straight to video horror glut of the early 2000s. It's no better or worse than its contemporaries, but does have a decently creepy looking villain if that's any help.

A young woman goes to see a horror movie called The Wisher against her parents - ahem - wishes due to her nightmares (involving bleeding birthday cakes) and she suddenly starts seeing the villain from the film lurking around every corner and, every time she makes a wish, bad things happen to the people closest to her.

Spliced can't quite make up its mind if it wants to be a traditional slasher or a supernatural one. Even at the end, we're never quite sure if there's something more cosmically sinister at foot. The acting ranges from passable to shrill, especially from the lead who the audience can never warm up to. She seems seconds away from a mental breakdown before the horror even starts.

The whole thing looks and feels like a slightly bloodier feature length episode of Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark?, which isn't always a bad thing, but there aren't many thrills or interesting twists here to make it rise above the pack. It's ok for putting on in the background when you're cleaning house.

Eighteen year old Mary (Liane Balaban) loves horror movies, she also suffers from nightmares and sleepwalking. Dad has forbidden her to watch any more horror films but along with her two fellow geekyish friends she goes to watch the horror hit "The Wisher" at the cinema. The killer from the film starts appearing in real life and one by one people around her start getting sliced up! Nightmare on Elm Street is an obvious influence here, not only for the dream sequences but also the killer (the Wisher) has finger blades with which to slash, though oddly they look like they are made of glass. The Wisher himself just looks like some guy from a Black Metal band. Only one recognisable actor here, Ron Silver, the rest of the cast are quite wooden, including Balaban, the poor script only worsens things. Another problem is that the plot can't decide whether this is a supernatural or psycho slasher, the ending is a bit sorry. Mary says "I like the feeling of being scared", sadly there is very little scare factor on offer here. I watched the UK VHS release "The Wisher", which I feel is a better title than "Spliced". Overall I found the movie rather lame but not a complete waste of time, there are many worse horror movies out there! The gorgeous Melissa Repka strips off down to her undies, worth the price of admission alone!

Horror film enthusiast Mary defies her parents wishes and joins her friends to catch a glimpse of the scariest movie ever called 'The Wisher'.But five minutes into film,Mary becomes violently ill and leaves the cinema.She senses that something is wrong.Soon afterwards,someone dressed as The Wisher from the film begins to haunt Mary,stalking her and with each wish that Mary makes,The Wisher grants it,twisting it around to make it worse than what it really is."The Wisher" is an incredibly generic slasher flick that fails to generate even the slightest amount of suspense.The script is completely unoriginal and the action is rather dull.The Wisher of the title looks pretty crappy too.He's a cross between Freddy Krueger and the Creeper from "Jeepers Creepers",only with shards of glass instead of knives.The climax is awful as it doesn't make any sense at all.There is very little blood,so fans of splatter will be disappointed.So if you want to watch creepy and unsettling Canadian horror film try to find "Born for Hell" and "Rituals".Heck,even "Ginger Snaps" series is better than this turd.3 out of 10.

I recognize fully well that the writing and special effects of the movie within a movie are intended to be ham-handed and over the top. The thing is, this feature itself isn't too far removed from those same vibes. The plot initially impresses as purely an invention of movie magic, with no explanation given for why "the wisher" should latch onto protagonist Mary - and once the truth is revealed, it feels like it falls somewhere between Standard Slasher and Lifetime Original Movie. The characters and large swaths of the dialogue are customary, often juvenile High School pablum. I can forgive recognizable ideas borrowed from other stories, but beyond that, even as it throws a number of ideas at us - some of them very good! - it's a little familiar and predictable. Meanwhile, the dialogue, music, characters, direction, and overall tone all date very distinctly to the late 90s/early 2000s. Even smaller inclusions somewhat bewilder - why does the school counselor have a lava lamp in his office? Why does the school have a slushie machine that freely available to students? Why does the counselor meet with Mary in the school gym instead of his office? This is to say nothing of the attempts by the filmmakers to jump onto the bandwagon and emphasize the Internet as much as they can at a time when the web was first truly beginning to flourish as a cultural staple.

I don't think 'Spliced,' also known as 'The wisher,' is altogether bad, but this also doesn't make it easy to earnestly engage with. The blood, gore, and stunts and effects look great. I like the costume design for "the wisher," and in a more general sense I appreciate the hair and makeup work. I'd love to see the cast in other films, as I trust they'd prove themselves, though here it really seems like they're forced into a corner, whether by Ellen Cook's screenplay, Gavin Wilding's direction, or both. Suitable narrative ideas are at first thrown out somewhat haphazardly; I acknowledge that this may have been intentional, feeding the audience multiple concepts so as to throw us off from what the precise course of events may be - but it's still off-putting. When those ideas do come together, it's not entirely convincing, and the plot itself seems unfocused at times. The scene writing ably conveys tension and suspense more than not, but some moments altogether raise a skeptical eyebrow, definitely including the specific use here of a computer at the climax.

Ultimately I think this is passably enjoyable, but I hardly feel like I can give any particular recommendation. It's modestly fun if you stumble onto it, and utmost fans of the cast or of slashers as a genre will get the most out of it. Even at that, one should keep their expectations in check, for 'Spliced' is certainly not without its problems. Save this for a lazy day and have a good time, but just remember that there's plenty of other movies much more deserving of 90 minutes of your attention.