Wishmaster: el genio del mal

In the beginning of the times, God created life into universe: light gave birth to angels, earth to men and fire to djin, creatures condemned to dwell in the void between the worlds. One who wakes a djin shall be given three wishes. Upon granting the third, an unholy legion of djins are freed through a doorway between the worlds upon the Earth. In 1127 A.D., in Persia, a sorcerer lures and traps a powerful Djinn (Andrew Divoff) in the stone of secret fire. In the present days, a drunken crane operator drops the valuable statue of Ahura Mazda over the assistant of Raymond Beaumont (Robert Englund) on the harbor, and one worker finds the huge and priceless opal red stone where Djin is seized. Alexandra Amberson (Tammy Lauren), who works in an auction house, receives the stone for evaluation and accidentally awakes Djin. The evil creature is released later, charges the stone with people souls and feeds with their fears, while chasing Alexandra to force to make three wishes and unleash the demoniac fiends upon Earth.

The gore and funny "Wishmaster" is good horror movie, with original deaths, great special effects (1997) and a refreshing story. Andrew Divoff, presently working in "Lost", is great in the role of the evil, witty and cynical Djin; the blonde Tammy Lauren performs a smart and clever character, following the Djin's advice ("- Make a wish, but think first") and luring and tricking the demon with her intelligence; and there is homage to horrors movie, with the participation of Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund and Tony "Candyman" Todd. I have watched this film at least four times along ten years and it is still one of my favorites in the genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Mestre dos Desejos" ("The Master of the Wishes")

There are two distinct kinds of horror movies; the serious ones, and the not-so-serious ones. Occasionally, a horror film tries to be serious but winds up being... less than serious. Then there are the ones that set out to be cheesy from the start... this is one of those movies. From the very beginning you can tell that this movie was merely made to entertain horror movie fans who like their shocks with a side of humor. There's more gore and deaths in this in just the first five and last twenty minutes(and quite a few in-between, as well) than several other huge gore-fests of horror movies put together. Even better, you get to see no less than three major horror icons in the film. I'm honestly not a huge fan of this kind of movie, but I have to say I found it highly entertaining... if you're in the right mood for it, it may "work" for you(it definitely never strives to be something more or different than what it reveals that it is from the very beginning). The plot is pretty tame, but it allows for plenty of gore and death(and includes one well-known possible consequence of wishing for stuff from a genie). The acting is decidedly poor, either over- or underdone. The dialog ranges, but mostly it's very bad. That works to the film's advantage, so it's no big deal. The pacing really doesn't leave much room for complaining, the film doesn't really let up for a second(it is, of course, quite uneven... Kurtzman is clearly not a director). The film has a short running time and I found it to possess surprisingly high entertainment value, as well. The special effects are great. No way around it. The deaths and gore effects are original and interesting, not to mention amazingly pulled off. Fairly low budget, but it was spent right... mostly on effects, I'd wager. I recommend this to any fan of horror, particularly cheesy horror. If you're into it, you'll love this. Trust me. And be careful what you wish for. 6/10

Geez, after reading all the thumbs-down reviews, I feel almost embarrassed. I _liked_ Wishmaster. No, the idea of wishes-gone-awry isn't particularly original, but there are still some interesting elements done with it: a guard says he'd like to see the Djinn go through him and...it does (heh). Tammy Lauren is adequate as the spunky heroine, and Andrew Divoff (mostly consigned to minor B-villain roles - check him out in the Highlander TV series) makes a chilling threat. Jenny O'Hara makes the most of her role as resident supernatural expert. Yes, the gore is excessive, but I'm not sure if that's a concession to the 90's audience, or a directorial conceit - I'm willing to assume its the former. For a supernatural thriller/horror (as opposed to a Scream-type slasher/thriller), Wishmaster strikes me as one of the better efforts to come along since the last Nightmare and the first Candyman.

Let me begin by saying this film is not as bad as it's been made out to be sure it's a gore-fest at points and yes the dialogue is cheesy but surely that is what a B-movie is meant to be? The film has more substance than sequels that seem to spawn in the realm of horror movies. The film concerns a Djinn, Arabic for genie, who escapes from a statue to wreak havoc onto the world. He can sustain a human form if he can give someone 3 wishes. Andrew Divoff is delightfully malicious as the evil Djinn. The main cast give fair performances which can only be expected in a,remember, B-Movie. At times the film tries a bit to hard to please horror fans with various winks to other horror icons, Candyman and Freddy Kruger to name a few (Tony Todd and Robert Englund, respectively). But if you want a half decent horror movie to watch and don't care too much about substance then this film will not disappoint.

Conclusion.

A fun B-movie and a must for all horror fans. Though it does nothing to forward the genre.

Firstly, this is a movie that is defiantly B-Grade, and it shines all the more for it. It has a cast of iconic B-Grade horror movie stars - Tony "Candyman" Todd, Kane "Jason Voorhies" Hodder, Andrew Divoff, Ted Raimi, and of course the greatest (to me, personally) horror icon, Robert Englund. We also get cameos from Verne "Mini Me" Troyer, Angus "Tall Man" Scrimm (albeit only in voice form), John Carpenter staple George 'Buck' Flower, and Ricco "Frost from Aliens" Ross among others.

Despite being a 1997 movie, the special effects feel late-80s, as befitting it's B-Movie status, I guess, but they don't come across particularly bad or dated in any way.

The acting from our lead, Tammy Lauren, is everything you'd expect from a B Movie, but not always distractingly so, and the story is basic enough to bring the gore - an evil Djinn is released and twists wishes immediately, if not directly affecting the wisher.

It's worth a watch, even if just to see the aforementioned horror icons.