Glucedee
It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Mandeep Tyson
The acting in this movie is really good.
rgs927
With excellent practical effects, smart writing, and an abundance of creativity, Wishmaster is one of those 90s horror flicks that didn't get the notice it deserved. While several horror mainstays made appearances and the great Wes Craven directed, this film rarely gets talked about these days.The djinn, the wish-granting antagonist, is handled without relying on many of the genie-clichés we so often see. The female lead was smart and strong in a year before that was the norm. The practical effects are a throwback to 80s horror classics like Hellraiser and The Thing.Admittedly, this movie comes from the early days of CGI and has some off- putting moments because of it. It can be jarring when they transition between a lovingly crafted practical effect to a weak, computer generated one. Thankfully, these moments are few and far between.Like many solid horror films of the era, this one spawned several awful sequels. Don't bother with them. Watch the original and enjoy it. It's a great throwback to the sort of scary flicks many of us horror fans have been missing for some time.
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.
prostheticmisery
This isn't the kind of movie that leaves you at the edge of your seat, it's not scary in the sense that it'll keep you up at night. But it's a horror movie from 1997, which in my opinion, makes it good just based off the fact that it was something that hadn't been done before. The plot is interesting enough that there are no dull moments, you sympathize with the main character, and there's plenty of gore if that's what you're into. My standpoint on the movie is that it's just like Child's Play (the 3rd one if we're getting specific) it's not scary, it won't give you nightmares, but it's a timeless classic. If you can appreciate horror in all of its forms, and know what to expect from a 90s horror film, I highly recommend this one.
GL84
Receiving a rare gem at work, a gemologist finds that it contained a power genie known as a Djinn that is now targeting her and her friends to make the wishes needed to give it the strength to free its fellow entities.Overall this one was quite an enjoyable effort with a lot to really like here. What really works here is the fact that this one really has a lot of fun here with the title creature and his powers which is pretty much constant throughout this. It starts off nicely here with the opening massacre of the old-time court of the different grisly actions befalling the troupe as people get their limbs and bodily features morphed into various monstrosities, a person's skeleton rips itself free of its body, demonic hallucinations and other rather fun encounters here that makes this such a fantastic opening display of his powers which is continued throughout here with a rather nice amount of wish-granting. The main factor of generating all kinds of twisted fates and occurrences that befall the minor characters he runs into that propels the first half here which not only makes it fun to see how he twists around their wishes but also manages to get this one pretty gory and bloody here in regards to how he kills those is quite appealing here and generates the kind of enjoyment in the plot it makes this one even more fun. Even better here is the more physical torments unleashed here, which provides this with the kind of action required here to help this along as scenes like the trip inside the stone to see where he had been imprisoned to show the inner mass of the wailing wall of crying souls, a throne of skulls and twisted stone pieces and the giant monster-like dog that patrols the different hallways and corridors in a pretty chilling sequence, while the finale party here gives this one an incredibly enjoyable end with the absolutely crazy assault on the guests, the numerous chasing around by the various beings under its' control and the fantastic deaths that are a part of the tormenting done against her to force her into action, and to wrap it all up in the manner here of finally trapping it against really gives this one quite a lot to like here. There's not a whole lot here that doesn't work, which all centers around the first half here which falls into a really predictable manner of meeting up with strangers and changing around their wish to suit him while she experiences the flashing image of the attack, a process itself that comes and goes whenever it's convenient for the story, but the repetition of it all does seem to cause this one some pattern that drops a lot of suspense from the tactic. As well, the joking nature of this one might wear thin for some, but there's not a whole lot that really hurt this one as beyond that, it's still quite a bit of fun.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.
