{"id":4135,"date":"2024-09-20T02:55:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T02:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4135"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:05:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:05:54","slug":"wishmaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/20\/wishmaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Wishmaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Wishmaster <\/strong>(1997)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 LIVE Entertainment\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (horror violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Kurtzman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Atkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Manfredini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jacques Haitkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 19, 1997 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund, Chris Lemmon, Wendy Benson, Tony Crane, Jenny O\u2019Hara, Ricco Ross, Gretchen Palmer, John Byner, Tom Kendall, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, George \u201cBuck\u201d Flower, Ted Raimi, Dan Hicks, Reggie Bannister, Joseph Pilato, Dennis Hayden, Angus Scrimm (narrator).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $15.7M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s comforting to know that cheesy horror movies didn\u2019t completely die out in the 80s, the Golden Age of the genre. Wishmaster<\/strong> came out in \u201997, but it feels like something from ten years earlier. Directed by Robert Kurtzman (The Demolitionist), it\u2019s low-budget all the way with its nonsensical plot and cool practical FX- i.e. latex, puppetry and stage blood. Plus, it features a career-best performance from Andrew Divoff (Toy Soldiers) as the antagonist, an evil genie with but one desire, to destroy humanity as we know it. All he needs is some poor fool dumb enough to make three wishes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The fool he needs may or may not be Alex (Lauren, The Last Flight of Noah\u2019s Ark), an appraiser for an auction company that comes into possession of a fire opal containing the spirit of the evil genie, hereafter referred to as the djinn<\/em>. He was trapped there by a 12th<\/sup> century sorcerer after a Persian emperor comes perilously close to making his third wish which would allow the djinn to summon forth legions of his own kind. It would be bad for humanity if the world was taken over by djinn. Are you with me so far?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Asked to examine the gemstone, Alex manages to awaken the evil djinn who escapes and kills her friend Josh (Crane, TV\u2019s The Big Easy) when he tries to analyze it. He immediately sets forth collecting souls in order to restore his power. It works like this. He tricks some poor sap into making a wish then uses it against that person. When an attractive shopgirl wishes for eternal beauty, he turns her into a mannequin. When a security guard says he\u2019d like to see the djinn go through him, he fuses him into a glass door. Get the idea? Good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Already freaked out by her friend\u2019s death, Alex really starts to lose it when she finds out what she\u2019s up against. Everytime the djinn grants a wish, she has a vision of it. The djinn eventually tracks Alex down and offers up the customary three wishes. It\u2019s a pretty safe bet she\u2019ll find a way to beat him at his own game. Isn\u2019t that how it always works?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Check out the cast of Wishmaster<\/strong>. It\u2019s totally bad ass! It\u2019s a list of who\u2019s who in horror. Freddy Krueger himself Robert Englund tops the list as the wealthy art collector responsible for bringing the cursed gem (embedded in a rare statue) to America. I\u2019m not surprised he showed up for the party; after all, it\u2019s produced by his pal Wes Craven. Kane Hodder, four-time Jason Voorhees player, is the aforementioned security guard. Tony Todd, better known as Candyman, is another security guy who has a run-in with the djinn. The cast also includes Chris Lemmon (Just Before Dawn), Ted Raimi (Evil Dead 2), Reggie Bannister (Phantasm I & II), Joseph Pilato (Day of the Dead), George \u201cBuck\u201d Flower (They Live), Dan Hicks (Evil Dead 2) and Angus Scrimm- aka \u201cThe Tall Man\u201d from the Phantasm movies- narrates the prologue. In addition, one of the Marines from Aliens (Ricco Ross) and one of the terrorists from Die Hard (Dennis Hayden) make appearances.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like I already said, Divoff is great as the evil djinn, an amalgam of Pinhead, Freddy Krueger and Warlock. He relishes every moment he\u2019s on screen. He has this creepy, surreal voice and wicked charm that gives you the chills. He gets some great lines too- e.g. \u201cListen to their screams, child, listen to the music of their agony.\u201d Lauren looks suitably frightened as the heroine still plagued by guilt stemming from a childhood tragedy. It\u2019s why she\u2019s so protective of her younger sister Shannon (Benson, Still Breathing). Jenny O\u2019Hara (Devil) has some good scenes as a folklore professor who gives Alex a crash course on the real history of the djinn.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is ample gore and grisly effects in Wishmaster<\/strong>. That, by itself, is cool. What really seals the deal for me is they\u2019re not CGI. We\u2019re talking cheesy old school effects here. To my eyes, they look great. The gore highlights include a skeleton bursting out of a body, somebody dying gruesomely of a sudden onset of cancer, bloody shootings in a police station and a fancy party turning into a massacre complete with an appearance by Jack the Ripper.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It may be dumb and unoriginal, but I really dig Wishmaster<\/strong>. It\u2019s fun and sometimes funny. But is it scary? I\u2019d say no. It\u2019s too silly and predictable. In this instance, I don\u2019t mind. I like how Kurtzman, working from a script by Peter Atkins (Hellbound: Hellraiser II), doesn\u2019t stray from formula. It\u2019s a neat throwback to the goofy horror flicks I rented from the Video Den as a teen. Craven\u2019s influences are obvious as well. You\u2019ll never look at I Dream of Jeannie or Aladdin the same way again.\"\"<\/p>\n

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Wishmaster (1997)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 LIVE Entertainment\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (horror violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Robert Kurtzman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Peter Atkins\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Harry Manfredini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Jacques Haitkin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 19, 1997 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund, Chris Lemmon, Wendy Benson, Tony Crane, Jenny O\u2019Hara, Ricco Ross, Gretchen Palmer, John Byner, Tom Kendall, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Wishmaster-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5691,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions\/5691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}