Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Franchise Review: Wishmaster (1997)

 
I guess just because a horror film spawned a few sequels doesn't mean that the original was actually good enough to warrant sequels in the first place. This is very true of 1997's Wishmaster, which I had really high hopes for because of the talent involved, both in front of and behind the camera. However, despite some noteworthy gags, the whole of Wishmaster is pretty dull.

Alexandra, an appraiser at an auction, accidentally awakens the ancient Djinn from the jewel in which it was imprisoned. The Djinn grants wishes in order to collect human souls and become more powerful, but needs the three wishes of the person that awoke him - Alex - to open the gateway between worlds and free the rest of the Djinn to take over the Earth.

The movie was directed by Robert Kurtzman, one-third of the amazing KNB Effects house, so I knew before the movie started that at least the effects were going to be awesome. And indeed the opening scene in ancient Persia where the Djinn mutilates various people is freaking amazing. How could any horror fan not love the part where the guy's skin rips off and his skeleton comes out and attacks people? Sadly, that's probably the coolest thing to see in the whole movie and things pretty much go downhill from there.

Wishmaster's problem is that it has a great beginning and a pretty good ending, but everything in the middle is boring. Too much time is spent on exposition about the Djinn's history when we already got the basics on that from the text before the credits. There's a decent leading lady in Tammy Lauren as Alex (though she's mostly kind of whiny and weepy) who smartly deals with the cunning Djinn, but the interaction between the two characters is so little that there is never any real tension or fear that she is in danger. Once the Djinn explodes out of the opal gemstone as a mushy little baby Djinn and kills Alex's friend Josh, he just sort of walks around town disguised as some random guy and grants stupid little wishes to random people. Had Wishmaster stuck with the tone of the gruesome opening, I think it could have been much better.

Aside from the skeleton gag, there were actually a few other gore scenes that I enjoyed for the moment. Wishmaster takes most of its storytelling cues from The Monkey's Paw, wherein the wishes that are granted don't necessarily happen the way the wishers wanted them to. Some of the results are lame - a woman who says she wants to stay beautiful forever is turned into a mannequin - and some are pretty cool - the massacre at the police station where one guy gets his jaw ripped off. The two second-best gags happen at the end during a party where, again, all hell breaks loose. One party-goer is decapitated by piano wire with a life of its own; a woman turns into glass and explodes; statue snakes come alive and bite a man's face and twist it around all nasty-like; and another guy gets his face all stretched out weird by a spear going through his mouth.

The film can at least boast that it has an impressive cast of actors and horror icons, even if they just make cameo appearances. Robert Englund has the most starring role as Raymond Beaumont, the man who buys the statue where the jewel that holds the Djinn is trapped, and his assistant who bites it right off the bat is a personal favorite of mine, adorable little Ted Raimi. Tony Todd makes a short appearance as doorman Johnny Valentine, and Kane Hodder is a security guard who meets a very strange demise. Kurtzman himself appears as the man attacked by piano wire, and I think that was Howard Berger getting his face smashed in by a mace. The cameos are nice and bring a smile to the horror-lover's face when you see them, but they are not good enough to make the movie any better.

I actually want to watch the sequels to see if they get any nastier than this one, but I don't have much hope. It seems like there is probably a reason why I don't hear the Wishmaster series talked about more often - it's not that great. The Djinn as a villain is a very cool idea and had great potential but this film does not take advantage of that.

10 comments:

  1. I have a fondness for this movie, mainly out of nostalgia I think. One of the big missteps (besides making the Djinn a normal looking guy for much of the film) was making him almost immediately start acting like a wisecracking Freddy Kruger-type character. Even Freddy Kruger took several films to get there.

    As far as the series goes, sad to say the first is the best. It's all downhill from there.

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    1. Yeah, especially at the end when he just said "Fuck it!" or something like that - made him less scary, as did making him look like a normal dude, like you said. Would have been so much better with the makeup!

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  2. This is one of those films I keep meaning to watch but frequently at the same time failing to get it together. Good to have some pre-warning now as to what to expect when I do

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    1. It has its moments but is mostly a disappointment - that's probably the best pre-warning!

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  3. If you're looking at quality, the first one is probably the strongest.
    The second one gets a bit more over-the-top and gruesome throughout, so you may like it more.
    The third one really screws the pooch by bringing an Angel into it.
    The fourth one is not much better, but at least has some silly uses of the 'Wishing is Evil' motif.

    I hope that helps, although I doubt it will save you much trouble in the long run. :-)

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    1. Hm, first horror movie I've read about that needs an angel to save the day. That sounds dumb.

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    2. The guy who made 'Wishmaster 3' and '4' (production separated by a single weekend) has ONLY ever Directed those two movies.

      He has since gone on to only make the 'Making Of' Documentaries attached to Films when you rent/buy them on DVDs. It's a living...

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    3. Okay, about to start Wishmaster 3 right now...

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  4. it's been so long since I saw the first wishmaster; I re-watched the next three films so I really don't know what to expect here. But reading your description of the murders and gore, that little thing in my head that sounds like my twelve year old me glees in enthusiasm.

    least this way I can expect for the worse, nice review Mic!

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    1. It's really not THAT bad, just really not as cool as it should have/could have been!

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