Review: Wishmaster (1997)

Stars: Andrew Divoff, Tammy Lauren

Budget: 5 Million

Directed By: Robert Kurtzman


Oh wishmaster, oh Divoff, how the Ham flows in this film. Like Julian Sands I have a big hole where the charm of Andrew Divoff's characters and just the grand posture of his presence can keep throwing things in endlessly.
I won't let this effect whether the film is good or not though but i will say without him it would have lost at least one star.

So we see some alchemist at the beginning preparing some kind of jewel. This part of the film is set in the past and also in the far east. For good reason too as there is a Djinn running rampant in the sultans court.
Djinn are not your usual big blue guys magically summoned from a lamp. No they are other worldly demons summoned from another realm.

This like to twist what you wish for into some  parody of what you actually asked for. like asking to be pretty forever he'd turn you into a statue so you'd be stuck as you are for all time. So they manage to trap the Djinn in the fire opal before he can make the sultan use his last wish.
Cut to present day we have Robert Englund and Ted Raimi supervising the delivery of an ancient and old statue. The drunken dock hand drops the large heavy statue right on top of Ted's character squashing the shit out of him.
This also cracks the statue into pieces and from inside the fire opal drops, one of the dock workers grabs it before anyone notices. Through a series of events it ends up in the hands of Alexandra who is a jewel appraiser. After seeing something weird she gives the jewel to her partner Josh, while he is inspecting it the opal breaks releasing the Wishmaster. The lab is destroyed and Josh badly wounded, the Djinn asks if he wishes the pain would stop, replying yes Josh is killed by him.

A distraught Alex tracks the Gems original destination to Englunds Beaumont, he ends up sending her to see folklorist Wendy who explains to her the story of the Djinn. Here she learns that the Djinn needs the power of one person willing to use three wishes which will allow him to bring forth armies of Djinn from his own dimension. The Djinn takes on the form of a deceased man granting wishes and killing on his way to Alex.

Alex keeps having strange and troubling visions everytime the Djinn grants a wish to someone, she tries to confide in Derleth but she soon realises it's the Djinn in disguise. He offers Alex the option for three wishes and even one extra wish just to see that he isn't lying.
Alex orders the demon to blow his head off, he obeys and shoots himself in the head. However being an immortal he just instantly returns to life, damn it so much for that attempt!
Trying to use her wishes intelligently she uses her first to gain knowledge on her enemy, of course the Djinn warps her wish anyway he can and transports her to his world. She instantly uses another wish to escape the nightmarish realm.

Thankfully she had wished to be alone, she ends up going to Beaumont's party where the Djinn attacks them again, in his human form. He starts killing folk by bringing the artwork to life, then threatens Alex's sisters life in return for the last wish from Alex.
Suffice to say she makes the right this time and the movie is subsequently over at this point but we don't spoil films unless their so dire I don't think it's worth your time even watching them.
A very decent film with fun cameo's brought to us by the late Wes Craven, THN awards Wishmaster a very decent 3 stars out 5 with a to watch recommendation.