An evil genie imprisoned in a rare jewel is unleashed upon a world but the magic to contain him has been forgotten. He will grant three wishes to the one who woke him up. Upon granting the third, he can open the walls of reality bringing his people through and causing hell on earth.
Wishmaster's Plot and Key Characters
The film opens with an ominous voice telling the audience that about a creature called the ‘Djinn’ - which dwells in the spaces between worlds - and letting them know that if the Djinn grants three wishes, his legions will be unleashed upon the world.
Wishmaster begins in Persia in 1127 AD with the emperor asking for the Djinn to astonish him and show him wonders. The Djinn unleashes horrific tortures on the emperor’s people, mutilating them, and in some cses actually ripping people's skeletons out of their bodies. The Djinn urges the emperor to just wish everything away, but Zoroaster, a sorcerer (played by Ari Barak) appears and traps the Djinn in a fire opal.
In present day America, Raymond Beaumont (Robert Englund) is supervising a rare statue being unloaded from a ship. The crane operator has been drinking and makes a mistake, causing the crate to fall and the statue to break. A dock worker notices a jewel embedded within the broken remains, and steals it. After the jewel changes hands a few times, it ends up at Regal Auctioneers, where boss Nick Merritt (Chris Lemmon) gives it to appraiser Alexandra Amberson (Tammy Lauren) to examine. She blows on the jewel, and awakens the Djinn.
A One Hit Wonder
Wishmaster has a very simple premise: Be careful what you wish for, and for this film it works rather well. The Djinn is a nasty looking monster that can take the face of a corpse and assume a human form. As a human he is played by Andrew Divoff and is a treat as the smooth talking and charming Nathaniel Demerest.
Divoff oozes charm and the sequence in which he talks to a shop girl, telling her that if she asks to live forever, it may happen. She does, the Djinn smiles, and walks away. The camera returns to the woman to show that she has now become a mannequin.
For the seasoned horror fan, there are numerous cameos from actors from various other horror films, including Tony Todd (Candyman), and Kane Hodder, (Jason Voorhees from the Friday 13th Series) are a couple but there are plenty of others for the audience to spot. Only those with a strong stomach should attempt to watch Wishmaster, it is has a vein of tongue-in-cheek humour running through it, but the scenes of violence are excessive with all manner of nasty things happening to the unfortunate characters.
Some moments are a joy, and lift Wishmaster above some of the very poor Friday 13th sequels or the abysmal additions to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The Djinn twists whatever someone asks him into something unpleasant so by the time the final credits role the premise might be getting a little old. However, Divoff plays the Djinn with an obvious dark relish, and it is his smooth charisma that makes this film worth seeing.
Like a lot of horror films Wishmaster attempted to take the comedy character of a genie and turn it into something terrifying. The film recognises that it is a horror film, and sets out to milk its premise as much as it possibly can. The gore is extreme and excessive but this is a splatter film so that is to be expected. The ending is original and will leave the audience with a smile (assuming they are not still grossed out by the grisly final sequence).
Wishmaster should have been a single film but unfortunately it declined rapidly as three sequels were made. This was the first and should have been only one. Gore fans will not be disappointed and Divoff’s performance makes this worth a watch.
3/5
Better than average horror but the premise may get really old really fast.
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