Wishmaster

Wishmaster marks a huge return for theatrical gore. What a splatterfest! That opening scene, are you kidding me? The KNB crew have blown me away again. From chest exploding skeletons to lizard men, it's well done and I applaud them. It's not just the prologue, it's the whole movie. There's one bit in particular where a guy gets his jaw ripped off. It's jaw-dropping (no pun intended). There is someone from nearly every important horror franchise, and some that aren't so important, in this flick. Cast and cameos include Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Angus Scrimm and Reggie Bannister, Ted Raimi and Dan Hicks, Tom Savini, Ricco Ross, Peter Liapis, Joseph Pilato, and Buck Flower. Not to mention KNB effects group, Harry Manfredini did the score, Peter Atkins wrote the screenplay, Robert (K of KNB) Kurtzman directed, and Wes Craven is producing. This is an unreal cast and crew, a who's who of horror. Let's not forget who's leading this cast: Andrew Divoff. He has the one of the scariest, harshest voices of all time. He is the Djinn and he's cool as hell. I just can't understand why this wasn't as well received by the horror community as it should have been. As for the sequels, what sequels? Stick to the original and you can't go wrong.

"Wishmaster" is better than I expected. It's quite a bit more entertaining than I thought it might be. As a direct-to-video series of horror flicks from the '90s, it had been on my radar for a long time, but I had never heard it spoken of or recommended, which is a shame.

Of course, it raises a flag that the movie was "executive produced" by Wes Craven. A lot of people have been burnt by that; generally people who don't know what an executive producer does, ie. nothing.

I wonder if the presence of the great, forever underrated Robert Englund ("A Nightmare on Elm Street") is owing to Craven's brand, however. And let's not forget the movie also features Tony Todd ("Candyman") and Kane Hodder ("Friday the 13th") in cameos, as well as Sam Raimi's brother Ted, and is narrated by Angus Scrimm, known as The Tall Man in "Phantasm".

The problem with the movie is that is doesn't hold together very well from scene to scene. It has many entertaining moments and good lines, but the story is simplistic, yet told in a confusing way. One indispensable aspect of these mid-'90s horror flicks is that they were made right before CGI came and ruined everything, and the movie has a lot of cool, practical gore effects.

Firstly, this is a movie that is defiantly B-Grade, and it shines all the more for it. It has a cast of iconic B-Grade horror movie stars - Tony "Candyman" Todd, Kane "Jason Voorhies" Hodder, Andrew Divoff, Ted Raimi, and of course the greatest (to me, personally) horror icon, Robert Englund. We also get cameos from Verne "Mini Me" Troyer, Angus "Tall Man" Scrimm (albeit only in voice form), John Carpenter staple George 'Buck' Flower, and Ricco "Frost from Aliens" Ross among others.

Despite being a 1997 movie, the special effects feel late-80s, as befitting it's B-Movie status, I guess, but they don't come across particularly bad or dated in any way.

The acting from our lead, Tammy Lauren, is everything you'd expect from a B Movie, but not always distractingly so, and the story is basic enough to bring the gore - an evil Djinn is released and twists wishes immediately, if not directly affecting the wisher.

It's worth a watch, even if just to see the aforementioned horror icons.

There are two distinct kinds of horror movies; the serious ones, and the not-so-serious ones. Occasionally, a horror film tries to be serious but winds up being... less than serious. Then there are the ones that set out to be cheesy from the start... this is one of those movies. From the very beginning you can tell that this movie was merely made to entertain horror movie fans who like their shocks with a side of humor. There's more gore and deaths in this in just the first five and last twenty minutes(and quite a few in-between, as well) than several other huge gore-fests of horror movies put together. Even better, you get to see no less than three major horror icons in the film. I'm honestly not a huge fan of this kind of movie, but I have to say I found it highly entertaining... if you're in the right mood for it, it may "work" for you(it definitely never strives to be something more or different than what it reveals that it is from the very beginning). The plot is pretty tame, but it allows for plenty of gore and death(and includes one well-known possible consequence of wishing for stuff from a genie). The acting is decidedly poor, either over- or underdone. The dialog ranges, but mostly it's very bad. That works to the film's advantage, so it's no big deal. The pacing really doesn't leave much room for complaining, the film doesn't really let up for a second(it is, of course, quite uneven... Kurtzman is clearly not a director). The film has a short running time and I found it to possess surprisingly high entertainment value, as well. The special effects are great. No way around it. The deaths and gore effects are original and interesting, not to mention amazingly pulled off. Fairly low budget, but it was spent right... mostly on effects, I'd wager. I recommend this to any fan of horror, particularly cheesy horror. If you're into it, you'll love this. Trust me. And be careful what you wish for. 6/10

Despite being marketed heavily as a 'Wes Craven film,' the horror mastermind neither wrote nor directed this campy nineties splatter-fest. Also, if you were drooling at the thought of seeing Freddy, Candyman and Jason on the same billing (Robert Englund, Tony Todd and Kane Hodder are all in it) then you may be a little disappointed, as their input amounts to just a few cameos here and there. Anyway, minor gripes out of the way, 'Wishmaster' is actually pretty good fun - if you're into this sort of film.

While bringing an ancient statue to America, it accidentally breaks, releasing a big blue cartoon genie, voiced by Robin Williams, who happily makes various pop culture references and grants our plucky young hero the wishes he needs to win the princess' heart. No, not really. This is one genie you wouldn't find in a Walt Disney movie - he delights in making all the wishes he grants impact on the person who made them in the most negatively-bad way possible. Plus he's not half as sweet as Robin William's classic genie - this one has fangs, red eyes and all sorts of weird, slippery appendages sprouting out of him. Now, it's up to our leading lady, Alexandra Amberson (played by a Linda Hamilton-esque Tammy Lauren) to get this genie back in his bottle - so to speak.

I know a lot of hard-core fans objected to the 'change' in the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' films when Freddy started becoming less scary and more comedic, taking pleasure in his kills with a snappy one-liner here and there. Well, if you (like me!) didn't mind this, then you should also enjoy 'Wishmaster.' The titular evil character is certainly a villain of the latter Freddy films, taking his time to mess with his victims, rather than kill them outright. I felt this possibly works better here in 'Wishmaster' than the 'Elm Street' franchise because the Wishmaster himself - technically - can't kill anyone outright. He has to mess with them enough to get them to (inadvertently) kill themselves. Yes, that sounds a bit weird and you'll have to watch the film to see how.

The film has a real 'nineties' feel; it's not just the clothes, scenery and hairstyles, but it was part of the latter half of the decade where horror films really started to make a comeback (largely due to 'Scream' I seem to recall) and they were really having fun with the budget they were given. Yes, there are hardly any A-list actors involved and the script is a little clunky as times, but there are plenty of excellent practical effects, creepy sets and a genuine desire to try and do something (a little) different.

Wishmaster' isn't 'dark and brooding' like today's horror films, but if you're in a forgiving mood and don't expect too much, this one is certainly entertaining enough to keep you occupied for an hour and a half. Plus is spawned numerous sequels (although not as many as Freddy or Jason), but that's hardly a benchmark with which to judge a horror film, is it?