Wishcraft

In competition at the Brussels Fantasy Film festival 2002.

Here's another teen slasher coming down the screen. Curiously, it is not an inept one. No flashy camera angles, no genre parody nor blink-and-you'll-miss-it effect. Just a good old scary story of teenagers getting killed by a strange and very strong killer. A nerdy guy gets by mail a totem that guarantees him 3 wishes. he doesn't believe in it at all but decides to get one for a try. He wishes to go to the prom with the local beauty queen...and succeeds. For a second one, he wishes her to fall madly in love with him...and she does. But the bodycount starts getting bigger all around the campus and seems closely related to the (fake?) totem.

Having a nerd playing the hero is a pretty good idea (and the film does have very good ideas for itself as the killer really knows how to scare and kill its victims). All the actors (including sexy Huntley Ritter (Voodoo Academy, Bring it On)) are doing a good job though no awards will ever be given them to. Meat Loaf is just another cop with a very few scenes. Fun to see him in here but his acting skills are...hum...well, y'know.

Richard Wenk knows how to scare people from time to time and the storyline, though not revolutionnary, follows a very well known path. The suspense is also well handled as the final twist is unpredictable but really preposterous! Murders scenes are ingenious and originals which in this genre is quite a tour de force.

In conclusion, a very forgettable movie but competent and fun to watch.

Superwonderscope says 6

The reason I rented this movie, was the feel-good plot. The geek gets the girl after being granted three wishes.

The movie is very standard feature, with some interesting blood and gore scenes. The love-story is much better, and there are some humoristic scenes that are worth watching.

If you want an interesting sci-fi movie about getting wishes granted, «Wishmaster» is better.

5/10

This actress is ALWAYS good, whatever she's in. She tends to play the ingenue with repressed sexual energy. She was good as Ross's underage girlfriend on "Friends" and she's good in this, too.

This movie on the whole is a bit of sleeper--I just didn't expect it to be as decent as it was. Someone here said it made "Cherry Falls" look good. Actually, it's the other way around. This movie plays out better than "Cherry Falls" in the long run (CF peeters out and turns into a predictable slasher film in the end; this film does not).

Also, the chemistry between the leads is good and the movie doesn't overextend itself and play up the supernatural too much with cheesy special effects they probably couldn't afford anyway. Who knows what it is that makes one B-movie work and another fall flat. The right actors? Better production design, lighting, direction? Who can say. Whatever it is, this films got it.

This movie really suprised me. I was expecting some lame cheesy rip-off of scream or soul survivor but actually it had elements of uniqueness. Easy plot, simple special effects , decent acting and a simple story line all make this film a winner . Don't expect it to smash box office records , but it should keep its head above water and maybe gain a few fans with its feel good ending...

Is there anyone, anywhere, who doesn't already have an answer (most likely with all sorts of sub-clauses and strict definitions) to EXACTLY what they would wish for, given three chances!???

Never mind. For virtually everyone in the movie, the acting and dialogue are brilliant. The entirely natural relationships and deft avoidance of so many easy cliches makes this one of the best 'B' movies I've seen, and a lesson for directors & writers with much bigger budgets.

"Horror" seems a bit strong in describing Wishcraft. It's no worse than Scream, and not even as frightening - although a couple of scenes ('fake knife' & 'unmasked') are really well done. I didn't expect the revelation towards the end either. The end itself (which can ruin a film) is pretty good too.

It's difficult to say more without revealing the movie, and I recommend you see this the same way I did - optimistically, and with a vague hope that it's better than Wishmaster (which it so is).

In fact, if they pumped up the soundtrack and had more famous faces, this film would easily be in the same league as Scream, Swimfan and (dare I say it) an average episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.