The Wisher
(aka; Spliced)
(Region 2 DVD)
(2002)
review by Suspiriorium

Meet Mary (Liane Balaban), a not entirely unattractive young Brunette who is addicted to watching horror films, & gets a sexual thrill out of being scared by them. Which frankly makes her sound like more or less my ideal woman, although inevitably there’s a downside which in Mary’s case is a tendency for having nightmares whilst sleepwalking – allowing for a rather amusing & pleasingly gooey opening sequence), something peripheral to the plot at best, & pretty much forgotten as the film progresses. Plus she has a poster of Moby on the back of her bedroom door, so it clearly wouldn’t work between us. Anyway, because of this tendency to somnambulism, she’s promised her parents she won’t go & see any more horror films – something that clearly won’t last long when her friend s tell her of the latest release, the controversial The Wisher which has been breaking box office records (one of the films best gags shows The Wisher playing four screen sold out, whilst Halloween Resurrection can muster barely one screening). However, the film has a terrible effect on her (hard to see why, since – in the best film-in-film traditions – it looks absolutely terrible) & she is unable to watch more than about 20 minutes. Soon however, she keeps seeing the mysterious character from the film following her around, & the wishes she makes start to come true in the most unpleasant ways imaginable.

So yes, this is basically a low budget Wishmaster rip-off, along similar lines to the entirely risible Wishcraft. However, as I’m not a fan of that franchise (in fact, I’ve still not managed to get through the first film in it’s entirety) I really don’t mind the stealing, & found the film to be an alternately irksome & compelling wee piece – a perfectly competent time filler. The films biggest weaknesses comes in the scripting, which is rather haphazard to say the least – things keep occurring which seem like good ideas, & neat twists, but all too often these make the events that have come before pretty nonsensical. And for the most part, The Wisher is entirely content to play along the over-familiar teen horror lines, with big fat clichés around every turn. It’s also not afraid to be quite outrageously stupid at times – for example the climax sees Mary having to find out how the film ends. So (in a rather dodgy piece of plotting) she decides to download it from the Internet. She doesn’t know how to do that, so has to ask someone (who has seen the film) how to do it. Couldn’t she just ask how the film ended? But no, because there’s an image in the film the narrative says she has to see herself, even though the final twist suddenly renders it so meaningless & utterly illogical it would doubtless send Spock into a foaming frenzy.

But somehow, despite the flaws (& there are many more – including an unreasonably poor performance from Drew Lachey), The Wisher is a curiously likeable film. Balaban is a sympathetic (not to mention pretty cute) lead, & Ron Silver adds suitable gravitas to his role as one of the staff at Mary’s school. Because The Wisher ultimately isn’t really aimed at the serious horror fans (which I guess makes up most of the people who visit HorrorView), but more at those young kids who are just finding their first horror films. And for them, The Wisher agreeably provides a nice amount of the sloppy stuff, some brilliantly gratuitous nudity from a hot blonde, & manages to build up a decent amount of momentum by the climax. So whilst now it’s no more than an occasionally amusing diversion, if I was 15 again The Wisher would probably be one of my favourite films. And it’s a slight cut above many recent teen horrors, which have been too tame (& nudity-free) for their own good. So what if it plays with raising issues it has no intention of dealing with on any kind of serious level (notably that of the effects of watching horror films on vulnerable psyches, but also things like how poor films rake in the box office through clever hype, & inevitably being careful what you wish for)? The Wisher quite blatantly has no intention of being anything more than a bit of fun, & I just can’t take offence at that. It’s…you know, for kids.

The UK DVD (under the original title The Wisher) comes from Mosaic Entertainment, & contains a not too shabby anamorphic widescreen print, & decent sound. The extras are another matter, however. There’s a pretty poor trailer, around three minutes of on set footage, an alternate ending which is barely changed, but does suggest yet another twist which would have made the climax even more nonsensical. Plus there’s about two minutes of interviews with Balaban (who seems even more likeable than her character), Lachey, & director Wilding. Overall, it’s an entirely underwhelming collection that looks like someone’s found things to look really good on the cover, but with the absolute minimum of effort. It’s a poor showing indeed, eased only by the thought than many companies would have released this film with nothing at all