Wishmaster
(Region 1 DVD)
(1997)
review by Don't Feed the Dead

I know that there aren't too many fans of this movie out there, but I happen to be one of them. When the Wishmaster hit the big screen 6 years ago, I was blown away by a film that was genuine, a concept that was untapped, and a movie that was so fucking bloody it made my head spin. Unfortunately, with Peter Atkins scripting and Robert Englund in the feature, we all had to suffer with the "Wes Craven presents" moniker. I must point out at the get go that this movie is heavily influenced by the ideas of Peter Atkins, and his work can be easily identified if you've seen Hellraiser III and Hellraiser Bloodline.

The movie starts off with Angus "Tall Man" Scrimm giving a narrative about the creations of God, Angels and Djinn, and the holy war that was produced over the possession of Earth and its beings. He then goes on to describe the Djinn as a nasty form of genie, born of fire, and determined to rule the Earth. The Djinn seeks out 3 wishes from its master to release its cohorts and essentially bring hell to Earth. "Fear one thing in all that is…. Fear the Djinn."

We cut to ancient Egypt where there is a huge gathering at the Emperor's quarters, where we see widespread panic throughout the building. Apparently, the emperor wished for some "amazing sights" and what he got was one of the most gory intros to a movie. I put this movie intro up there with that of Ghost Ship, in that the FX team really went out of their way to make sure the audience's attention was held captive with graphic and disturbing imagery. We see some sort of priest rushing through the crowd nervously and anxious. Along the way he runs in through a myriad of tragedy, all of the people in the emperor's quarters are suffering from varying afflictions: One man's skeleton rips through his skin and attacks an onlooker, one woman is turned into a tree, another man is mutating into an alligator, and so on. He gets to his master's quarters only to find him there with a man dressed in black garb. The priest warns the emperor not to make any more wishes from the stranger. After the stranger reveals his true intentions, the priest whips out a red gem and chants a mantra, sealing the Djinn inside the gem.

Cut to present day (1997) at a shipyard, where Robert Englund and his assistant are waiting for a crate to be unloaded off a ship. The crate contains the statue of Ahura Mazda, a god-like figure from the Egyptian region. We see that the crane operator is a little tipsy, and starts bashing the crate against the side of the ship. Englund becomes distraught and his sidekick runs to the side of the ship to give the operator a piece of his mind. The operator screams some expletives and spills his gin n' juice on the crane's control panel. The crate snaps loose and falls right on top of the assistant in an awesome crush scene. Workers rush to the scene, and amidst the rubble a construction worker recovers the same gem that the Djinn was sealed in. He "inconspicuously pockets the gem and we cut away from the docks.

Onward to the tennis courts where our heroine (Alex) is playing tennis with her best friend Josh. After a lousy volley, Alex and Josh talk a bit and he fails to land her for a hot date. I hate the "I don't wanna lose our friendship" line, what a crock of shit. Anyways, the two part ways and we're brought to a nice office building where a pawn shop owner brings the gem to be appraised. The manager of the joint fawns over the gem and says he needs to call in Alex, the head gemologist, to look at the stone. Alex begins inspecting the stone and polishes it, causing the Djinn to be awakened. "You woke me….." she eerily hears, and for those of you that think Divoff's voice is dubbed, it's not. I had him rattle off 4 or 5 lines and he nailed them down exactly like in the movie. Alex brings the gem to Josh, who just happens to be a geologist. He's gonna perform some tests on the gem while Alex goes to teach her girls some basketball basics. Whilst Josh is performing his laser tests on the gem, the damn thing splits into four and causes the machine to explode. At the same moment, a horrible feeling comes over Alex and she rushes to call Josh. Josh is laying on the floor and while Alex is leaving a message, we see a fetal like creature writhe its way over to the now crippled Josh. The creature "relieves" Josh of his pain and begins to take the form of the Djinn. Consequently, the Djinn begins his search for his master, along the way gathering souls by granting wishes to various characters in the movie.

The great thing about the Wishmaster is the storyline by Peter Atkins. During the Djinn's collection process Atkins introduces a bunch of victims each in their own predicament, allowing the Djinn to prey on their desires. I thoroughly enjoyed the situations involving Reggie Bannister as the pharmacist and Kane Hodder as the security guard. Although the situations regarding the other victims didn't stand out as much, each one's result made me say "oh shit!" because of the outcomes of their wishes. Peter Atkins is one twisted fucker! Atkins also does one hell of a job bringing the story full circle with an end scene that parallels the intro at the emperor's quarters. Robert Englund's character is throwing a huge get together at his house, which is a pseudo art gallery. The Djinn tracks down Alex to this party, where Englund basically wishes for business to pick up. Man, the FX team must have worked OT for the end sequence because they did one hell of a job bringing the art gallery to life. Watch for Mini-me of the Austin Powers' movies to make a cameo appearance as one of the bastard creatures!

All in all, I loved this flick when it first came out, and I still love it now. I can't bring myself to judge this movie by its sequels because it is so different and so unique from any other horror movie I've seen. Atkins does a wonderful job of character development and really brings to contrast the battle of Good vs. Evil. The special features on the DVD are the run of the mill trailers, commentary and scene selection, nuttin special. But I Definitely recommend to rent or buy this movie, if anything you'll be able to follow the storyline and get a kick out of the awesome FX presented throughout.