Wishmaster (1997)

This movie sucks. Honestly, I could just leave the review at that because there’s very little  to unpack here. This movie was pretty much universally panned and I’m not surprised at all. The effects are terrible, and I can’t imagine they looked that much better in 1997. The acting is also just abysmal. Some movies are so bad you can enjoy them and laugh at them, but I couldn’t do it with this one. I was honestly just bored, and waiting for it to end. This is one case where I think the sequel is better, as it does a better job of leaning into comedy. But we aren’t here to talk about that one yet, so let’s get this over with.

In this movie, a gemologist, Alex, accidentally unleashes an evil genie (or djinn) from a jewel and he begins to wreak havoc on her loved ones. The djinn uses people’s wishes against them, which usually results in their death. Alex learns that the djinn is powered by people’s souls which he gets when he grants their wishes. He is storing souls to eventually unleash all the djinn into the human world. Alex must figure out a way to stop him and save the world… but not her friends because most of them are dead already.

I am a person who can appreciate camp and even an unintentionally bad movie, but this is just something else. The djinn is like Freddy lite, where he tries to be sardonic and funny but never fully commits to the ridiculousness, so it just falls flat. They honestly do a better job of this in the sequel. The acting from the rest of the cast is just awful. The special effects are really the worst part of the film. The scenes where she’s having visions are just unforgivably bad. I wish I had more to say about it, but it’s just bad.

This movie is cheap looking and it’s honestly a shame Wes Craven’s name is attached to it. I don’t think this movie is worth watching, even in an ironic sense. If you’re going to watch anything, I recommend watching the sequel (you don’t need to have seen the original to understand the sequel).

Netflix available? No

Hulu available? No

Xfinity available? Yes, for a fee

Rating: 1/5