Released: September 1999
Director: Jack Sholder
Rated R
Run Time: 96 Minutes
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Andrew Divoff: Demorest/Djinn
Holly Fields: Morgana
Paul Johansson: Gregory
Released: October 2001
Director: Chris Angel
Rated R
Run Time: 89 Minutes
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Jason Connery: Professor Joel Barash
A.J. Cook: Diana Collins
John Novak: The Djinn
Released: October 2002
Director: Chris Angel
Rated R
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Genre: Horror
Cast:
Tara Spencer-Nairn: Lisa
Michael Trucco: Verdel
John Novak: The Djinn
I’m doing something different for this post. For the three Wishmaster sequels, I’m lumping them all into one post/review. Why? Because, quite frankly, none of the sequels have enough material on their own to warrant their own post. The original film with Andrew Divoff was something unique. Not only did it have a memorable villain, but it also had a very interesting premise. But what really made the original Wishmaster work was it’s cast. It featured some of the biggest names in horror in small but supporting roles: Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd and Ted Raimi. They helped make the film feel like a legitimate horror experience. It mostly worked. The practical effects in the film were certainly grotesque, but very convincing. The CGI left quite a bit to be desired, but the design of the villain was absolutely unique. I count the original Wishmaster as one of my favorite movies in the genre. So imagine my surprise when I first found out that there was a sequel.
Wishmaster 2 sees Andrew Divoff return as the devious trickster known as the Djinn. This time, he’s awakened by Morgana, a woman that stumbled upon his gem stone during the robbery of a museum. The forces of good and evil clash again as the Djinn tries to collect enough souls and force Morgana to make her 3 wishes, so he can unleash his race on the entire world. Wishmaster 3 features A.J Cook as a student who unwittingly releases the Djinn. This time, the Djinn takes the form of college professor Joel Barash. Again, he seeks to force A.J. Cook’s character to make her three wishes while causing havoc throughout the college campus. Wishmaster 4? Fuck that movie. Fuck it sideways. Look, if there was ever going to be a follow-up to the original Wishmaster, it was going to have a hard time reaching the level that the original film had achieved. Here’s the problem: Not one of the sequels even comes close. The further on you go, the worse they get. There’s a reason the sequels went straight-to-video. To be fair, Wishmaster 2 at least managed to get Andrew Divoff to return as both Demorest and the Djinn. His performance despite it not being as good as the first movie, was still entertaining in a campy sort of way. For the final two movies, they had two separate actors. One for the person that the Djinn was impersonating, and another for the creature itself. John Novak would play the Djinn itself in the last two movies. For Wishmaster 3, Jason Connery would play Barash. Yes, the son of Sean Connery starred in a direct-to-video movie, and it wouldn’t the first or last one. For Wishmaster 4, Michael Trucco would play the impersonated victim.
I will give Wishmaster 2 credit where it definitely due. Bringing Divoff back was probably one of the smartest moves the director had made for that movie. Not only that, the costume design for the Djinn was surprisingly more elaborate than the original film. It looked truly demonic. It was also still a pretty gory movie. Wishmasters 3 and 4 didn’t have so much luck. The creature design for the Djinn is horrifying. As in, horrifyingly cheap. This character is no longer scary. It certainly doesn’t help that John Novak’s performance as the Djinn was awful. I will give Jason Connery credit. He’s fun to watch. Some of the effects in Wishmaster 3 actually aren’t horrible. There’s just not enough of them. Gore doesn’t necessarily make a horror movie, but when you have a movie that almost shies away from the red stuff, it’s very disappointing. Wishmaster 4 was even worse. A lot of the kills took place off-screen, which doesn’t make sense in a movie about an evil genie that warps your wishes into something horrific.
To be fair, there were elements in both the third and fourth movies that could have worked, had the movies been in the hands of a much better director. See, at some point in the third movie, A.J. Cook’s character invokes the power of the archangel Michael. Awesome, we should have gotten an awesome battle between angel and demon, right? Wrong. Michael just possess Diana’s boyfriend and he gets a weird-looking sword. The fight sequences are….lame. In Wishmaster 4, the main character actually makes all three wishes. That should open the door for the apocalypse, right? Well….the wish she made was to love the Djinn for who he really is, so in essence, that’s a wish only she could grant. It’s an interesting twist that’s poorly handled. I’m sorry, Wishmaster 4 should have been released on the Lifetime channel. It was more about relationships than about demons and gore. That’s not what I watch a Wishmaster movie for.
Wishmaster 4 is easily the worst of the bunch by a country mile. The third film at least attempted to be entertaining in its own goofy way. It even had some pretty decent stunt sequences and explosions. I kinda liked it a bit. Good movie? Not a chance in hell, but not the worst I’ve ever seen. Wishmaster 4 deserves to be thrown into the pits of Hell where it belongs. This is kind of how I looked when I finished watching Wishmaster 4:
All kidding aside, if you’re a horror fanatic like me, stick with the original Wishmaster. It’s far more memorable and it stands well enough on its own as a movie. These other movies are completely forgettable and generally not worth watching.
Wishmaster 2 Final Score: 7/10
Wishmaster 3 Final Score: 6/10
Wishmaster 4 Final Score: Fuck this movie/10