1999 Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies

• Directed by: Jack Sholder
• Written by: Peter Atkins, Jack Sholder
• Stars: Holly Fields, Chris Weber, Al Foster, Andrew Divoff
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes
• Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

During a botched robbery, Demerest the Wishmaster is accidentally released, and he becomes linked to the surviving thief. The djinn has to collect 1001 souls in exchange for wishes to trigger an apocalypse. So he gets to work, causing mayhem and death – very few of his granted wishes are benevolent. Andrew Divoff is great again as the djinn; it’s got a decent story, and the effects are very good. But the pacing is clunky, and we both thought it was pretty dull.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a group of thieves in the museum. They take paintings, but when they break some glass, the alarm goes off. During the ensuing gunfight, a statue gets shot and spits out a huge gemstone, which one of the thieves grabs. Morgana shoots a guard and then gets shot herself, but the jewel stops the bullet. Eric also gets shot, but he stays behind to die— except the jewel reveals something to him. The Wishmaster comes out of the jewel, and he’s quite a mess. Eric wishes he’d never been born. He suddenly de-ages down to the fetus level and then vanishes. “Done,” says the Wishmaster. When the police show up, the creature has turned into his human form, Nathaniel, and they promptly arrest him. Nathaniel tries to get the detective to make a wish, but the cop isn’t biting.

In the jail cell, Nathaniel tries to “help” some of the inmates. One guy wishes to walk right through the bars, which soon happens— like Play-Doh through the extruder. With another prisoner, he offers to make his lawyer suffer.

Meanwhile, Morgana takes Eric’s death badly. She has a nightmare about the Wishmaster demon and then goes to church. She meets an old friend, Gregory, who is now a priest. She tells him all about her odd dreams, which all seem to involve a prophecy.

Meanwhile, the djinn continues making deals for souls in prison where he’s being held. He ends up talking cryptically to Morgana in jail. Later, he makes a prison bully’s henchmen beat him to death because he wished to get “wasted.” Morgana tries to convince Gregory that evil is happening, and she keeps having visions. Gregory goes to see the djinn himself, and he’s convinced that he’s not of this world.

Gregory looks up djinns and explains the thing about needing 1,001 souls to free the Wishmaster’s entire race, and he has to finalize it by giving three wishes to the one who released him. Morgana then cuts off her pinky finger as a sacrifice to become “pure.”

Nathaniel gives a guard his wish, a minute alone to dance. He then steals the guard’s skin to walk out the front door along with his friend Osip. He soon meets Pushkin, a mob boss. Pushkin wants his enemy’s head, and he’s soon wearing it— so his men kill him. Suddenly, Morgana rushes in and shoots Nathaniel, who turns into his demon form. He offers her a wish as a reward for waking him, but she runs away.

Morgana and Gregory return to Osip, who refuses to help them. He shoots Morgana to prevent the prophecy, and she’s OK with that. Somehow, that doesn’t work – she’s locked in with the Djinn until he finishes his work. Meanwhile, Nathaniel goes to the Vegas casinos, where lots of people have wishes. It’s not going to take long for him to get the 800 more souls that he needs.

Not long after, it seems everyone is a winner at the casino. Then, everyone he granted wishes to starts dropping dead as he collects their souls from them. Now, he has only to grant Morgana’s three wishes, and he wins the Earth.

The Wishmaster takes Morgana to Hell for a chat. He’s torturing Gregory, and getting him released is her first wish. Gregory dies; that’s a release, right? She tries a lot of things, but none of them work against him. He takes her back to the casino, which has gotten all possessed, and it’s killing the patrons. Morgana wishes the guard she killed in the opening scene were alive again— this makes her pure enough to put the Wishmast back in his crystal. As she says the magic words, all his victims’ souls are returned to their owners.

Back in Hell, the Wishmaster doesn’t look happy. He’ll probably be back.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s been a while since we saw the first film, so here’s a link. This is more of the same. The deaths seem a little less creative this time, and the characters didn’t do much for me either. Andrew Divoff, as the djinn, is the only thing worth seeing here, and it’s clear that at least he’s having a good time.

I was a little bored with this one.

Kevin’s Commentary

I was initially thinking I’d seen this, but I now think it was just a compilation of some key scenes on YouTube.

It’s pointed out that when Andrew Divoff is in his human form, in this movie and the first movie, he doesn’t blink. Trivia says the director was impressed that he was doing it, but Andrew said he didn’t even realize that he was. I agree with Brian that Divoff is the bright spot in this. He’s perfect in the role, and it’s clear he’s really into it.

It’s on the dull side overall.