2001 Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell

• Directed by: Chris Angel
• Written by: Alex Wright, Peter Atkins
• Stars: Jason Connery, A.J. Cook, Tobias Mehler
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W1IYzRHmnA

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Someone finds the ruby gem, the djinn is freed, death and mayhem happens, they find a way out at the end. It’s a familiar formula used a third time. It’s been a downward slide though. This one doesn’t have Andrew Divoff, it lacks dark humor, and it’s on the dull side. It’s not bad, but middling.

Spoilery Synopsis

Diana has a nightmare about the traffic accident that killed her parents. Her boyfriend, Greg, suggests she needs therapy over the incident.

The next morning, Diana and Katie go to school with Billy, Katie’s boyfriend. The professor might have a thing for Diana, which annoys Greg.

The professor asks Diana to come in after class to help him at the museum. As she waits, she opens a puzzle box from ancient Persia, and finds a big red gem inside. The professor shows up and reads the words on the box and then wants to go out for dinner. She turns him down, and he’s annoyed.

The Djinn shows up to the professor, and he wants to know more about Diana. He wishes for the two most beautiful women in the world to be in love with him; they show up and tear him apart. The Djinn then changes shape to replace the professor.

Katie hangs up a big bull’s head with Chekov’s horns poking out. Then she makes out with Billy. Diana translates the writing on the box and knows what’s going on with the Djinn; Greg isn’t interested in the story. She thinks the professor has been killed, but it’s only been two hours, so he thinks she’s overreacting.

“The professor” wants to see Diana’s transcript, and the woman who runs the record department wishes the whole department would just burn up, which it does– with her inside.

Diana tells her three friends about the professor, the djinn, and the woman in the records department, and they all think she’s literally losing her mind.

The professor goes looking for Diana at Eleanor’s place, and ends up leaving a message with Greg. The djinn need Diana to make three wishes. He shows her Anne, who wishes to lose weight, which she does.

Diana wishes for the Angel Michael to come down and stop the djinn, and Greg changes into Michael. Turns out, Michael’s a bit of a wimp, and has to run away. Eleanor has a thing for old men, like the professor, and she wishes for him to break her heart. Ouch!

Angel Michael tells Diana that only she can defeat the djinn. He gives the “Sword of Justice,” which is all flamey magical. It burns her, but Michael can fix that.

Billy has a run-in with those horns we saw on the wall earlier. We saw that coming a long way back. The djinn threatens to go after Katie next, who finds what’s left of Billy. She runs to the science lab to hide, where she wishes there was somewhere to hide. The Wishmaster overhears her and puts her in a cage with a bunch of hungry rats.

The professor and Michael fight, and there’s a sort of car chase– and a crash. They all end up on the roof of the dorm, and he yells “Make your wish!” Rather than do that, she jumps off the roof, but the djinn grabs her instead. She grabs the sword and stabs the djinn, and they both fall. She dies, and the djin vanishes back into the crystal. Michael then vanishes, but heals Diana as he goes.

Brian’s Commentary

This is all pretty dull. The djinn is played by a new actor, as the old one wanted nothing to do with it. It’s just another movie with college students getting picked off one by one in not-terribly creative ways. The djinn here is mean and more than a little violent, very different from the one in the previous films.

The gore and special effects are all pretty good, which helps offset the not-so-good acting and plot. There’s just too much running around in the final half hour, and it got pretty boring.

It’s a pretty major step down from the first film, and since it was filmed at the same time as the fourth one, I don’t have high hopes for that one now, either.

Kevin’s Commentary

I went into this fearful of the lack of Andrew Divoff as The Djinn. Trivia says that he was originally planning on reprising the role in part three, wrote a screenplay for the third movie, and presented it to producers. They went with this script instead. He hated it so much he turned it down.

It seemed like the genie wasn’t as constrained by rules this time – something I thought added a lot to the first movie. And the deaths weren’t as interesting.

It was filmed back to back with the fourth movie.

Aaron Smolinski, playing Billy Matthews, was baby Superman in the 1978 movie – the kid holding up the car when the jack slips.

The script does have a decent story, though the pacing is clunky. The special effects and makeup are very good. It’s definitely the weakest of the third films, but I wouldn’t say I hated it.