Wishmaster (1997)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com January 25, 2024

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is an interesting take on the genie mythos. He’s an incredibly powerful being who is hobbled by the requirement of a wish being made and some rules that he’s obligated to follow, but he still manages to do plenty of bad things. Andrew Divoff is great in the role, both in his monstrous and human form. It’s one that holds up for entertainment value.

Synopsis

Credits roll as we watch someone creating a perfect red gem. In 1127 AD, a ruler asks a djinn to see wonders. He should have been more specific. The people at the party all die in creative and horrendous ways, and he gets to “see” it all. A skeleton pops out of his skin, one guy turns into a snake, and another into a tree, just to name a few. It’s pandemonium. The djinn says all he has to do is wish it away, but after the third wish, the gateway between the worlds will break open, and the djinn will rule. A human wizard pulls out his magic crystal and banishes the djinn into it.

In the present day, Raymond Beaumont goes to the dock to pick up his statue of Ahura Mazda, an ancient Islamic god. The statue falls and kills his assistant, and the gem falls out. It’s soon pocketed by a dock worker who sells it to a pawnbroker.

Josh and Alexandra play tennis and she makes it clear that he lives in the friend zone. She goes to the auctioneer’s place to appraise the gem. She rubs the gem on her shirt and hears, “You woke me.” She passes it on to Josh, who does lab tests on the gem. He shoots it with a laser, and it splits open, blowing the machine apart. The djinn comes out and takes over Josh’s body, which now looks like the monster from “Jeepers Creepers.”

An angry homeless guy runs into the djinn in the alley. He wishes that the pharmacist he doesn’t like would get cancer and die. He does– all very suddenly.

Alex thinks Josh’s death was the fault of her crystal somehow. Her sister Shannon says, “You’re imagining things, just like last time.” We hear the whole backstory about how when they were little, Alex pulled Shannon out of a fire that killed their parents.

Alex goes to see the dock worker who found the jewel in the first place. He gives her some information about the statue that fell. She goes to see Beaumont about the statue, who doesn’t care about his dead assistant, only the broken sculpture. He claims not to know anything about a gem.

The djinn goes to the morgue, blinds the attendant, and steals Josh’s face. Across town, Alex screams and almost faints. Beaumont invites her to a party tomorrow night. He sends her to see Wendy, an expert on the statue in the folklore department. She tells Alex all about the gem, the djinn, and the wizard who imprisoned him in it.

The djinn buys a new suit and calls himself Nathaniel now. He turns the sales clerk into a mannequin. Meanwhile, Alex reads up on djinns and knows how the three-wishes thing works.

Nathan-djinn goes to see Nick, Alex’s boss, to get her address. Nick asks for a million dollars, and the airplane his mother is on explodes after she fills in the insurance form. The djinn then activates his crystal, which pulls the souls out of everyone who’s made a wish.

Alex talks to Wendy again, who says that the world is all rational now, and a djinn would be the only magic in it. Except it’s not Wendy; it’s the djinn in disguise. He reveals himself, and he’s very threatening and demonstrates that he can not die. She wishes to know who he is, so he shows her his world. Then, she wishes to go back to the real world. That’s two!

Alex gets a message that her sister Shannon has gone to Beaumont’s party. Nathan-djinn follows Alex to the party, but the guard outside keeps the djinn busy for a while.

The djinn talks to Beaumont, who wishes he could host a party like the old caliph’s. A woman turns to glass and explodes, sending shards everywhere. All Hell breaks loose. Old statues come to life, as does a painting of Jack the Ripper. The djinn insists, “Make your wish.” Alex thinks for a minute and wishes that the incident at the dock when the statue broke never happened.

The djinn gets sucked back into the gem, and none of it happened. Alex and Josh go out on a date.

Commentary

This one’s just jam-packed with horror actors from the 80s and 90s, but none of them have especially big roles. It’s fun how basic, mundane wishes can be so easily twisted into something nasty.

There’s one CGI effect that looks really bad (the walk-through security guard), but most of the practical effects are really good. It was good enough to spawn three sequels.