Wishmaster (1997)

15 November 2020

Amazon Prime Video has the first two Wishmaster movies available for free, so I figured I'd give the first ones a shot, see how they are. The first, from 1997, turned out to be a campy film with a lot of choppiness to it (the first half hour felt pretty all over the place - with flashbacks, and short scenes flipping around to the main characters and story). However, there were some things I found entertaining here.

First, it had some amazingly average acting going on: it enlisted Robert Englund (the Freddy Krueger actor), Angus Scrimm's narration (Tall Man from The Phantasm), Andrew Divoff, and Wendy Benson-Landes. None of its earth-shattering, and sometimes it's downright comical (the protagonist fainting and always brushing it off to everyone is particular silly, and the Jinn's wish-fulfilling feels like the equivalence of dad jokes with a horror twist). Additionally, its horror is 90s-dated. Since this was before the big switch to CG you can definitely see some strange effects in the movie: a lot of makeup/animatronics, costumes galore, and some rare computery flare for garnish.

Generally I thought it was amusing and original. It's really nothing to write home about, but if I wanted to watch some B-movie level horror, I could be pursuaded to throw it on if it was free. 6/10