Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999)

15 November 2020

I don't really have high hopes for horror sequels - usually they're cheap byproducts hanging onto the coattails of the originals. Sinister 2 (2015) was a very recent memory of this, and it wasn't very enjoyable to watch. Cut to the Wishmaster sequel - starring Andrew Divoff continuing his presense as the title character, this film quickly regresses into "evil Jinn doing evil Jinn things".

This story takes a different path than the first version, which felt purposeful and was probably the only good thought made when starting this film. The story then quickly diverges from things established in the original: a character "wishes he'd never been born" but is still referenced as the story continues (whereas the first film had some retconning); a local priest and thief have better luck with finding ancient lore than an appraiser and historian did last film; soul aquisition seems to have very different rules and quotas between films. The horror is less creative and kinda cheap when compared to the previous film: there's some CG overlay but other than that it seems like a smaller budget effort. There's a few moments of quirky humor, but I found what was in the original film more entertaining.

Story's pretty dull - and at 96 minutes this film seems much, much too long. If you spliced some of the menacing Divoff looks from this film into the first, and threw this movie in the trash you'd improve the results of both. Although I think some of the acting may be salvageable (with a lot of work), the story is so bland that you'll wish you didn't watch it, even if it costs your soul. 2/10