Wishmaster (1997)

A demonic djinn attempts to grant its owner three wishes, which will allow him to summon his brethren to Earth.

Director:

Robert Kurtzman

Writer:

Peter Atkins

Stars:

Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Robert Englund

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tammy Lauren	...	Alexandra Amberson
Andrew Divoff	...	The Djinn / Nathaniel Demerest
Robert Englund	...	Raymond Beaumont
Chris Lemmon	...	Nick Merritt
Wendy Benson-Landes	...	Shannon Amberson (as Wendy Benson)
Tony Crane	...	Josh Aickman
Jenny O'Hara	...	Wendy Derleth
Kane Hodder	...	Merritt's Guard
Tony Todd	...	Johnny Valentine
Ricco Ross	...	Lt. Nathanson
John Byner	...	Doug Clegg
George 'Buck' Flower	...	Homeless Man (as Buck Flower)
Gretchen Palmer	...	Ariella
Ted Raimi	...	Ed Finney
Angus Scrimm	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

In the beginning of the times, God created life into universe: light gave birth to angels, earth to men and fire to djin, creatures condemned to dwell in the void between the worlds. One who wakes a djin shall be given three wishes. Upon granting the third, an unholy legion of djins are freed through a doorway between the worlds upon the Earth. In 1127 A.D., in Persia, a sorcerer lures and traps a powerful Djinn in the stone of secret fire. In the present days, a drunken crane operator drops the valuable statue of Ahura Mazda over the assistant of Raymond Beaumont on the harbor, and one worker finds the huge and priceless opal red stone where Djin is seized. Alexandra Amberson, who works in an auction house, receives the stone for evaluation and accidentally awakes Djin. The evil creature is released later, charges the stone with people souls and feeds with their fears, while chasing Alexandra to force to make three wishes and unleash the demoniac fiends upon Earth.

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Plot Keywords:

djinn | wishmaster | demon | reference to houdini | first of series | 

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Taglines:

Your next wish could be your last...

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Genres:

Fantasy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for horror violence and gore, and for language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Wes Craven's Wishmaster

Filming Locations:

Wilmington, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,038,516, 21 September 1997, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$15,719,109, 30 November 1997

Company Credits

Production Co:

Image Organization, Pierre David

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Characters named Finney, Beaumont, Derleth, and Merritt are all references to early twentieth century science fiction or horror writers, Jack Finney, Charles Beaumont, August Derleth, and Abraham Merritt.

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Goofs

In the scene when the camera has a wide shot of the park/play house you can see the camera crane's shadow in the bottom right corner.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[first title card]
Narrator: Once, in a time before time, God breathed life into the universe. And the light gave birth to Angels. And the earth gave birth to Man. And the fire gave birth to the Djinn, creatures condemned to dwell in the void between the worlds. One who wakes a Djinn will be given three wishes. Upon the granting of the third, the unholy legions of the Djinn will be freed to rule the earth. Fear one thing in all there is... FEAR THE DJINN.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits, the Djinn says "Careful what you wish for."

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Alternate Versions

German TV version and some DVDs (rated "Not under 16") are heavily cut for violence, obtaining most of the gore shown in the party-scene near the end of the movie. VHS and DVD releases (rated "Not under 18") are uncut.

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Connections

Featured in The 50 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen (2014)

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Soundtracks

Crossing Rivers
Written by Dito Montiel (as Orlando Monria) and Daniel Hulsizer (as Danny Hulsizer)
Performed by Southpaw
Courtesy of Hit & Run Music

User Reviews

Cheesy fun and special effects-heavy deaths galore

There are two distinct kinds of horror movies; the serious ones, and the not-so-serious ones. Occasionally, a horror film tries to be serious but winds up being... less than serious. Then there are the ones that set out to be cheesy from the start... this is one of those movies. From the very beginning you can tell that this movie was merely made to entertain horror movie fans who like their shocks with a side of humor. There's more gore and deaths in this in just the first five and last twenty minutes(and quite a few in-between, as well) than several other huge gore-fests of horror movies put together. Even better, you get to see no less than three major horror icons in the film. I'm honestly not a huge fan of this kind of movie, but I have to say I found it highly entertaining... if you're in the right mood for it, it may "work" for you(it definitely never strives to be something more or different than what it reveals that it is from the very beginning). The plot is pretty tame, but it allows for plenty of gore and death(and includes one well-known possible consequence of wishing for stuff from a genie). The acting is decidedly poor, either over- or underdone. The dialog ranges, but mostly it's very bad. That works to the film's advantage, so it's no big deal. The pacing really doesn't leave much room for complaining, the film doesn't really let up for a second(it is, of course, quite uneven... Kurtzman is clearly not a director). The film has a short running time and I found it to possess surprisingly high entertainment value, as well. The special effects are great. No way around it. The deaths and gore effects are original and interesting, not to mention amazingly pulled off. Fairly low budget, but it was spent right... mostly on effects, I'd wager. I recommend this to any fan of horror, particularly cheesy horror. If you're into it, you'll love this. Trust me. And be careful what you wish for. 6/10