This is the classic 3 wish from a Djinni set up, although there's a strange twist in which the Wishmaster can actually grant wishes from pretty much anyone and take their souls without really telling them what is going on. He basically goads them into saying they want something. The whole thing is meant to be a wink to the audience, but as a universe with a set of rules it doesn't make sense and the whole enterprise feels curiously like there's no way the Djinn haven't already taken over the world.The central plot is that whomever awakens the Djinni gets 3 wishes and after those are cast all the Djinn take over the earth. Of course, the awakener Alexandra never has to say "I wish" or anything like that and the Djinni can apparently appear as different people and try to trick her into asking for things. Again, the classic wish rules are applied sloppily and as a result it's hard to care about anything that's going on with the plot.Andrew Divoff is the Wishmaster here and he has a unique presence and an indelible voice. He's well cast. There's some awful CGI that hasn't aged well at all, and a lot of the wishes lack top-notch creativity. There are however, two scenes of pure orgiastic destruction that make the watch worth it - statues come to life, people are torn to shreds (one person has his skeleton literally come to life inside his body, it's amazing), chaos and panic ensues. These scenes are meant to show off the prowess of special effects maestro Robert Kurtzman, who's also the director here, and they work. But as a storyteller, he's not at the same level.

Never mind my rating: it's not a good movie, it's a fun movie, same goes with quality chocolate vs a Nestlé chocolate bar or filet Mignon vs a hamburger, one will make you feel complete, the other will satisfy a craving.Let me first start off by saying, this is why I love SOME B-Series horror movies: The acting is poor, the story is seldom believable, the make-up and special effects are acceptable, but the lore is interesting and the story is original, if a lot of moments and events in the movie are obvious rip-offs of other famous horror titles, not to mention a villain with a great sense of humour, literally "killing" his audience and at least it wasn't shot with an "in-story" cameraman afflicted with Parkinson or a week-day afternoon soap shooting.From today's perspective, considering what's on the market, aside from a few jump scares, I would put this more in the odd and frequent genre (in B-series) known as horror-comedy rather then literal horror.What do I mean: a good villain, powerful, a trickster, a master deceiver with witty come-backs and jokes at every kill with killer o-p dialogue (no pun intended), mixed with the bad acting, it's hard to take this movie seriously, which is a good thing.With movies such as the Hellraiser series (never mind the one about that video game based on the Lament Configuration or that last one with the two teenagers on a trip to Mexico (that was awful, to say the least)), the Leprechaun series (one of my personal favorites: so bad it's hilarious, and therefor, good), this movie adds nicely to my collection, where gore is turned into comedy, where horror laughs at itself.For you people out there who have a sick sense of humour and are kind of tired of today's more serious take on life in general medias, this movie will bring enough mixed emotions caught between general amusement and visceral disgust to make you over-look the B-ness and dull plot of the movie.If on the other hand you're looking for something either believable or of decent quality and aren't into cheap jokes, step away from the movie, walk on by and don't look back.With this said, for those of you who *wish (ha-ha) to stick around, enjoy the show and Be careful what you for (duh).

Suffers from the same ailments of all bad horror movies - bad lighting, bad sets, bad acting, bad writing, bad costumes, bad make-up effects and bad directing. Now to be fair the cast of Wishmaster are each and all talented or at least talented enough, but none of that mass of talent really makes it onto the screen. The lighting problem makes it appear as though every scene is shot on a set, instead of the desired intention of having it appear as though the actors exist in a real place. When the characters speak and move it looks fake, forced, the end result is that its obvious everyone is acting. This is a good movie to busy yourself with other tasks while its on. Wishmaster?

Not a bad movie.Craven has his typical moments of horror and unreality, and a wonderful monster who really is a monster in the way he manipulates people.A Djinn is released from an ancient jewel, and starts granting wishes to people who never heard the adage, "Be Careful What you Wish for". Some of those are horror icons Kane Hodder, Tony Todd and Robert Englund.The special effects, just at the beginning of CGI technology, are very effective and the character portrayals are pretty interesting. But what makes this movie work is that Craven manages to deliver the scares with some pretty good timing.Sadly, as we will see, Much like Freddy Krueger, the Wishmaster will eventually find himself in the hands of less talented masters who don't get it.