director
Robert Kurtzman
screenwriter
Peter Atkins
producers
Pierre David
Clark Peterson
Noël A. Zanitsch
cinematographer
Jacques Haitkin
music
Harry Manfredini
editor
David Handman
cast
Tammy Lauren (Alexandra)
Andrew Divoff (The Djinn)
Robert Englund (Raymond Beaumont)
Chris Lemmon (Nick Merritt)
Wendy Benson (Shannon)
Kane Hodder (Merritt's Guard)
Tony Todd (Johnny Valentine)
Ted Raimi (Ed Finney)
Angus Scrimm (Narrator)
Verne Troyer (Creature Stage #1)
Reggie Bannister (Pharmacist)
Joseph Pilato (Mickey Torelli)
Tom Savini (Pharmacist Helper)
mpaa rating: R
running
time: 90m
u.s.
release: September
19, 1997
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
see also:
- Dracula
2000, an even worse film "presented" by wes
craven
|
Wes
Craven may be a fine horror director (A Nightmare on Elm Street,
Scream),
but that doesn't mean he has good taste in the movies he "presents."
Craven's name is splattered all over the ads for Wishmaster,
which he executive-produced while shooting Scream
2. I hope his supervisory chores on Wishmaster
didn't distract him too much from directing his own movie. Evidently
they didn't, because Craven's touch is nowhere to be found in
this tired cheesefest.
The movie is your typical mystical slasher flick in the tradition
of Hellraiser -- unsurprisingly, screenwriter Peter Atkins
worked on three of the Hellraiser sequels. An evil djinn
(genie), released from an ancient gem, goes around telling people
to wish for anything they want. Predictably, their wishes backfire
horribly. A guy wishes for a million dollars; cut to his mother
signing a million-dollar insurance policy before boarding a plane;
cut to the plane blowing up. And so on. Snore. If played as satire,
this could work, but it isn't and it doesn't. And the
be-careful-what-you-wish-for premise has been done to death and
beyond in better horror stories, from "The Monkey's Paw"
to Pet Sematary.
Wishmaster was directed by Robert Kurtzman, better known
(to horror nerds like me) as one-third of the special-effects
make-up team Kurtzman, Nicotero, and Berger. These guys, who
started out on FX master Tom Savini's crew, have done imaginative
work for movies ranging from Jason Goes to Hell to Reservoir
Dogs, and some of their creations here are impressively
twisted. But just as Spawn
-- directed by a former CGI whiz -- was a demo tape for CGI,
so Wishmaster is a portfolio of latex monsters and gory
corpses. Generally speaking, tech guys shouldn't be allowed behind
a camera, because as directors they focus on their specialty
and let the rest of the movie go to hell; if Kurtzman were a
hair stylist, the movie would be called Wigmaster.
The heroine, the improbably named Alexandra Amberson (Tammy Lauren),
is some sort of antiques expert; she also coaches girls' basketball
(huh?) and feels guilty about her parents' death in a fire. Hearing
this, I sighed and sank into my seat. People in horror films
are always haunted by guilt or past traumas; it's in the rulebook.
The way Wishmaster supplies this information is wonderful:
"Oh, by the way, her folks got crisped and she never got
over it. And now -- girls playing basketball." Anyway, Alexandra
is stalked by the Wishmaster (Andrew Divoff), who wants her to
make three wishes. "I wish I could act" apparently
never occurs to her.
Die-hard genre fans may be tempted to endure Wishmaster
to see the cameos by horror stars. The film features Robert Englund
(Freddy Krueger), Kane Hodder (Jason in the last few Friday
the 13ths), Tony Todd (Candyman),
Reggie Bannister and the voice of Angus Scrimm (both from the
Phantasm series). But if, like me, you're such a shameless
horror geek that you actually know who Reggie Bannister is,
you'll know he's thrown away here, as is everyone else.
It's good that Dimension Films (a branch of Miramax) is committed
to horror films, and I like the idea of Wes Craven supporting
the work of new directors. But if you put Wes Craven's name on
a dog turd, that doesn't make it a croissant. Wishmaster
is a lazy slap in the face to horror fans, who expect and deserve
better from the man who directed Scream and the studio
that released it. |
