Wishmaster should be up there with the great horror movies, and I’m tired of pretending that it shouldn’t…
Horror has no shortage of iconic villains. Freddy, Jason, Michael, Leatherface – these handsome boys are household names, even if the scariest film you’ve seen is Hubie Halloween. A good baddie can carry a franchise for decades – for better or worse.
So with that in mind, why doesn’t Wishmaster get more love? The Djinn had everything needed to be a true horror icon. A gleefully evil, smooth-talking monster who grants wishes in the most creatively cruel ways imaginable, the Djinn should have been up there with the greats. Instead, Wishmaster was largely forgotten outside of die-hard horror circles.
Even I hadn’t really hadn’t given it a go before I recently watched it on a whim. And that’s a damn shame, because this movie is an absolute blast. It’s got some of the best practical effects of its era, a comic con’s worth of horror acting legends, and a villain who chews the scenery so hard you can practically hear the drywall crumbling.
So let’s talk about Wishmaster. Let’s talk about why it’s so good, why it deserves more love, and why, despite its issues, it remains one of the best 80s movies to release in the 1990s. Let me explain…
The movie kicks off in ancient Persia, where we’re immediately treated to a deliciously brutal show of the movie’s effects. It’s worth mentioning now that Wishmaster was directed by Robert Kurtzman, the man responsible for the special effects in films ranging from Predator, to the massively underrated Bubba Hotep. And he wastes no time showing off his craft.
The Djinn—an ancient, evil genie with a knack for twisting wishes—has convinced a Persian emperor to make a wish, which of course results in… this. Skeleton boy, wall boy, lizard boy! What more could you want? It’s the kind of over-the-top opening that lets you know exactly what kind of movie you’re in for. But before the Djinn can complete his plan and bring his fellow Djinn into the world and presumably take over, a sorcerer traps him inside a mystical opal, locking him away for centuries.
Fast forward to present-day America (well, 1997), and that very opal ends up in the hands of Alexandra Amberson (Tammy Lauren), a friend-zoning gemologist who unknowingly releases the Djinn from his prison. From that moment on, it’s a proper game of cat and mouse.
The Djinn decides to harvest the face of someone equal parts handsome and creepy, and starts going round granting wishes as Nathaniel Demerest. But naturally they all have naughty, ironic twists. A shopkeeper wishes for eternal beauty? She’s turned into a mannequin. A man wishes to “escape” a situation? He gets fused into a wall and suffocates. And in one of the best kills, a bouncer tells Demerest he’d love to see him “go through” him—so the Djinn literally walks through him, turning the poor guy into a pile of gore.
Also, in old UDS videos I got heat for putting vocal fry at the end of my sentences, but this guy? This guy makes it work.
Anywho, despite having fun torturing a bunch of randoms, the Djinn needs three wishes from Alex to fully break loose. But he doesn’t seem to be in any real rush, so he spends most of the film tormenting her, using her friends and loved ones as leverage.
Unlike a lot of horror protagonists, Alex actually has some brains and spends the movie trying to figure out how to stop him. She meets up with this high school teacher that gives her the necessary exposition dump on the Djinn, and she even tries to use the whole ‘I wish you would kill yourself’ trick. But obviously that’d be too easy, and a good job too, because how could I live knowing I’m missing lines like this.
And that’s the thing. First and foremost, the movie is fun. Horror in the late ‘90s was in a weird place. Scream had just reinvented the slasher genre with its self-aware meta-humour, and J-horror remakes like The Ring and The Grudge were still a few years away. Wishmaster feels like a real throwback, both aesthetically and tonally. I’m not saying it looks dated technically by 1997 (far from it), but it feels like the sort of thing you’d watch in a double bill with Hellraiser. And I love it for that.
Andrew Divoff is the real MVP here. His portrayal of the Djinn is one of the most underrated horror performances of the decade. He delivers every line with this sinister, theatrical delight, like a demonic game show host who loves watching people screw themselves over. Basically bizarro world Craig Charles on Takeshi’s Castle.
His human form, Nathaniel Demerest, is just as unsettling—he’s charming in that “you know something is off” way, making him even creepier. If Freddy Krueger is a sadistic prankster, the Djinn is a sleazy car salesman who really enjoys loopholes.
And then there’s the cast. Like I said, Wishmaster is practically a horror convention in movie form. Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th), Tony Todd (Candyman), and even Phantasm’s Angus Scrimm (who narrates the opening) all show up. These aren’t just throwaway cameos, either—they’re fun little nods to horror fans, making Wishmaster feel like a love letter to the genre.
Also Captain Henry Rhodes himself, Joseph Pilato, is responsible for setting the whole plot in motion. Honestly, if we had a series called “Actors Who Deserve More Love”, he might not be top of my list, but he’d be up there for sure.
And we can’t talk about Wishmaster without mentioning the special effects. This was the late ‘90s, right before CGI started taking over everything, and you can tell the effects team had fun with this one. The kills are gloriously grotesque, with enough body horror to make David Cronenberg proud. Skeletons bursting out of bodies, people mutating into statues, a guy’s face literally being torn in half. Sure it does have some real cheesy CGI in there too, but I think enough time’s past for it to be considered charmingly kitsch.
Wes Craven was attached as a producer, which definitely helped give the movie credibility, even if by all accounts he didn’t actually do anything. And fun fact: Wishmaster was the last movie shot by cinematographer Jacques Haitkin, who also worked on the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. Yes, I too read IMDB trivia.
Look, Wishmaster won’t be for everyone. The dialogue is cheesy, the acting (outside of Divoff) is hit-or-miss, and the sequels… well, the less said about Wishmaster 3 and Wishmaster 4, the better. But the original movie is an absolute blast. It’s creative, gory, and never takes itself too seriously. It’s the kind of horror movie best watched with friends, a few drinks and everyone trying to do the Djinn voice.
So if you’ve never seen it, fix that immediately. And if you have seen it, maybe it’s time for a rewatch. Horror has plenty of great villains, but there’s only one Djinn. And if you still don’t think Wishmaster deserves more love? Well… be careful what you wish for.
But what did you think of Wishmaster? Please let me know in the comments below, I’d love ot read your thoughts. And while you’re down there, don’t forget to like and subscribe for plenty more videos on all things film and TV, check out our video game channel UDS Gaming, and you can always visit upsidedownshark.com to keep up with everything else we’ve got going on.
Until then my name is Tom, this has been UDS and we’ll see you next time. Bye!
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Tom Baker
I like Star Wars, heavy metal and BBQ Pringles.
