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 (Andrew Divoff) 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 (Robert Englund) on the harbor, and one worker finds the huge and priceless opal red stone where Djin is seized. Alexandra Amberson (Tammy Lauren),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.

The gore and funny "Wishmaster" is good horror movie, with original deaths, great special effects (1997) and a refreshing story. Andrew Divoff, presently working in "Lost", is great in the role of the evil, witty and cynical Djin; the blonde Tammy Lauren performs a smart and clever character, following the Djin's advice ("- Make a wish, but think first") and luring and tricking the demon with her intelligence; and there is homage to horrors movie, with the participation of Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund and Tony "Candyman" Todd. I have watched this film at least four times along ten years and it is still one of my favorites in the genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Mestre dos Desejos" ("The Master of the Wishes")

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

There is no bias in any way against horror. Quite the contrary, and have always actively made an effort not to show any bias against any genre (likewise with towards too) in order to be fair-minded. Even if there are more films that aren't my cup of tea in one genre. Horror is not my favourite of all the numerous film genres, but do still highly appreciate it. It has its fair share of classics with some deservedly iconic characters but has an equal number of misfires.

Was not quite sure what to make of 'Wishmaster'. Was reasonably entertained, it will be said, and there are good things that stop it from being a mess, but would hesitate to call it a good film let alone a classic as there in my mind are a good deal of things to criticise it for. Can see why there are people who have affection for it, at the same time the easy target for criticism is understandable as things here that have been known to annoy even the most open minded of film reviewers are here. Will say though that as far as the 'Wishmaster' franchise goes, this is the best and most watchable one by quite some way from personal opinion.

Lets start with the good things. For low-budget, some aspects don't look too bad. Some of it looks reasonably slick and could tell that some effort had been made doing the special effects as some do look decent and are used creatively. The kills are also pretty inventive visually and in methods, not coming over as too predictable. The skeleton coming out the flesh was a standout in terms of memorable moments. There are moments that amuse and jolt and there is an element of affectionate nostalgia seeing horror icons Robert Englund, Kane Hodder and Tony Todd show up and not in a way that's squandered and its 1980s slasher throwback feel.

Music score may not enhance what happens, but it doesn't detract, didn't intrude or be too obvious and had its haunting moments. The best thing about 'Wishmaster' is Andrew Divoff, both fun to watch and suitably malevolent.

Did feel however that Tammy Lauren was a bit bland in the lead role and the character failed to be well developed or worth rooting for, not because she was annoying or anything but more that the character was sketchy and dull. Not all the production values are great, with some other effects being shoddy and rushed-looking and a good deal of the film has a dreary carelessly put together look. The direction isn't amateurish but doesn't really do anything special and it felt somewhat uninspired.

It's the script and story where 'Wishmaster' fares least successfully. It is very difficult keeping a straight face hearing a lot of the dialogue, which came over as excessively cheesy and stilted. The story had a promising set up and started off reasonably but then felt over-stretched too early, further suffering from a limp pace, the second half drags badly, and favouring overuse of sometimes gratuitous over-gruesome gore (that also looked cheap) over any tension and suspense, neither of which there was anywhere near of. When there is no nail-biting, palm-sweating or heart-pounding, apart from the odd jolt, there is something wrong. It wasn't stupid, intelligence insulting or unintentionally comical that were the problems, it just felt too dull and bland.

Overall, something of a mixed bag here. 5/10