Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
The Djinn, having been released from his ancient prison, seeks to capture the soul of the woman who discovered him, thereby opening a portal and freeing his fellow Djinn to take over the earth.
Wishmaster is a mid-tier late-90s horror curiosity elevated by its distinctive premise — a malevolent Djinn granting wishes with grotesque, literal-minded cruelty — and a fun array of genre cameos (Robert Englund, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder). The concept is genuinely fresh for the era and the gore set-pieces show some imaginative craft in cinematography and practical effects. However, the plot is thin and formulaic once the novelty of the Djinn's wish-perversion gimmick wears off, the acting is largely wooden outside the villain, and the ending is anticlimactic and rushed, failing to capitalize on the buildup. It remains a memorable cult artifact rather than a fully realized horror film.