I'm going to be frank. When I first saw Wishmaster back in 1997, I was greatly impressed. Here was a brave little film that: a) Stayed away from the teen horror genre (hiring hip teens to be butchered left and right) and hired unknowns. b) Was an homage to the splatterfests that haunted the screens from the late 70s to the early 90s (including the Freddy, Jason, and Pinhead films) c) Had some interesting cameos by some of the biggest horror stars, including Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), Kane Hodder (Jason Voorhees), and Tony Todd (Candyman). All you needed was Doug Bradley (Pinhead) and Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface) and you would have a full house! d) Introduced us to a frightening screen villain that joined the ranks of the classics: the Djinn.
What made the Djinn so eerie was his cruel wish-making and, of course, the voice and presence of Andrew Divoff.
When I first heard that they made Wishmaster 3 and Wishmaster 4 together and with a new actor as the Djinn, I was a bit disappointed. How could they replace the best actor to play the Djinn? It's like replacing Doug Bradley and Robert Englund and having Pinhead and Freddy played by Ewan McGregor and Seann William Scott. And when I finally saw Wishmaster 3, my worst fear had come true. I thought that Wishmaster 2 was pretty bad enough, especially with the Djinn design change, but when I saw this one, I was so insulted by it, I started thinking that Wishmaster 2 was a masterpiece.
I had a few main problems with the film.
A) The lame wishes. If the wish was grotesque, it was ridiculous. The exploding heart, grotesque. The professor being ravaged by the demon women, ridiculous.
B) The acting. The actors are talented people, but they acted like they didn't even WANT to be in the movie. A.J. Cook (talented, but bad material), Tobias Mehler (good actor, bad projects (especially that Godforsaken Carrie remake!!!), and Jason Connery (who doesn't seem to have as great an acting capability as his father) just never seem to be believable.
C) The Djinn himself. With Andrew Divoff, even in the most ridiculous scenes imaginable, he always found a way to make the Djinn dark and scary. With John Novak filling his shoes, he's degenerated the Djinn into a second-class jokester (think of Freddy in the later sequels).
D) St. Michael being the Djinn's nemesis? Does this even need to be talked about?
If you want to rent a good horror film, rent either Jeepers Creepers, the original Wishmaster, or Jason X (not 100% horror, but it's much more entertaining), or go to the theaters and see The Ring, Final Destination 2, or Darkness Falls. Just avoid Wishmaster 3: The Sword of Justice (or Beyond the Gates of Hell, whetever the Hell they decide to call it this week) like the plague!
