Taglines: Your next wish could be your last…
Wishmaster movie storyline. A narrator (Angus Scrimm) explains that when “God breathed life into the universe…the light gave birth to Angels… the earth gave birth to man… the fire gave birth to the djinn, creatures condemned to dwell in the void between the worlds.” If a person wakes a djinn, that person will receive three wishes but the third wish will free legions of djinn on Earth.
In 1127, the djinn (Andrew Divoff) asks a Persian emperor to make his second wish. When the emperor wishes to see wonders, the djinn uses his powers to torture and mutilate people in the palace. The emperor is horrified, but the djinn tells him to use his third wish to set things right. Before the emperor can make his third wish, Zoroaster (Ari Barak), a sorcerer, explains the consequences of the third wish and reveals a fire opal, which pulls the djinn inside and traps him.
In present-day America, Raymond Beaumont (Robert Englund) supervises workers lowering a box containing an antique statue of Ahura Mazda onto a ship. The worker (Joseph Pilato) who is operating the crane is drunk and drops the box, killing Beaumont’s assistant (Ted Raimi) and destroying the statue. A dockworker steals the fire opal from the rubble and pawns it.
Eventually the jewel reaches Regal Auctioneers, where Nick Merritt (Chris Lemmon) instructs appraiser Alexandra “Alex” Amberson (Tammy Lauren) to examine it, which wakes the djinn. Alex sees something inside the jewel and leaves it with her close friend and colleague, Josh Aickman (Tony Crane), to analyze. As he is collecting data, the gem explodes, destroying the lab and releasing the djinn. Josh is killed, upon his wish for relief from his physical pain.
Alex tracks the gem to the statue which she tracks to Beaumont, who sends Alex to visit Wendy Derleth (Jenny O’Hara), a folklore professor, who explains the history of the gem and the djinn. Later, Alex learns that the djinn needs to power the gem with human souls and then grant her three wishes before he can open the gateway to release the djinn on Earth. Meanwhile, the djinn takes the form of a dead man and uses the name Nathaniel Demerest.
He grants wishes in exchange for souls while he searches for Alex. Each time the djinn grants a wish, Alex sees troubling visions. She consults Derleth, but realizes that she is talking to the djinn, who has killed Derleth and taken her form. The djinn confronts Alex and offers her three wishes, as well an extra “test” wish; she orders the djinn to kill itself.
Wishmaster is a 1997 American horror film directed by Robert Kurtzman. The film was executive produced by Wes Craven, and is the only film of the Wishmaster series with his name attached. The plot of concerns a djinn, a wish-granting, evil genie entity who is released from a jewel and seeks to capture the soul of the woman who discovered him, thereby opening a portal and freeing his fellow djinn to inhabit the earth.
Wishmaster (1997)
Directed by: Robert Kurtzman
Starring: Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Chris Lemmon, Wendy Benson, Tony Crane, Jenny O’Hara, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Robert Englund, Gretchen Palmer, John Byner
Screenplay by: Peter Atkins
Production Design by: Deborah Raymond, Dorian Vernacchio
Cinematography by: Jacques Haitkin
Film Editing by: David Handman
Costume Design by: Karyn Wagner
Set Decoration by: Barbara Cole
Music by: Harry Manfredini
MPAA Rating: R for horror violence and gore, and for language.
Distributed by: Live Entertainment
Release Date: September 19, 1997
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