Being a horror fan sometimes means being able to recognize that a movie isn’t very good but still love it anyway. Wishmaster, released in 1997, isn’t very good. But goddamn do I love it.
Directed by makeup effects artist Robert Kurtzman, Wishmaster was designed to launch a horror franchise and it did just that, spawning three sequels that expanded upon the titular character and ensured that he’d at least be brought up in the same conversations as fellow villains like Freddy, Jason and Pinhead. Despite being introduced in a relatively bad movie, the Djinn very much became a horror icon, which is nothing if not a testament to the charm of Kurtzman’s second directorial outing.
Revisiting Wishmaster, it’s not hard to see why it’s become something of a beloved gem in the horror community. For starters, the practical effects work from the legendary K.N.B. EFX Group is absolutely spectacular, and the whole film is really more a showcase of what the team can do in that department than what Kurtzman can do as a director. In the opening scene alone, a skeleton literally rips itself out of a man’s body, and we also catch a glimpse of a half-snake/half-human creature that probably deserves its own movie. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the multitude of gruesome, ’80s-style effects on display in Wishmaster, which set it apart from most other late-’90s horror films.
In addition to the memorable effects, there’s just so much ambition and creativity on display in Wishmaster, and a good deal of that creative credit must be given to writer Peter Atkins (Hellbound: Hellraiser 2) for fleshing out such a fun new horror villain. Of course, both film and villain are nothing without the deliciously creepy performance from Andrew Divoff, who is so good as the Djinn’s human and inhuman incarnations that he proves himself worthy of standing alongside all the iconic horror actors he shares the screen with.
And it’s the cast of Wishmaster that we’re here to shine the spotlight on today.
A handful of horror movies that have come along in recent years have been billed as “The Expendables of Horror,” which really just means that their casts are mostly comprised of faces and names instantly recognizable to us horror fans. First there was Smothered, starring icons like Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley and R.A. Mihailoff, and upcoming film Death House is going even heavier on the Expendables influence – the cast includes pretty much every iconic horror actor you can think of. But decades before stunt-casting became so popular in the genre, Wishmaster showed how much fun oodles of cameos could be.
Some seriously respectable creative forces were behind Wishmaster, including Wes Craven (executive producer), Harry Manfredini (composer), and the aforementioned Peter Atkins (writer), and the roster of talent in front of the camera is every bit as impressive. Kurtzman scooped up all the top names in horror at the time, giving horror fans yet another reason to look past many of Wishmaster‘s problems and just plain have a good time with it.
Let’s take a closer look at that cast.
ROBERT ENGLUND AS RAYMOND BEAUMONT
KANE HODDER AS MERRITT’S GUARD
TONY TODD AS JOHNNY VALENTINE
ANGUS SCRIMM AS THE NARRATOR
TED RAIMI AS ED FINNEY
REGGIE BANISTER AS THE PHARMACIST
JOESEPH PILATO AS MICKEY TORELLI
As Bloody’s own Daniel Baldwin recently pointed out in his retrospective piece on Wishmaster, the Pazuzu statue from The Exorcist even makes a cameo appearance in the film!
Yea, Wishmaster was totally “The Expendables of horror” long before it was cool to be. And that’s just another reason why it’s almost impossible to not love it. Flaws be damned.