Due to unforeseen circumstances I have had to repost some of my older reviews until further notice. We will get back to The Children of the Corn soon enough!
There are key movies in my life that helped to make me who I am today. Movies that I have loved from the moment the opening credit rolled and still love now. This blog series is about those, My guilty pleasures, my favorites, my escapes. Some were very popular, others not so much. Some of these will have some real life take-aways, others are just for fun.
Continuing our journey through the films of Wishmaster we come to the third entry in the series, one that I am not sure that I have ever seen. So, like some of the other series I have covered on here we will treat this one more like a ‘New Movie Review’, which honestly isn’t much different except I wont have any fun memories of it that I normally like to share. Anyhow, this is Wishmaster 3 Beyond the Gates of Hell.
Today’s Key Movie:
The Djinn returns with his sights on a young college student attending Baxter University in his latest attempt to do whatever it is he plans on doing. Escaping? Bringing about Hell on Earth? Killing people in horrible ways? yeah, that.
Why this movie?
With Wishmaster 2 being a direct to tv flop that took the franchise literally nowhere, the third entry didn’t have a chance at a theatrical release either and was given the Direct to Video treatment which could either mean it was absolute trash or actually halfway good. Unfortunately, the only real good thing the second had going for it, the Djinn as portrayed by Andrew Divoff, isn’t even in this entry as Andrew opted out probably because he know how bad this could be.
So, we come to part three which well, isn’t really much better. More akin to something from USA Up All Night or late-night ‘skinemax’, Wishmaster 3 tries hard at absolutely nothing. After the really long and rather tedious opening we are treated to a new Djinn who has been locked in yet another ancient artifact that contains yet another red gem. He, of course, escapes after Diana Collins unknowingly frees him from his slumber binding her to him so she must be the one who makes the final wishes. Before she does that, he collects his souls by killing people who foolishly make wishes not knowing that he will twist the wishes to serve himself. So basically the same plot as the last two films only put in a college where hijinks can ensue. Oh and there is some weird subplot where the Djinn is battling an angel or something. I don’t know, this train was off the rails the moment the coal was ignited.
Now, even low budget there is always a chance that it could be ‘good’ still, heck some of my favorite movies are low budget flicks that manage to still tell a good story. Unfortunately, Wishmaster 3 is basically a low budget soft core porn with horror tropes randomly dropped in and all of the budget spent on the creature makeup which looks cheap and kinda lame. Heck, not even the actors can pull off their parts with dead pan delivery coupled with obvious mistakes such as a dead person blinking when he has his face removed by the Djinn. It’s bad and not in a good way.
This isn’t a good film, but is it redeemable in any way?
I really wish I could say it is but there is very little in this sequel that has any chance for redemption. It’s a movie that really deserves to be buried in the bottom of a dollar store video bin waiting to go on clearance. This is the kind of movie that was made to be riffed by Mystery Science Theater or Riff Traxx. Honestly, that is the only way Wishmaster 3 is worth watching, if you are with friends making fun of it.
The only thing that is halfway interesting is that this movie actually makes it a point to show that this is not the same Djinn as what appeared in the first two films implying that there are many Djinns trapped in red Gems hidden around the world waiting to be freed. This could be one of the ‘brethren’ the last Djinn had planned to free and that would have been a cool tie in but, no, sadly this Djinn isn’t even very clever. In fact, he’s pretty basic for a magical creature.
One of the biggest issues with this movie is that, outside of being poorly written, terribly acted and cheaply made, the Djinn in this one doesn’t play by the rules established in the previous two films. I mean, yeah, the previous Djinn ran fast and loose with them in the last one but he never quite cheated but this one, well, he just goes even further making wishes go horribly wrong but not in any real clever way, just in violent rather odd ways. Like, one guy wishes for love from two women and they start tearing at him and killing him for no real reason, another person wishes that her files would burn up and instead she does. Djinn wish fulfillment should be twisted versions of what the wisher wants not just ‘hey you made a wish so you die’, that’s not interesting in the least.
Bottom line, this movie is a prime example of when filmmakers should learn to stop making sequel after crappy sequel thinking they just might make something halfway good. Seeing that the previous entry was pretty bad, they could have just stopped there and Wishmaster might have been remembered fondly. The sad thing is, they didn’t even stop with part three as we still have one more to watch…heaven help us.
OK, where do I get this movie?
Honestly, I got bored of this movie in the first ten minutes as there was nothing intriguing going on. I probably would have turned it off but then I couldn’t review it for you so consider this me doing you a favor. This isn’t even so bad it’s good, it’s just bad. If you like torturing yourself and still want to watch this one, just rent it here and grab a stiff drink while youre at it. You might need it.
I am really not looking forward to part 4 but how can I stop now right? So tune in next week when we review WISHMASTER: THE PROPHECY FULFILLED!!
Late To The Game 2/7/2022 (05/13/2021)
If you would like to read more reviews please check out the rest of the Key Movies Of My Life that comes out every Thursday.
For more retro TV goodness check out the rest of the Retro TV Reviews here. and, If you dig Music, I have a semi regular series called Stand Out Albums that covers some of my favorite records I have come across in life.
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