John’s Horror Corner: Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002), a weirdly pseudo-romantic end to the evil genie franchise

MY CALL: Worst of the franchise. I wouldn’t recommend this. MOVIES LIKE Wishmaster 4: Wishmaster (1997) and Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) are both much better, largely for Andrew Divoff’s ability to appear credibly pleased with his Djinn’s evil. Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001) was nothing special by comparison to the earlier installments.  For a totally zany and great bad 80s movie try the evil genie flick The Outing(1987)–loads of fun.

Director Chris Angel (Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell) returns to bring us the dreaded fourth installment in this series. Some may be shocked that he’d be asked back after seeing part 3. But, much like the Matrix sequels, parts 3 and 4 were filmed back to back with hardly a weekend’s break in between. So don’t be surprised that the make-up for the Djinn looks exactly the same since, well…it is.

Bro: “So you basically had your ruby randomly found and rubbed in part 3, you tried to open the gates of Hell and got defeated, and got banished back to your ruby prison…and THEN, like a day later another girl accidently found and rubbed your ruby AGAIN and released you AGAIN?”

Djinn: “Pretty much, bro.”

Lisa (Tara Spencer-Nairn) is in the middle of a pretty rough patch with her boyfriend, who suffered a crippling motorcycle accident. As with the previous installments she somehow randomly encounters the Djinn’s ruby prison, rubs it (really just touches it) and releases the Djinn (unbeknownst to her). Magically disguised as Lisa’s lawyer, our genie tricks Lisa into making her first two wishes, which include a healthy legal settlement and her husband’s ability to walk again.

This woman is literally orgasmed to death.

If Lisa makes her third wish then all Djinn–oh, yeah, Hell is just brimming with their kind–will be freed and they’ll create Hell on Earth. At this point it should be easy for the Djinn to fool her into making some whimsical wish. No clue why he doesn’t…she still has no idea that he’s actually an evil genie. But wait, there’s a weird twist. When Lisa wishes something the Djinn can’t grant himself, he most dote on her emotions to make her love him…in order to open the gates of Hell…romantic, huh? That’s right! Djinn’s can’t just make someone fall in love with someone else. Evidently the Disney Aladdin genie followed the same rules.

Djinn: “Why won’t you love me?”
Chick: “Dude, you are literally slimy, your hair tentacles look like an STD and you are way too old.”

The execution of the gore is iffy at times. But there are some satisfyingly gross moments like the “face peel” scene typical of the franchise and some genie-wish-induced self-mutilation. We also get to see other Djinn, which was neat I guess.

Overall…meh. I wouldn’t recommend this.

Don’t get mad at me for saying this, but isn’t the Wishmaster franchise about due for a serious remake/reboot? The original isn’t even 20 years old yet and, to this day, is very entertaining and a favorite to gorehounds. But I’d love to see this approached with a real budget (which none of the franchise installments have ever enjoyed) and a far more serious tone. Yes, serious. If it’s not serious then there’s no point in remaking it at all.