Wishmaster

A curious discovery frees a bound djinn rather than a myth gone dormant. The imprisoned spirit sees Alexandra Amberson, the woman who found him, as the key to a portal that could unleash his kin on the world. He grants wishes, but each wish twists into danger and desperation, feeding off human flaws. As the danger escalates, friends and lovers scramble to limit the damage while a sinister bargain lurks behind every seemingly harmless desire. The tension comes from how ordinary wishes spark extraordinary consequences, forcing the heroine to confront the true cost of power without revealing how things unfold later.

Released in 1997, Wishmaster was directed by Robert Kurtzman with a story by Peter Atkins. The film blends practical creature effects with neon midnight city imagery to create a tactile sense of dread, and it introduces the Djinn as a seductive danger in horror.

Wishmaster earned a worldwide gross of $15,738,769 against a modest budget of $5,000,000, which in genre terms translates to a solid return for a mid tier horror release. The numbers helped justify the film's pace and tone to producers and audiences alike.

Cultural echoes of Wishmaster show up in later horror that toys with wishes and bargains. The film helped cement the Djinn as a compelling horror antagonist in 1990s cinema and spawned several sequels, expanding the myth beyond a single feature. Its memorable visuals of the djinn's shimmering, dangerous counterclaims linger in fans' minds and influence practical effects choices in subsequent genre entries.

Critics tended to split on its storytelling, yet many praised the practical effects, the design of the Djinn portrayed by Andrew Divoff and the way the film turns every wish into a hazard. Thematically it probes desire, consequence, and the slippery line between wish fulfillment and ruin, delivering thrills without overexplaining.