Format: Streaming video from Tubi TV on the new internet machine.
For many a horror movie, the difference between success and failure comes down to the quality of the monster. The Hellraiser franchise would be nothing without Pinhead. More specifically, it would be much less without Doug Bradley’s specific interpretation of Pinhead. The same is true of Robert Englund and Freddy Kruger. I like Jackie Earle Haley as much as the next guy, but there’s a reason that the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street isn’t considered that interesting, and the fact that Englund isn’t playing Freddy is a part of that. This is one of the main things that Wishmaster got right. This is not a particularly scary movie or even a particularly good one, but casting Andrew Divoff in the role of the djinn is an absolute triumph of casting.
We get an opening scene to more or less introduce us to the idea of a djinn, and it’s here that we’re introduced to the basic premise of the film. The idea is that we tend to think of genies in terms of, say, Disney’s Aladdin, but the ancient stories are much more vicious. Djinn are creatures that must serve when commanded, but will always strive to grant wishes in the worst way possible, a sort of malevolent and consciously evil monkey’s paw. The story that the film wants to put forth is that someone who releases a djinn can receive three wishes, but upon the third being granted, all djinn are able to freely enter the mortal world and, more or less, destroy humanity.
