Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999)

Movie Info

For the love of God, just say “I wish for ___”

A botched museum robbery unleashes the djinn (Andrew Divoff) again who immediately finds himself in prison.  First, he must escape prison and then the prophecy must be completed which means Morgana (Holly Fields), the woman who freed him, making her wish.  As Morgana tries to redeem herself from her sins with the help of her priest friend Gregory (Paul Johannson), the djinn finds himself trapped in the prison system…where every wish and dream means more power to him!

Directed by Jack Sholder, Wishmaster 2:  Evil Never Dies is a made-for-TV horror film that later went to DVD.  The movie is a sequel to Wishmaster from 1997 and received largely negative reviews.

I didn’t like Wishmaster that much when I saw it.  The goofy nature of the movie couldn’t really find its balance between comedy and horror and primarily served as a means to have horror veterans make cameos.  Despite the bad reviews, I did feel that Wishmaster 2 was slightly better…but still a dull boring film.

Seriously, dude, I wished to meet Jesus, not be Jesus…you need to get hearing aids

I kind of liked the prison setting of Wishmaster 2, and the struggle of the djinn to get people to make actual wishes in this film.  When the movie dares to actually do a scene where a lawyer “f*@#s himself”, it seemed to have more fun with the concept than the original film.  The movie isn’t scary and that is a problem for a horror film…but I don’t particularly find genies scary so that wasn’t ever going to be an issue for me.  This movie decided to just have more fun.  The story is bogged down however by the actual story with Morgana and Gregory trying to stop the djinn and the whole ending sequence in the casino.

I like Andrew Divoff better in this film as the evil djinn.  He is the star of the film but not nearly to the level of someone like Robert Englund who he must emulate since he is a “talky” killer unlike Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees.  I did like his frustration to get people to wish and found it a bit more truthful to real life since you rarely hear people actually utter “I wish______”.  It is kind of fun how the movie gets around it.

I wish that this crazy critter had stuck around longer

I like the djinn’s design and the movie’s special effects really hinge around him.  The movie (other than the primary creature) look rather weak.  The movie doesn’t do a good job to look like reality in regards to things like the casino and “Hell” isn’t as terrifying as it should be.

Wishmaster was a bad franchise and despite liking Wishmaster 2:  Evil Never Dies slightly more than Wishmaster, both movies just never connected with me.  A big aspect for a horror film is at least some jumps and Wishmaster doesn’t provide…yes, it does provide some laughs, but the laughs can only carry the movie so far.  Despite the bad reviews, Wishmaster 2:  Evil Never Dies is followed by Wishmaster 3:  Beyond the Gates of Hell in 2003.

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Related Links:

Wishmaster (1997)