Wishmaster (1997) on Netflix
A fire opal reaches an auction house, where appraiser Alexandra Amberson unknowingly wakes a djinn trapped inside. The creature needs three wishes from her to open a doorway for its fellow djinn.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb5.9/1029,311 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes25%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1127, a sorcerer traps a powerful djinn inside a fire opal, stopping it from freeing its kind. In present-day America, a crane operator drops a crate holding an antique statue of Ahura Mazda. A dockworker finds the red stone in the rubble and pawns it. The opal reaches Regal Auctioneers, where appraiser Alexandra Amberson is asked to examine it. She looks inside the jewel and unknowingly wakes the djinn. The creature needs human souls to power the stone, and it needs Alexandra, the person who released it, to make three wishes. Granting the third would open a doorway and let the rest of the djinn onto the earth.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Wishmaster (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film was ordered up by Live Entertainment, which wanted an evil genie it could turn into a franchise monster in the mould of Freddy Krueger. It hired Hellraiser sequel writer Peter Atkins and handed him photocopied encyclopedia entries on djinn mythology to work from.
- Peter Atkins seeded the script with tributes to writers he admired: the surnames Beaumont, Finney, Etchison, Clegg, Derleth, Merritt and Aickman all belong to authors of horror and fantasy fiction.
- Two hidden nods to H. P. Lovecraft sit in the film. The spell that imprisons the Djinn uses the words "Nib Shuggurath", a spoonerism of Shub-Niggurath, and Jenny O'Hara's professor is named for August Derleth, the man who first published Lovecraft in book form.
- Horror fans long claimed makeup legend Tom Savini turns up in the pharmacy scene. Director Robert Kurtzman has said it is not true: the man on screen is simply an extra who happens to look like Savini.
