Hollywood_Yoda
I found this film sitting in a $3 bin at a Big Lots nearly a year ago. Bored a few nights back, I put it in the DVD player and watched it. I thought it was going to be a bad film that had to do with Satan worshiping. Boy, was I ever wrong! The story is set around a magic "bull dick", which resembles the monkey's paw of yesteryear films. It is the magic of that item and the intelligence of the films cast that make this film spectacular. It turns out that this is a great film to feature Austin Pendleton (Sgt Bilko's Major Ebersole) in a starring role as the teacher, Mr. Turner. Pendleton is best known for playing character roles in most films he appears (Greedy, Distinguished Gentlemen) but this film, he was front and center. The ending was very shocking, I never would have suspected who the killer was. Wishcraft is a fun film that should be enjoyed by adults and children with extreme supervision. Therefore, I gave this film a 9/10 rating. It deserves every bit of it.
quinnox-1
The previous reviewers had it right when they said this movie is a crappy combination of two far superior horror movies - "Wishmaster" and "Scream".The movie is funny in terms of how awful it is, for instance the lead male character is supposed to be a high school boy, but he looks like he is in his late 20's or even early 30's! I swear I thought I saw a little grey hair in some shots. Its absurd. And most of the other supposed high school "kids" are also way older than they are supposed to be.There is nothing more jarring and breaking of realism in a movie than characters where the actors don't fit the roles they are supposed to be playing. Also, the movie doesn't know what it wants to be, a cutesy teen romance or a violent slasher movie.Note to horror fans, the kills are not good, there are very few of them, the gore is wanting, and a lot of the movie consists of silly dialogue and no action.Even the basic premise is a rip off of the movie "Wishmaster", where the characters get three wishes. However, where "Wishmaster" had incredible special effects with an awesome creature and a intelligent, intriguing storyline, "Wishcraft" has none of the elements. ENDING SPOILER The main villain turns out to be not supernatural at all, but an old washed up history teacher at the high school.The only bright spot is Alexandra Holden, who plays the hot cheerleader and the prettiest girl in the school who the male character lusts after. She is good in the role, and it is clear she actually has talent and a brain, and compared to the other actors she comes across as the only professional among a bunch of amateurs.Not recommended even for the most die-hard of horror fans.
MartianOctocretr5
A better than average horror movie which has some elements of teen slasher movies, sinister magic practices, and a mystery killer that is stalking a small town.Some of the conventions of these kind of stories are tossed in as familiar clichés: teacher's pet nerd who likes popular cheerleader, loudmouth idiot jock, smart alek classmates, frustrated science teacher, useless bureaucrats, and other familiar personality types. But the film works somehow in its own weird way. The nerd is sent a magic object (you won't believe what it is), and a note stating he has 3 wishes. He uses the wishes just as you might expect. At the same time, vicious murders of some students commence, and follow the usual teen slasher flick methods.The movie introduces too few characters to effectively conceal the identity of the killer, and also betrays the identity with too many clues. Random scenes that make no sense, and are obviously to establish the motive for the murders. The acting is actually pretty decent for the leads (nerd & cheerleader, although the nerd's bug eyes were annoying to look at), but acting of supporting roles are at a kindergarten level.Fair, and OK if you have nothing better to do.
PeterKurten911
This teen slasher obviously lacks a decent amount of story, since i dropped in halfway & still managed to reconstruct the whole story ( not in the least because all of it was retold in the form of a confession that the Nerd is making to the Pretty Girlfriend ). Whatever. In spite of some good elements, it turned out to be a typical, ordinary member of the genre. In order to sit through it, these are the good elements : - Alexandra Holden - a girl being hung by use of a traffic light - a guy being crushed with a bowling ball - a cool killer outfit - a katana - Viking dart - a teacher handing us our comeuppance
AD
