The most telling line from Wishmaster is from a brief monologue spoken by the evil djinn (sounds like "gin"), in which he tells his victim, "Tell them there is something which feeds on wishes… But tell them quickly, while you still have a soul." That line sums up the premise of the entire movie, and if that seems lame to you, you're, well, right. Besides this premise, Wishmaster's raison d'être seems to be the showcasing of numerous scenes of carnage and gore in an attempt to please the avid horror geeks of the world, but few others. You can only take pleasure in imagining the gleam in the eyes of the special-effects people being extinguished by the mountain of celluloid which had to wind up on the cutting-room floor in order for Wishmaster to keep its R rating. Scenes which probably looked great before the edits now look like a cluttered mess of undefined blood and mutilations. Several other warning signs early on telegraph the trouble to come: There's a spoken/written introduction urging us to "beware the djinn"; the heroine, Alex Amberson, has the worst horror-movie name you could imagine; and the whole thing is shot without taking advantage of the full screen, as if director Robert Kurtzman shot Wishmaster expecting it to go straight to video. It's a wonder that Wes Craven, basking in newfound respect from Scream, attached his name to this, if only in the capacity of executive producer.