Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		1.5

Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 27, 2017

Note: This film is available as part of the Wishmaster Collection.

What would your three wishes be? It’s a time honored game played by a lot of kids, and maybe even some nostalgic adults: pretend you were someone like Aladdin who discovered a genie in a bottle (since that’s where genies supposedly are invariably found), freed it from its confines and then were granted that magic trifecta of desires. Of course any kid worth their salt makes it clear that their third wish is for three more (or infinitely more) wishes, unless the rules have already been proscribed denying that ability. But at least those first two wishes can be fun to contemplate, for those fond of indulging in such episodes of pretend. You might not want to get to that venerable third wish should you find yourself in an environment like that depicted in the Wishmaster series, since part of this film’s conceit is that the djinn (an Arabic term relating to a class of supernatural beings, one of whom is called a djinni, or as it became Anglicized, genie) are basically just waiting to escape their purgatorial (or in fact hellish) universe to invade ours, and that some poor hapless mortal getting to that third wish is the mechanism by which that event can happen. That’s just one way the Wishmaster franchise skews traditional elements of “genie in the bottle” stories, with another one being that very bottle element: in this formulation, the djinn is imprisoned in a jewel, one that (of course) repeatedly falls into the hands of either unwitting innocents or very witting bad guys, all of whom (again of course) unleash the superpowered being into the human realm, with expected calamitous consequences. The first Wishmaster is fun if hokey, augmented by some nice visual effects work, but this is one franchise that definitely experiences the law of diminishing returns as it goes on.

Director Chris Angel jokes in the commentary included on Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled that he began this final installment with a callback to the first film’s opening text crawl and narration so that viewers unaware of the franchise’s mythology wouldn’t need to go back and revisit the earlier films. That may turn out to be a somewhat ironic joke, since the fact is many fans of the Wishmaster franchise (despite its obvious deficits) would probably much rather spend time with the first film than with this (hopefully?) final entry.

In a way, the setup for the final Wishmaster enterprise would seem to provide enough newness to offer a fresh take on the underlying mythology. Couple Lisa (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and Sam (Jason Thompson) buy a cool old Victorian house and seem to be well on their way to happily ever after, but a tragic accident intervenes, leaving Sam seriously disabled and beginning to nurse psychological issues due to his inability to “be a man”. A lawyer named Steven (Michael Trucco) arrives to hopefully save the day, but his obvious attraction to Lisa only further alienates Sam. When that nasty Djinn (John Novak again) is awakened, he dispatches Steven and takes his place, leading to one of the weirdest “romantic triangles” imaginable.

If that general premise is promising, unfortunately its execution is pretty haphazard and unconvincing in Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled. There are some kind of funny moments in this film (some actually intentional, with the Djinn cracking wise at various moments), but there’s very little sense of dread or foreboding. This film, like its immediate predecessor, at least benefits from relatively decent special effects work.

Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films' Vestron Video imprint, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. All four of the films in the Wishmaster Collection are within "shouting distance" of each other, quality wise, but I'm grading this film and the first sequel at 3.5, and the last two at 4.0 to indicate some subtle but noticeable differences between these transfers. Both this film and the third film have a slightly better overall look about them, with excellent saturation and very little of the variability in the grain field, some of which is perhaps due to CGI replacing more traditional optical or composited effects. Detail levels are generally very good to excellent, and this film doesn't exhibit some of the slight contrast variations that the third film does. Some of the FX work in this outing looks great, while other moments have a kind of "not ready for prime time" look about them (see screenshot 6).

Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled features an occasionally robust sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, one that provides intermittently impressive surround activity in a number of the effects heavy sequences, especially in the latter part of the film when the "showdown" scenario is in full swing. This film probably offers the most consistent low end of all four films, with some good rumbly LFE that should please audiophiles. As with all the films in this set, dialogue and score are rendered cleanly and with good prioritization.

Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Chris Angel and cast members Michael Trucco and Jason Thompson


• Audio Commentary with Director Chris Angel and Actor John Novak


• Wishmasterpiece Theater Featurette (480i; 7:13) is a vintage piece which is considerably more amusing than a lot of what happens in any of the films.


• Trailer (480i; 1:21)

Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Somewhat similarly to Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies, Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled starts out rather strongly but then tends to dissipate its energy as it proceeds. This film's setup is arguably among the better of the four films in this franchise, and it could have provided a bit of psychological nuance to the mythology, but instead a too rote and formulaic approach tends to undercut any suspense. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.