Director: Robert Kurtzman
Year: 1997
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
Receiving a rare gem at work, a gemologist finds that it contains a powerful genie known as a Djinn that is soon freed and begins targeting her and her friends to make the wishes needed to give it the strength to free its fellow entities, forcing her to try to stop it.
Review:
Overall, this one was quite an enjoyable effort with a lot to really like here. What really works here is the fact that this one really has a lot of fun with the title creature and his powers, which are pretty much constant throughout this. It starts off nicely here with the opening massacre of the old-time court of the different grisly actions befalling the troupe as people get their limbs and bodily features morphed into various monstrosities, a person's skeleton rips itself free of its body, demonic hallucinations and other rather fun encounters here that makes this such a fantastic opening display of his powers which is continued throughout here with a rather nice amount of wish-granting.
The main factor of generating all kinds of twisted fates and occurrences that befall the minor characters he runs into that propels the first half here which not only makes it fun to see how he twists around their wishes but also manages to get this one pretty gory and bloody here in regards to how he kills those is quite appealing here and generates the kind of enjoyment in the plot it makes this one even more fun. Even better, here is the more physical torment unleashed, which provides the kind of action required to help this along.
Scenes like the trip inside the stone to see where he had been imprisoned to show the inner mass of the wailing wall of crying souls, a throne of skulls and twisted stone pieces and the giant monster-like dog that patrols the different hallways and corridors in a pretty chilling sequence, while the finale party here gives this one an incredibly enjoyable end with the absolutely crazy assault on the guests, the numerous chasing around by the various beings under its' control and the fantastic deaths that are a part of the tormenting done against her to force her into action, and to wrap it all up in the manner here of finally trapping it against really gives this one quite a lot to like here.
There's not a whole lot here that doesn't work, which all centers around the first half here which falls into a really predictable manner of meeting up with strangers and changing around their wish to suit him while she experiences the flashing image of the attack, a process itself that comes and goes whenever it's convenient for the story, but the repetition of it all does seem to cause this one some pattern that drops a lot of suspense from the tactic. As well, the joking nature of this one might wear thin for some, but there's not a whole lot that really hurts this one, as beyond that, it's still quite a bit of fun.
Overview: ****/5
Better than it should be with a lot of positive factors, this one comes together incredibly well as one of the finest examples of this particular style, with only a few drawbacks to hold it back. Those with an affinity for this kind of mainstream-ready genre fare, are curious about it, or are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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