Wishcraft--A Wish Come True

Directed by Danny Graves

Cast Michael Bower A.J. Buckley Scott Caudill Sara Downing Salim Grant Alexandra Holden Kerry Li Michael Aday Huntley Ritter Zelda Rubinstein Michael Weston

R 97 min

Wishcraft starts out in an innovative fashion--deep within the inner workings of an old Underwood typewriter.

It's only too bad that they can't keep the innovation coming for longer than these first three minutes.

The plot is mind-numbingly simple with cries of "THIS HAS BEEN DONE TO DEATH!!" echoing from the depths of the plastic. I can almost hear the screeching agony coming off the DVD itself. But specifically, what we have here is the tale of the class geek, a man-child pathologically into World War Two history and "reading," in pursuit of the Unattainable Cheerleader Ideal. And of course, to get there, our geekly man-child Brett has to resort to horrifyingly nasty stuff.

A "totem" arrives via mail for Brett, with an anonymous letter inside the packaging saying that it will grant its owner three wishes, and that Brett should be careful just what it is he wishes FOR.

It gets even better when we find out just what the "totem" is.

You've heard of The Monkey's Paw? Well, for Wishcraft, it's The Bull's Penis.

Seriously.

Can you believe this? I'm waiting for Jiminy Cricket to jump out and crank up a chorus of "When You Wish Upon a Schlong."

Now, Wishcraft's strong point is NOT coherence. Right around the same time that old Brett starts making wishes, the high school jocks start dying and being seen to by our local medical examiner. Our local medical examiner also happens to be Zelda Rubenstein. Some of you may remember her from the Poltergeist movies, and she's just as skillful an actress now as she was then.

Wishcraft's STRONG point is the kind of innovation that it can summon up, seemingly out of nowhere. One murder victim is buried to his neck in the ground and struck in the head, full force, by a bowling ball. The opening, as I mentioned before, is a real surprise. Zelda Rubenstein's performance as the local medical examiner. Howie, our comic relief character, is at once crass and deep, giving us excellent comedic value. The sad part is that Wishcraft can't seem to hold it together, dropping tiny pieces of innovation into the bland white expansive of Just Another Teenage Slasher Movie like M&Ms into a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

Even the ending is a surprising departure from the norm, just one more tiny bit of innovation blended in.

Go To Page: 1 2