The Wisher (2002)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The first must-see film of the year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

After watching a cursed horror movie, a teenager begins to think that the killer from the film is stalking her and making her wishes come true, forcing her and her friends to find a way of stopping the maniac before it kills them all.This turned out to be a somewhat entertaining and enjoyable slasher that's got some good stuff working for it. Most of this in the sense of being completely unsure where it'll go. From the fact that there's a degree of uncertainty about the events going on, from the fact that rather than just out-right kill the victims this one tends to just warp a saying from the heroine, which makes for some pretty good times once the revelation is made, as well as generate some fun in the stalking before it comes when the pattern is just starting out. As well, there's a lot of decent stalking to be found within, and the finale in the house is superb which features a lot of great, chilling moments hammered home by the killer's creepy-looking mask and a fair amount of gore in the kills. As is usually the case, the film it's based upon is pretty interesting and enjoyable, and only a rather lame subplot about her dreams and a weak ending lower this one slightly. Still, it's a pretty good slasher effort overall.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.

I love this movie! I was renting movies with my sister and she wanted to get this one but I said no because I thought it would be stupid but I'm really glad she got it! This film is scary, classic, thrilling, fun, and intense! When I first saw it I was scared out of my mind. Their are a lot of intense scenes and a lot of scary and classic stalking moments. And all of the intense scenes are highly unexpected and jump up and scream scary! I'm just really mad because the store I rented this at no longer carries it!:( And I can't find any store that sells it!:( Too bad. I highly recommend this film! It's really fun and classic and a huge suspenseful "what going to happen next??!!" thrillingly film! After I saw this I was too afraid to look out of my window and look up at my huge tree in my yard! I was also afraid to sleep so I left the TV on!

Horror loving, sleepwalking teen. Mary (Liane Balaban) begins to see the serial killer from the latest horror flick she's seen, "The Wisher" in her every day life. When her friends start getting sliced and diced, it's up to her to put a stop to the monster. But is it all in her head, something supernatural, or something a tad more mundane? This Canadian film is pretty highly derivative of "Nightmare on Elm Street", alas star Balaban is just not in the same league as Heather Langenkamp and the main 'baddie' is definitely no Robert Englund. As such this film becomes a chore to sit through. Strictly technically speaking it's an all right movie (it's shot adequately) But it's mundane, derivative, lame storyline sinks the film.Eye Candy: Melissa Repka gets topless My Grade: D

High school student Mary is having nightmares and sleepwalking. Since she is falling asleep during the day, a teacher sends her to counselor Campbell. He is most concerned about her sleepwalking, which is dangerous.Mary says she enjoys being scared. In fact, she compares it to being sexually aroused. Strangely enough, we never actually see this. She seems to react to being scared the way most of us would.Mary's best friends are Debbie and Kara. She seems perfectly normal with them, though I was expecting a more withdrawn teen like, say, Carrie. A Plain Jane (but still attractive), she wants Brad to be her boyfriend, but he prefers Mandy, who is mean and dresses like a bimbo. Mary's father Jake is overprotective and not particularly sympathetic. Her mother Kelly seems more caring, and she has a younger sister Beth who needs to be shielded from inappropriate material on TV.The hot movie is called 'The Wisher'. It is so controversial that it is being banned by some communities because of the copycat behavior it inspires. The movie is not very good, but the teens in the theater seem to like it, and the visual effects and violence may be the redeeming quality, if there is one. Mary goes with her friends, but that may not have been such a good idea.After the movie, Mary keeps seeing the villain from 'The Wisher', or at least someone who looks like him. And tragedies start to happen in her life when she is awake. In the process of investigating just what is going on, Mary is fortunate to be friendly with movie projectionist Shane.I don't like movies that are too scary, and this one really wasn't most of the time. There were some creepy scenes with appropriate music (or what sounded sort of like music but seemed not of this world). The kids seemed to like alternative rock music of the style that sounds like demons, such as that used with the opening credits. But no one here was really 'goth'.I liked Mary right away once she went into her first counseling session. I've never heard of Liane Balaban, and most of her movies appear to be Canadian-made and not familiar to Americans. But she did a capable job most of the time and I'd like to see more of her. Mary was actually a very determined character and not at all like I was expecting.Ron Silver also did a reasonably good job. There wasn't really anything outstanding here, but for the type of movie, I found it entertaining. The town is never named, but a fire truck says 'Regina Fire Dept.', though the community is referred to as 'a small town'.One weakness (I guess they figure we were lazy, but it could have been more realistic): I've always heard that downloading movies takes a lot of time. Someone in this film downloaded a movie on the Internet and was able to fast-forward through it and watch parts of it in the time it would take most regular web sites to appear. A little extra effort to make it look like real downloading, with some editing and frustration, wouldn't have hurt.It was okay, but nothing spectacular.