An Exercise In Nonsense

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I'll start with the spoiler first: Girl has some sort of psychic connection with horror movies and after a few contrived scenes, she develops the ability to say "I wish" XXX would happen, and then it does. I wish she had made the wish for me to not spend my time on this terrible, terrible, terrible flick. Don't get me wrong--I am a fan of bad horror flicks. I am not a fan of this one. But, to be honest, I only made it halfway through. I had the movie on in the background while I was working. Perhaps during the second half of the movie, Wisher/Spliced became the Citizen Kane of B-horror films. But I doubt it. Citizen Kane had the suspense til the end; we found out that Rosebud was a sled. There's no suspense til the end of this movie; you'll find out that it sucks rocks early on.

The first time i watched The Wisher was when i was 10. I was at home watching it by myself. No offense but i have seen more frightening movies before that. Im now 12 turning 13 in December but i still like the movie. I classify this movie as one of my favourites with: Underworld, Underworld 2, Vanhelsing, Cursed and many other movies Alian 1 - 3 are kind of my favorites but they aren't scary either. I started watching "scary" movies when i was fairly little and still like watching them. I gave The Wisher seven out of ten because it is fairly good and a bit surprising but is not perfect. Plus i never say anything is perfect because there is normally always something better. The person who was the wisher was kind of surprising but the director put in a bit too many clues like when the girl said "i wish she knew how pretty she really isn't" or something like that it was kind of obvious when the guy said "who". Otherwise it was OK.

This flick is an attempted allegory and seems meant to mean something beyond the usual cheap, demented thrills sought by true slasher movie fans. So, if you're into breasty young things getting their bodies mutilated as some sort of cathartic reaction to changing gender roles, this film is not for you.On the other hand, if you like films that leave you in a "hmm..." state of mind, this is more your cup of tea. It is, unfortunately, hampered by an under-skilled director and some occasionally truly horrid editing, but the acting is well-done. Liane Balaban delivers well in the role, though it is not one that is BEST suited for her well-developed talent.

The Wisher starts on Mary's (Liane Balaban) birthday, she approaches her cake & it starts to ooze blood then Mary wakes up... Mary Ryan suffers from nightmares & sleepwalking, her parents Jake (Iain MacLean) & Kelly (Wendy Anderson) are worried about her & think her interest in horror films is unhealthy. The latest blockbusting horror film to fill American cinemas is The Wisher & Mary along with her friends Kara (Andrea Runge), Debbie (Siri Baruc) & Brad (Drew Lachey) decide to check it out against her father's request, Mary wishes he would 'just disappear'. Once Jake finds out that Mary has gone to see The Wisher he goes to pick her up but has a fatal car crash on the way & dies. It's now 'Six Weeks Later' & Mary decides to go back to school but gets an odd feeling & thinks she keeps seeing the Wisher from the film. While having an argument with Kara Mary wishes she would 'shut up' & within minutes Kara has her tongue cut out. Mary becomes convinced that the Wisher, or someone dressed as him, is stalking her & making her wishes come horribly true...This Canadian production was co-executive produced & directed by Gavin Wilding & basically is terrible. The script by Ellen Cook is awful & has a striking resemblance to Wishmaster (1997). For a start it's confused, muddled & stupid. Most good horror films have a central villain to dislike & hate but The Wisher decides it doesn't need to do this & keeps the villain in the background with quick flashes & the possibility that the Wisher is in fact a figment of Mary's imagination. Mary & the Wisher never meet until the last 5 or so minutes, they never talk to each other so we never really understand his motives & the Wisher is a real rip-off of the Wishmaster as well complete with wrinkled face & hooded shawl, they even manage to rip-off Freddy Krueger as the Wisher has shards of glass attached to his fingers. What about the splices of subliminal messaging that are cut into the film & Mary discovers? Virtually nothing is made of it. The identity of the Wisher is mundane, stupid, doesn't make any sense & how do they defeat the Wisher? They download the film on their computer (they download a 200+ MB file in a matter of seconds, yeah right they must have the fastest broadband connection ever) & watch how they kill the Wisher in that, a climax trying to create tension around two people trying to download a film just doesn't work. After finding out they use it on the Wisher & it works, but if the Wisher sticks to the film so closely that he would commit suicide when asked why does he attack Brad? No mention of wishing any harm to Brad is ever made. What about the six week wait between the first & second wish? What was he doing all that time, stalking Mary's every movement until she made a wish? How did he know she would? What about when he is hit by Debbie's car & gets up completely uninjured? I mean this guy turns out to be flesh & blood so how can he walk away from being knocked over by a speeding car? I could go on & on about all the lapses in logic & plot holes but I think you get the idea.Director Wilding gives the film a nice look & feel throughout, better than the material deserves. However the constant, film-within-a-film & annoying dream sequences just irritate. Forget about any gore or violence, a cut out tongue & a (almost bloodless) face slashing, that's it I'm afraid. No nudity either.The Wisher is a surprisingly well made & nice looking film, it obviously had a lot of time spent on it although this means nothing when the overall film is so bad. The acting is really bad & lead star Balaban in particular is simply awful & highly annoying.The Wisher is crap, nothing else to say really. It's well made but the film fails in so many departments that watching it is no fun. The mystery elements suck & the film is deeply unsatisfying. Give this one a miss & watch Wishmaster again instead, one to avoid & for those who have seen The Wisher I can assure you now no amount of subliminal messaging would make me want to watch it again.