Review By Brian Edwards, 2.8 out of 5
(note in the USA this film was called SPLICED)
Mary (Liane Balaban) compulsively watches horror films, much to her fathers disgust, but little does she know what impact on her life the movie of the year ‘The Wisher’ will have on her lifezp>Not another slash and stalk? Not another slash and stalk that is inundated with movie references?
There has been an abundance of movies that are self-referential (horror movies about horror movies), the list is topped by Scream 2+3 (a movie about killings in a previous movie), Cut (a movie killer comes to life), WES CRAVENS NEW NIGHTMARE (belief in a movie demon makes it come to life). So what makes THE WISHER different? Well, not quite enough is the frank answer. This appears to be a mix of CUT and THE WISHMASTER, the heroine of this film has her wishes granted by a mysterious force that is startlingly similar to that she has seen in THE WISHER, the movie within a movie.
It is unfortunate that the WISHER movie within the film looks like it could have been much better, a solid horror/fantasy with bad acting to parody the multitude of similar films. In one brief scene when we see the film at the cinema, there looks like there is actually a special effect.
I am one for not spotting twists to a story I am afraid, the only reason I saw through THE SIXTH SENSE is because I heard about it earlier. I saw the twist in this film very early on. There was scope to make two or three alternate endings to this film, it would be nice to have a few of these on the DVD but I feel that the ending on this film was decided form the word ‘go’. If only they had a change of heart half way through filming we might have a better film overall.
There is essentially nothing wrong with the film, it isn’t bad, it is just a mix of not living up to potential and not being scary. There is no real gore or shock that could save it either. There are a few nice touches (look for the HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION dig, ironically HALLOWEEN 8 is a much stronger film in my opinion) and the ending works, but there are key plot elements that seem to be dropped in and then forgotten about. The deleted ending (included in the Rental version) was a step in the right direction but it is simply too little too late.
This is one of those straight-to-video films that could have been great at the box office if it had the financing behind it.