Tell me if you've heard this one. A new horror movie is out in theaters and the newspapers say that it's been sending viewers out into the streets screaming, so Mary, a 17 year old girl who loves horror movies, decides she must sneak out and see it. Why does she have to sneak out? Because Mary has terrible sleep problems. She has insomnia, and when she finally DOES get to sleep she has terrible nightmares that often send her out sleepwalking and
she puts herself in danger. Her parents put their feet down and she's not allowed to watch horror movies anymore, but she sneaks out to see this movie, and soon, the evil character known as "The Wisher" seems to be following Mary around her life, listening to her every word and granting her wishes in terrifying ways. You've gotta admit, it's a great concept. It mixes elements from other fright films such as Wishmaster and the little-known Cut and combines them with a creepy villain and a lot of tension between the characters to create a fairly original slasher, which is a difficult thing to do in today's horror market.

The "slasher" subgenre has been done practically to death. I say "practically" because slasher flicks do have their rabid devotees who will see them, no matter how terrible, and will almost always find something to enjoy about them. I am one such devotee, and I often find myself defending my favorite subgenre even when the movies in it are less than stellar. Here, I don't feel like I have to reach to point out places where this movie shines or ignore flaws to find something to praise; the movie is just THAT good. One thing I greatly respect is how this movie isn't clear cut about anything; there are many red herrings thrown in to make things interesting, but the movie itself is complex and some of the twists are quite interesting. First, the idea that a villain from a horror movie can start manifesting in real life and start killing those we care about is frightening; it's something I used to have nightmares about as a kid. Horror movies are supposed to be the safe way to experience fear, and once we turn the movie off or leave the theater, we're supposed to be safe from whatever imaginary evil we saw onscreen. Here, the characters don't have such a safety net. The evils onscreen suddenly become real.

The trip here is that when Mary says these things, something evil hears her and "grants her wish" even though it's only something she says in anger and she doesn't really want anything terrible to happen to those she loves, but because it seems so crazy, she doesn't realize that bad things are happening because of what she says until it's too late and many people have already been hurt. The killer in this movie is intensely creepy. Not only does he seem like an omnipotent force who flits about Mary's life making all these things she says come true but his physical appearance is freaky. He's a tall hooded figure with fingers that appear to be made of shattered glass, and in one devastating scene he actually cuts a character's face off by slashing with his fingers. I have a thing about broken glass... I don't like it, it gives me chills, and I had goosebumps during that whole scene.

The killer does other things with his glass fingers that I won't spoil here, but trust me, they're sufficiently icky and nasty to satisfy the inner sadist in me. I feel like I'm leaving a lot unsaid here, because there are some other big twists in the movie that I've seen other reviews spoil, but I think I should keep those quiet and let the viewer discover them as he or she watches the movie. As I said before, the movie hints at other horror movies, but somehow it puts a twisted little mean-spirited bent on these plot elements and uses them to create something of its own, a creepy, intense killer with a nasty penchant for granting the worst kind of wishes and slicing and dicing victims in a most painful way. This movie seems to be forgotten as it's difficult to find reviews for it anywhere, and the few reviews I DID find were predominantly negative, so perhaps you should take this review with a grain of salt as you read it since so many other people seem to hate this movie. For my money, it's creepy, gory in the right places, and nasty enough to give me everything I'd expect from a low-budget slasher...as well as a few twists and turns that I DIDN'T expect. Show some indie love and check this out.

Independent horror has a lot of hurdles to overcome. It's guerrilla filmmaking most of the time with low budgets, tight shooting schedules, and long days and nights striving to tell a story and put out the best film you can. The commentary track and featurettes on this DVD release give me even more respect for all that the filmmakers went through trying to tell this particular story. I got into the groove and really appreciated how sick and nasty they made this story. The characters aren't always likable which makes them real, the main killer is eerie, and though it's not a gorefest I appreciate what gore there is and what it adds to the sense of dread in this movie. As soon as the movie ended I skipped to the beginning and watched it again. It's THAT good.

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