Wishmaster VHS

Wishmaster on VHS, Artisan Entertainment, 1997. Wes Craven put his name on the presenter credit and the cover art delivers on that promise: a demonic Djinn rising from shadow, glowing green eyes, fanged snarl, and a red jewel at the bottom trailing smoke like something sealed inside wants out. This is the original VHS release, not a later reissue, and the cover alone earns shelf space in any serious 90s horror collection.

Robert Kurtzman directed, and the film ran in a sweet spot for practical-effects horror. CGI was coming but latex and foam were still king in 1997, and Wishmaster leans into that fully. The Djinn, played by Andrew Divoff, gets the kind of physical monster treatment that was already fading by the early 2000s. The cast is a who's-who of genre regulars: Robert Englund, Tony Todd, Kane Hodder, Ted Raimi, all showing up in a film that knew exactly who its audience was. Artisan Entertainment was carving out a genre niche in this period, the same label that would later carry The Blair Witch Project to its 1999 explosion, and their VHS packaging reflected a commitment to cover art that could move a tape off a Blockbuster shelf. The Wishmaster cover does that without apology.

This copy has the Wes Craven Presents credit prominently above the title on the clamshell, which is the standard Artisan pressing. Condition of the clamshell and tape housing will determine display versus play use. For display collectors, the question is whether the clamshell corners are intact and whether the cover art has any fade from UV or fluorescent shelf exposure. For play collectors, the tape itself should rewind cleanly with no ribbon slack visible through the window on the back of the cassette. Check the spine of the clamshell for crease or stress cracking before committing to display standing upright.

OWNER VERIFY: Confirm this is the original 1997 Artisan Entertainment VHS pressing and not a later reissue or duplicated rental copy, which can be checked against the catalog number on the clamshell spine.