The fourth movie in the Wishmaster series, this movie somehow finds romance in the world of the djinn, as he (played by John Novak, same as the third movie, which was shot in the same 16 days as this movie) falls for Lisa Burnley (Tara Spencer-Nairn), who has been living with her paraplegic boyfriend Sam (Jason Thompson). As he spirals into depression, she’s left without any love life, constantly verbally abused by the man she was once so close to.

He also thinks she’s having an affair with their lawyer Steven Verdel (Michael Trucco), who is trying to get a settlement from Sam’s accident. Steven tries to give her a red jewel and, yes, that’s the Wishmaster’s prison. He escapes, kills the lawyer and takes over his body and starts that affair, all while healing Sam and trying to remove him from Lisa’s life.

As the djinn keeps tricking Lisa into making wishes — the other djinn are anxious, it’s been four movies and they haven’t had the chance to take over our world — he finds himself wanting Lisa. He goes through a journey of romantic discovery, asking humans — well, before he kills them — to explain the ways of love to him. He and Lisa do end up having sex — demonic hands covered in goo reach for her, which is a nice touch — but she realizes she doesn’t love him. She just misses physical contact.

The djinn flips out and forces her to make her wish. He transforms her home into a maze and tells her she has a choice: become his wife and second in command when the djinn race takes over our planet or be cast down to Hell. Oh yeah — there’s also a Hunter (Victor Webster) from a whole other sect that hunts the djinn and those that it grants wishes to.

Between the romantic 90s alt rock and female empowerment ending — which costs both suitors their lies — this Wishmaster movies strays from the formula in a way that actually works. Director Chris Angel and writer John Benjamin Martin take this into Cinemax After Dark territory, which is a wild place to go after a series that started basically as an FX showcase. You know, I love it.

You can watch this on Tubi.