Make a Wish (2002 Video) User Reviews

Awesome!

[junecatpower · 3/10 · 4 September 2004]

Make a Wish was a scream. At least we finally get a gay movie where the story stays coherent all the way through. Everyone was dying laughing. The movie is fun to watch, a guilty gay pleasure, grab the popcorn and turn off your brain. I thought having the cast play everything so straight faced was right on, the horror clichés were not lost on the audience.

I would say it is more funny than scary, but there are a couple of great scary surprises. I thought the acting was solid. This is a very low budget feature with no B cam and a small cast, maybe that's why the other writer before me was so fooled, I guess he has never actually seen bad acting, or maybe he's too easily fooled by the usual Hollywood scene stealing and scenery chewing.

I loved how the movie veered into an incredibly weird and surreal serious

climax, then ... well go see it.

Alright, not good, not bad just alright.

[ChuckStraub · 5/10 · 26 March 2006]

Make a Wish is another variation of the typical slasher movies. The variation here is that the main characters are lesbians. It's very simple. A group of lesbian friends, lovers, exlovers go on a camping trip and one by one get picked off along with a few men that happen to be wandering around in the woods. It has some usual twists and turns and the viewer has to figure out who is doing this and why. For men that may want to watch this expecting to see a lot of hot lesbian sex scenes and lots of blood and gore, this isn't for you. This film is just like the other typical slasher movies. There are lots of kissing scenes and a few R rated sex scenes but not much. It's not a prominent part of the movie. For the blood and guts, again typical, I've certainly seen a lot more but I've also seen less. This is a low budget film but it does entertain. It's alright, not good, not bad just alright.

Bad directing, not low budget, makes this a bad choice.

[innocuous · 3/10 · 10 June 2008]

Again, I'm giving this film an extra point for getting some of the fundamentals right. There are real titles, the sound is acceptable, and there are no artsy-fartsy camera tricks or stupid CGI FX. Take these away and this film would rate only a star or two.

Also, forget the lesbian themes. There are a few gratuitous kisses and sex scenes, but this otherwise could have been shot as a hetero film and you would have had the same end result. The whole "finally, a lesbian slasher film" thing is just a hook to get you to see the film.

Basically, the direction and writing screw this up. I wonder if the actors/actresses actually received any direction during the shooting, because none is apparent. The on-location set feels claustrophobic and you are never really sure where everyone is in relationship to each other. Establishing shots are noticeably absent or ineffective.

On final irritation is that everyone in the movie seems to be deaf and blind. A pick-up drives at night to within a couple hundred yards or so of a campsite in what is basically an open field and nobody notices the headlights. A woman starts a Jeep and tries to drive up a hill and over a guy from about 30 feet away and he never notices her coming. Another woman walks all the way up to a friend who is crying at the edge of the lake and only then notices a dead body right beside her. I know that all this is in the interest of the plot, but there's a limit to what we'll swallow.

****SPOILER ALERT******

To anyone who was surprised at who the killer turns out to be, shame on you. You were apparently not paying attention throughout the movie. As a final poke-in-the-eye for the audience, the film also borrows the old "it was only wishful thinking on the part of the killer, but now it's really going to happen" plot device. Shameless.

****END ALERT**********

Not recommended, unless you really, really like lesbian slasher movies for their intrinsic qualities.

It should have been a lot better

[augustian · 1/10 · 7 June 2011]

For fans of the slasher genre, this film has it all, so how did it go so horribly wrong? All the elements are there - a killing to set the stage; a jealous boyfriend; a weird hunter with a crossbow; six hot lesbians under canvas with the prospect of girl-on-girl action; it is very much slasher by numbers but the numbers don't add up.

(SPOILERS ahead) The film starts well enough when we realise that there is a maniac on the loose. Then the main characters are introduced so we meet the friends and lovers of Susan, who is hosting the birthday party in the woods. This is where it all breaks down. Although the action seems to take place in a very confined area, no-one hears shouts and screams from people nearby and at night, lights from cars and campfires seem invisible. The worst aspect comes near the end when the identity of the killer is revealed and with a further revelation, the viewer realises that he/she has been led up the garden path.

The quality of the film as a whole leaves a lot to be desired. It looks low-budget and the acting is a bit mediocre. There is a bit of lesbian kissing and the nude scenes look to have been done using body-doubles. There is nothing to recommend in this film so only 1 star.

Dreadful

[preppy-3 · 1/10 · 20 June 2004]

Just what we need--a lesbian slasher flick! A bunch of women (straight and gay) go camping to celebrate their birthdays. Most of them have slept with each other to provide "tension" to this. One by one they're picked off by an unseen killer. Who is doing it...and why? And how about the psycho that just escaped from the mental hospital?

Purportedly this is supposed to be a fun take off of horror films with lesbian sex. It does have all the clichés of slasher films but provides no humor, insight or ANYTHING to them...it's just another stupid, dull slasher film...the only twist is that it's all lesbians.

The acting is bad all around, the killings have some of the worst special effects I've ever seen, the script isn't funny or suspenseful, there are HUGE gaps in the plot and the identity of the killer is laughably predictable.

Pointless and stupid--avoid.

Please make it go away.

[Fat Slim · 1/10 · 26 July 2004]

I don't think the Ferranti family is fooling anyone with their IMDb voting. Most theaters advertise this one as a "lesbian slasher film". Here's the thing...there's no slashing, and the lesbians are stereotypical dykes that will have more than one self-respecting homosexual standing up and calling foul. The entire time you're sitting through the meandering plot, abysmal dialogue and wretched emoting, you're waiting for one satisfying splatter scene...which never arrives. The acting: unintentionally comical. The music: distracting and inappropriate. The ending: is like getting kicked in the head while you're unconscious. NYC theaters exhibiting this trash should be ashamed. Not "so bad it's good" but "so bad it's good to not be a Ferranti".

Make A Wish: I wish I never is going to hear anything about this movie ever again

[dogravarn · 1/10 · 1 April 2008]

This is a movie about a group of lesbians going camping and I don't even know where to start with this review. This is definitely one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Whatever reason you may have to see this movie, think again and don't do it. As a horror movie it's a total joke. Where this even meant to be scary? ALL the killing scenes are just awful and the scenes that probably where suppose to scare you were so predictable. Like the girl hanging dead in the rope, I didn't see that one coming 40 minutes earlier. And the "private investigator" or what you should call him, the scenes involving him was just breathtaking, or not.

But at least I got to see some hot lesbian sex. No wait a minute I forgot, those scenes where even worse. All the girls in this movie are not very good looking but they are very close to brain dead. An easier match for a killer in any movie is hard to find, they are not even putting up a fight.

The last 30 minutes of the movie is unbelievable bad and I can't understand why I just didn't turned it off. Thats a big handicap for me that I feel forced to sit through a movie I started no matter how bad it is. And boy is this bad. I can probably write down 100 things about the last scenes that were totally laughable(in a bad way), but I wont. Im to tired for that after this movie. The ending is pathetic and totally unrealistic, and the last "fight" between those still alive is not dramatic at all, you just sitting there and hope that one of them will die soon so that the movie could be over.

I don't even want to comment the acting in this movie, so poor and the only one doing a decent job was the killer, until you saw anything else then the shoes and the hands.

Life is short, don't spend it on bad movies like this. You will definitely wish you got your 96 minutes back.

That's one f**ked up birthday wish

[barajasm14 · 1/10 · 9 February 2011]

**SPOILER** I'm not sure if this film was poking at the lesbian killer stereotype (generally, I'm not sure about what the hell this film was aiming for at all) but even if it was, it sure adds to the reason that that stereotype exists.

What was with the murder scenes? In what universe does one get to perfectly jab a knife like that?

And the sex scenes! OH MY GOODNESS, what was with the porno-esque music from the 70's in those darn scenes? That was dreadful to watch.

Add some really teeth-grinding music, lackluster acting from most (with the exception of maybe two), undeveloped characters, and you have this movie in a nutshell.

The movie is awful. The cinematography was kind of neat, though.

not exceptional, but fun queer horror flick

[ThrownMuse · 6/10 · 14 February 2005]

Susan invites all of her ex-lovers on her annual Birthday Camping trip. The six women are instantly at each other's throats. After they realize that Michelle never showed up, they start disappearing one by one. Everyone's a suspect, including the crazed bow-wielding redneck who keeps crashing the party and a jealous boyfriend of one of the women.

"Make a Wish" is directed by a lesbian and intended for a lesbian audience, and I think it might be one of the first horror films to fit this category. There are lots of humorous queer "inside jokes" and it is refreshing to see a cast of mostly queer lead characters in a horror flick. Unfortunately, many of the characters are one-dimensional clichés. We have the "aggressive vegan," the weird wiccan, the slut, and the "dyke-turned-straight-girl." While the movie is inherently progressive, and much more queer than most horror movies with lesbian characters, its portrayal of lesbians is very limited.

The movie is surprisingly well-made for having such a low-budget. It was shot on hand-held digital video, but whoever shot it has a great eye and a steady hand. The acting is mostly mediocre (save for the lead actress, who does a wicked job). While most of the kills aren't shown and there is little gore (according to the director, they only had a couple hundred bucks for make-up budget, which is impressive because there are some really inventive effects here!), the deaths are pretty nasty. It isn't a scary movie by any means, but I admit that I was surprised to find out who the killer was.

"Make a Wish," the first lesbian slasher, isn't a great movie. However, it is a good time and better than most recent Z-graders. I'm not sure many typical horror fans would like it, but I'll recommended it to folks who like both "The L Word" and "April Fools Day." My Rating: 5.5/10

FUN

[boywithglasses · 9/10 · 16 July 2004]

I was fortunate to attend a screening of Make A Wish in LA at Outfest in the Director's Guild of America theater, it was a scream. At least we finally get a gay movie where the story stays coherent all the way through with no embarrassing stupidity like The Fluffer or the like. Everyone was dying laughing. The movie is fun to watch, a guilty gay pleasure, grab the popcorn and turn off your brain. I thought having the cast play everything so straight faced was right on, the horror clichés were not lost on the audience. I would say it is more funny than scary, but there are a couple of great scary surprises.

I thought the acting was solid. This is a very low budget feature with no B cam and a small cast, maybe that's why the other writer before me was so fooled, I guess he has never actually seen bad acting, or maybe he's too easily fooled by the usual Hollywood scene stealing and scenery chewing.

I loved how the movie veered into an incredibly weird and surreal serious climax, then ... well go see it.

All the things she said - Running through my head!

[Dr. Gore · 4 December 2004]

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

You know, I am such an unashamed fan of all things lesbian that even the most tired movie still feels like good old exploitation to me. Even the most sincere lesbian love story, ("Better than Chocolate", etc), is a treasure trove of goodness. So whether it be Russian school girls singing about their love or a bunch of chicks on a camping trip, I dig lesbians! But isn't "Make A Wish" just a stinky pretend slasher movie wrapped up in lesbian relationship issues? Why yes it is. And what's wrong with that?

Well, as it turns out, quite a bit. "Make a Wish" is a pretty sorry excuse of a horror flick. The kills are weak and the gore effects are pathetic. The only reason to sit through this one is the girl/girl make out sessions. There are a couple of kissing scenes and one or two sex scenes. All of these are good and made my wish come true. "Make a wish" is certainly not a good movie but it did have that one element I love. You know, "The L word".