827 Wishmaster (1997)

 Wes  Craven kicked off a new  franchise with this one which is notable for the number of horror icons from both in front of and behind the  cameras making cameos. The Wishmaster is a djinn from the Middle East set free from imprisonment in a gemstone who grants wishes in a malevolent fashion to anyone he comes across but needs to secure three from a young analyst to achieve world domination. With a dazlling array of special effects and a plain Jane heroine this does seem like something new but there's a campy feel which makes it difficult to love.

 Tammy Lauren ( as Alexandra )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Tammy is from San Diego and began her career s a child actress in the late seventies. She was primarily a TV actress with a smattering of film credits , this one being her only starring role. She retired in 2014.

Wendy Benson ( as Shannon )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Wendy  was born in New Tork but is part-Scottish. She too is seen mainly on TV but her career is ongoing. She is married to actor Michael Landes.

Gretchen Palmer ( as Ariella)

Sex : No

Death : Turned into a showroom dummy but it gets reversed

Gretchen is from Massachusetts and worked her way up from bit parts to more substantial roles in independent films such as Trois in 2000. She hasn't been seen since a brief run in NCIS; Los ANgeles

826 Snow White : A Tale of Terror (1996)

 This amounts to a de-Disneyfication of the Grimm's fairy tale in an attempt to recapture something of the darkness of the original story. It balances things out by making Snow White something of a spoiled brat and her stepmother worthy of at least some sympathy. And this being the nineties. there's only one dwarf ; the other half dozen miners are normal-sized. Filmed in the Czech Republic this looks good and has some sterling performances but does suffer from the basic problem that you  already know how the story plays out.

Sigourney Weaver (as Claudia )

Sex : Claudia has sex with her husbnd

Death : Crushed by debris in a fire

Because the film didn't get a theatrical release  Sigourney was nominated for an Emmy for her performance rather than a film award.

Monica Keena ( as Lilly )

Sex : Monica narrowly escapes being raped

Death : Survives

Monica as born in NYC  and made her film debut in 1993 in While You Were Sleeping.Besides this one her major roles were in Crime ad Punishment In Suburbia and Freddy vs Jason  and Dawson's Creek on TV. She has an on/off relationship with Edward Furlong.

Joanna Roth (as Lilianna)

Sex : No

Death : Fatally injured in a coach crash

Joanna was born In Denmark and made her film debut as Ophelia in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1990. She has primarily  worked in British TV often alongside her husband, Scottish actor John Hannah.

Taryn Davis ( as little Lilly)

Sex : n/a

Death : Survives

Taryn was Little Miss America in 1991. This was her only film  role. Her only appearance as an adult was a small role in the TV series iCarly in 2007.

Dale Wyatt ( as Ilsa )

Sex : No

Death : Uncertain, possibly dies in the fire

Dale was a bit part actress whose film career began with Troll in 1986. After this film, she began a second career as  a  dialogue coach and soon dropped acting  to concentrate on that. She continues to be much in demand.

825 Mimic (1985 )

 This  film is  stylish  but  too long and at  times patently ridiculous. Much  of  the  story has already happened by  the  start of the  film : a young entomologist has solved a  children's epidemic caused by cockroaches by creating a mutant insect to wipe out the infected horde. You hardly need me to tell you where the story goes from there apart from the fact there's an autistic boy involved who's entirely superfluous and that Jeremy Northam is horribly miscast as the romantic lead,

Mira Sorvino ( as Susan Tyler )

Sex : Susan has some bathtime foreplay with her husband

 Death : Survives

Mira  is the daughter of Sopranos star Paul Sorvino and had an uncredited role in his film The Stuff in 1985 when she was 17. Her first credited film role was in Amongst Friends in 1993, a film that starred her grandfather. She escaped her family's shadow in 1995 when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite. While she  has never quite lived up to that early promise she works steadily and is  also a UN ambassador on human trafficking.

Alix Koromzay ( as Remy )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Alix is of Hungarian extraction  and made her film debut in 1990 with a tiny role in Kindergarten Cop. She  was essentially a bit part actress but  got to reprise her role in Mimic 2. Her career appeared to have ended in 2006 but she popped up again in 2024's The Lost Coast.

824 Event Horizon (1997)

 This  science fiction horror film is  essentially a darker take on the Russian classic, Solaris  although there's  a  fair  helping of  Alien's claustrophobic creepiness too . Larry Fishburne  heads  a  rescue  crew to a spaceship that disappeared  seven years earlier which includes the ship's designer  Dr Weir ( Sam Neill). As soom as they board the lost ship,  bad things start to happen and they gradually realise that .the  evil lies in the ship itself. It  wasn't a  box office success and some  of  the  characterisation is a bit thin but  I  like its nihilistic tone.

Joely Richardson (as Starck)

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Joely is the surviving daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and made her film debut as  a  toddler alongside younger sister Natasha in their father's film The Charge Of the Light Brigade in 1965. Her first acting appearance, after abandoning her ambition to be a tennis player, was in the 1985 film Wetherby playing hr mother's younger self. Since  then she has enjoyed a steady career , marked  by poor choices in film ( Shining Through, Loch Ness) and success on TV ( Lady Chatterley, Nip/Tuck ) . She  is still very active in both media.

Kathleen Quinlan ( as Peters )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

        

Kathleen  was born in Pasadena and  began acting as a teenager in 1973 with a small role in American Grafitti  and a numberof TV appearances. She  was regularly seen in the eighties but reached the pinnacle of her career with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Apollo 13 in 1995. She is still active.

Holley Chant  ( as Claire )

Sex : No

Death : Claire is an apparition having previously slit her wrists in the bath

Holly's acting career began in 1991 with an appearance in LA. Law. Her last two TV  appearances were on British TV so one assumes she moved to the UK. She disappears after 2005.

823 Anaconda (1997)

 One  of  the  best so bad it's good movies , dodgy cast, terrible CGI, not  even the briefest acquaintance with scientific reality and  the very definition of chewing the scenery from Jon Voigt. A  group of scientsts go to the Amazon and meet up with a giant snake and a  madman Serone (Voigt) who's hunting it.

Jennifer Lopez ( as Terri )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Jennifer was born to Puerto Rican parents in The Bronx. She began her career as a professional dancer. Shebranched into acting in 1986 with a part in the film My Little Girl in 1986.but it would be another decade to her breakthrough role in Selena. Two years later, she branched into music with immediate  success which made her a global superstar. Her career has survived critical disasters in both fields such as Gigli and Jenny From The  Block but  she is still a major player in the entertainment industry. She has been married four times with Ben Affleck her most prominent partner.

Kari Wuhrer ( as Denise)

Sex : Denise starts making out with her boyfriend nut is interrupted

Death : Serone breaks her neck with his legs

Kari is  the  second  female in this film. 

822 The Relic (1997 )

 This  is  an entertatining  uncomplicated monster movie about a professor taking a potion in the Amazon and turning into a monster that wreaks havoc in a museum during an exibition premiere. Tom Sizemore plays  the  cop  on  his  tail.

Penelope Ann Miller ( as  Dr Green )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Penelope  was born in Los Angeles  and began making waves in 1985 when she made her TV and Broadway debuts. She made her film debut in the 1987 sports film Hotshots and  gradually built  her  profile  until she  was getting lead female roles in films like Carlito's Way and The Shadow. She was previously married to Will Arnett.

Lynn Alicia Henderson ( as Perri Masai )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

This  was  the  first film role for Lynn who is primarily a  TV actress best known for her 15 year stint as a paramedic in ER. 

821 Bad Moon (1996)

 Lassie meets The  Howling  in  this  flat-footed werewolf movie. Actually there's a  striking  opening  scene  and a neat Carrie-ish jump scare at the end; it's what's in betwen that's the problem. There's a complete lack of suspense. With only half a dozen people in the cast, it's obvious from the start who the werewolf is ( Michael Pare ) and you wonder why it takes his supposedly clever lawyer sister so much longer than her dog to work it out. It's also slow moving with some of the scenes padded out to make up the running time.

Mariel Hemingway ( as Janet )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Mariel is Ernest Hemingway's grandaughter and made her film debut at  14  alongside sister Margaux in the 1976 film Lipstick. Three years later she had an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for Manhattan . Her  career declined in the late eighties garnering two Razzle nominations for Superman IV and Sunset  and the nineties weren't much kinder with the failure of the TV series Central Park West.  Nevertheless she  continues to work and advocates for mental health causes. She has oftenplayed lesbian characters though she is straight herself.

Johanna Lebovitz (as Marjorie)

Sex : Marjorie is having sex with her boyfriend when a werewolf attacks

Death : Mauled to death by a werewolf

Johanna is primarily a TV actress who has only made one other film ,Rabbit (2019)  which won her a Leo Nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She has been inactive since 2020.