Horror Movie Review: Aladdin (2026)

Let me begin this review by clearing something up. Aladdin, the original story from One Thousand and One Nights is in the public domain not the 1992 animated Disney film. Dare to copy any aspects of the latter and the house of mouse will, no doubt, send an army of lawyers your way ready to sue you into oblivion.

It almost makes it not worthwhile trying to do a horror version of a story everyone knows because the risk is so great. Yet as Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey proved, with great risk comes great reward and a slew of creators have sought to try and get their own slice of this particular pie, regardless of diminishing results.

It’s a tale as old as time. Something was successful and so it is copied over and over again until nobody cares. This is happening in record time too as far as this trend goes, and it’s all because of films like Aladdin. A film that takes a liberal look at the original story and does absolutely nothing with it.

Written and directed by Brett Bentman, Aladdin’s goal seems to be to bore the viewer until they fall asleep. That way no-one can complain about it because they never actually saw the full thing. It’s a theory and no dumber than the story delivered here.

Devanny Pinn stars as Rachel, who alongside her boyfriend Jake (Billy Blair) has gone to stay at a remote cabin in the woods. There they meet their friends, Mel (Indira Starr) and Derrick (Jonah Lewis), who are also a couple, for a weekend of hanging out, having some drinks, and bonding. That is until Rachel finds a mysterious lamp and becomes quite enamoured with it.

It’s just a lamp though, sure it looks like it was sold at a market stall on a warm Arabian night, but that hardly means anything. Still, as Mel says, it can’t do any harm to try, so she gives it a rub and wishes for a million dollars. The next day? A bag of money turns up at the door.

They appear to have a magical lamp that grants wishes, so naturally they use it sensibly. Psych! Whereas Rachel is getting all kind of bad vibes from it, Mel uses the lamp again for a very personal wish, and this is where things start to go wrong. This is no ordinary magic lamp; it’s a cursed magic lamp and the ‘Wishmaster’ has sinister plans for those who use it.

If you’re expecting to see a genie, dream on. Aladdin is all about possession and some demon face, later in the film. How does the story of Aladdin come into play? His pure heart saw him sacrificed by a cult to be the genie of the lamp. However, this turned him evil and now he wants free. It’s uncomplicated, and that’s a good thing, but it’s not interesting and it’s certainly not exciting. No shade on the cast, who do the best they can with what they’re given, but even their characters are basic and dull.

The lack of action, the lack of horror, and the lack of fun really make this a chore to get through. Though I do have to say that finding a way to squeeze in the line, “you’ve never had a friend like me” certainly made me laugh, even if it wasn’t intentional.