Lord of Illusions

source: Lord of Illusions

Moviecut—Lord of Illusions

Lord of Illusions

Handsome looking, visually stunning production full of interesting special effects is about a private eye (Scott Bakula) who stumbles upon a cult who is intent on bringing back to life their leader (Daniel Von Bargen). A local magician (Kevin J. O'Connor) who suddenly dead during an illusion is somehow linked to the cult and the Bakula finds himself thrown into relationship with the man's wife (Famke Janssen). Fun, but Janssen is throughly wasted. Unrated; Extreme Violence, Sexual Situations and Profanity.

A far cry away from the classic The Warlock. Decent horror flick with some under-written script issues. Generally fine with some eerie moments, but the plot is all around the place with no real focus on the who, what and where. Nonetheless a blast from the past from the 90s is a welcome breather for the gorno crapfest we are dished out nowadays. Nix (Daniel von Bargen) is the leader of a cult. Due to dark dealings he has amassed incredible power, which he hopes to share with Philip Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor). Disgusted with the evil and destruction that Nix represents Swann with a group of friends decide to end his terrible reign and save the young Dorothea. They manage to capture the magician and bury him deep underground. 13 years later Philip Swann is a world renowned illusionist and is married to the grown up Dorothea (Famke Jannsen). The cult following of Nix has never revoked their beliefs and are still intent on freeing their master. Dorothea hires a PI with a knack for the occult, Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula) to look after her husband. Swann however mysteriously dies during his latest illusion... There is a lot to like about this movie together with its retro feel from the great days of the 80s/90s horrors. Plus Clive Barker always supplies eerie occult atmosphere even if he is a bit iffy on the plot side of things. A couple of great and relatively scary scenes make this a worthwhile watch, even if the lack of direction to the story is frustrating. The Scott Bakula character feels superfluous and unnecessary, albeit Bakula does a good acting job and is a standout character. Nonetheless the movie seems to introduce characters and situations just so that we get gore and occult magic here and there, but there really is no purpose to the plot. Could be better, but still a decent 5.

There are quite a few things going for this movie that attracted me to it and should have added up to a movie that I loved. First, I'm a big fan of Clive Barker. I love his aesthetic. I love the mythology that he creates in his works. I feel like his vision pulls the curtain back on Hell's fiery gates, just a bit, and creates these wonderful, demonic fairy tales full of infernal imagery. The subject matter also intrigues me. Like all geeks with a penchant for the fantastic, I enjoy magic and illusion, but even more I like movies and books that explore that thin line between illusion and magic and the possibility that perhaps there is real magic. Of course, it's not a far stretch from that sort of magic into occult territory, either. As a horror movie lover, I have a natural affinity for things dealing with dark magic, as well. The combination of all of these could have created something that I would have put up there as an instant classic, but sadly this movie is completely forgettable. This is probably the least "Barker-ish" of any Barker adaptation I have seen. What I mean by that is that it is mostly devoid of any of that aesthetic that I was speaking of earlier. Movies like HELLRAISER, NIGHTBREED or CANDYMAN all feel like part of a large mythos, like all of them could have existed in the same world. There are very similar visual strands in those movies, even though one of them wasn't even directed by Barker. This movie is largely lacking any of that imagery. Except for the prologue and climax, we rarely get anything diabolical. It feels like it could have been the work of any old horror writer. While some may praise for deviating from his norm, this isn't what I come to the House of Barker for. Even the actual magic in the movie is somewhat of a letdown. I really enjoyed the centerpiece scene where Swann is killed during his magic show. I wanted to see more of that sort of thing. They spend a lot of time talking about how these characters had crossed the line from illusion to real magic, but they seemed to know two tricks, levitation and fire. I'd at least expect enough effects to give me a true sense of power. Hell, even Harry Potter had better tricks than this. Those were my expectations, though, so it's maybe not fair to judge this movie by how much it met those expectations. The real problem is that this movie just goes nowhere. It sets us up with a great opening scene, full of action and effects that seemed like this could turn into something memorable, but it dies quickly, mired down in a half-baked detective noir that is as predictable as it is uninteresting. Some part of that blame lies in Scott Bakula who's just not believable in this role, at all. He's supposed to be a hardened PI with one foot in the world of the occult, almost a John Constantine (comic books) type figure. Instead, Bakula just can't shake his wholesome image. Even when he swears it feels like elementary school kids trying out a word for the first time. Then, they inject a phony romance angle that just feels crammed in an insincere. There are some great effects shots that still work very well and then there are some real doozys, like the CGI polygons that look so very dated 20 years later. What I saw is the Director's cut, which was probably more of a mistake because it was just too long and in need of editing. If you've never seen anything by Barker before, do yourself a favor and go watch HELLRAISER. If you want a great movie about pushing magic to its' edge, watch Christopher Nolan's THE PRESTIGE.

While magician Nix entertains his young audience by holding fire and even juggling it, Philip Swann and others are rescuing young Dorothea, who has been kidnapped and is being held in the same building. In the process of getting the girl out, Nix is killed--or is he? 13 years later, New York private detective Harry D'Amour is hired to go to Los Angeles to work on an insurance fraud case. He visits a fortune teller and is shocked to see a man dying violently. There may be a connection between this death and Swann, who is now married to Dorothea. Valentin works for Swann and wants D'Amour to meet with Dorothea, who wants D'Amour to work for him (and also looks good in a swimsuit). D'Amour goes to one of Swann's shows, where one of the illusions doesn't go as planned. This gives Swann something to investigate. An interesting investigation follows. My primary motive for watching this movie was seeing Scott Bakula, who I liked in 'Quantum Leap'. D'Amour is intelligent and a smart-aleck, sometimes funny, with just the right mix of confidence and vulnerability; he did not disappoint. Had I judged the movie from just its first 10 minutes, to paraphrase a line spoken by one of Dorothea's rescuers, I would have said bury this thing deep where it can never again be found. The same applies to the horrifying, graphically violent ending. And there is plenty of blood and gore in between the opening and the final scenes. I'm pretty sure the language was cleaned up for UPN as well--who actually would say 'Forget you' in a theatrical film? Sometimes the audio didn't sound right in situations where profanity would be expected. The movie had redeeming qualities, though. Kevin O'Connor showed confidence onstage but often seemed afraid or nervous otherwise--I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and call that good acting. Vincent Schiavelli had a brief but effective scene as an illusionist in a meeting with others practicing the profession. Joel Swetow was good as Valentin. Although they were not what I would call entertaining, I would say the visual effects were quality work. Certainly the gore factor was quite high, but someone did an impressive job with what is called morphing. And Daniel von Bargen did an outstanding job as the very frightening Nix. I did not like the character at all, but one has to be impressed with the talent shown.

The first Hellraiser-movie is one of my all-time favorite movies so it breaks my heart to have to say that Clive has not succeeded this time around. I think one mistake was to move the location from New York. Sunny LA doesn´t deliver the gloomy atmosphere and sense of dread that was present in the short story. And the opening sequence gives too much of the mystery away too soon. I also think Simon Boswell's music is quite boring. But some good characters (Butterfield and his sidekick), some nice FX- sequences and a few effective scenes, still manages to make this more worthwile than a lot of other recent horror movies.

Spoilers herein. What a great idea: a combination of magical war and detection! But there isn't any supernatural warfare, just regular old levitation, pushing around and stuff. The crucial magical showdown in the beginning relies on guess what -- guns! Then the bad guy is `bound' with iron fixtures bolted to his face, despite the fact that no magical tradition supposes magic comes from the face. Real evil, real magic would be quite a different thing. Don't any of these guys study Crowley -- especially with so many scientologists in Hollywood? And even worse, there is no use, none whatsoever of intellect driving will. What a waste of a good idea. What vapid imagery.

Title: Lord of Illusions (1995) Director: Clive Barker Cast: Scot Bakula, Franke Jensen, Kevin J. Oconnor Review: Clive Barkers takes us in deep into the world of magic and horror with what in my opinion is his best film...Lord of Illusions. The story is about this religious cult whos leader Nix promises his followers eternal life. Swann, an ex member of the cult, gets cold feet and decides he wants out of the cult of freaky people and decides to eliminate the cult and its leader Nix. He manages to stop Nix and bury him....but is he dead? Many years later after these events Swann has become a David Copperfield type of magician winning big money. But suddenly some people are after him and there's rumors that Nix...the cult leader he laid to sleep might be returning for revenge on those who restrained him. Swann included. The good thing about this movie for me is that it takes us into this world of magic, demons and religion in a very credible way. Barker handles things properly in this film by taking us into fantastic territory but with a touch of realism. As if it all could in fact be true. Thats the feeling I got while watching this film. And ultimately thats what makes the film so effectively creepy. Nix is a great villain and I never for once felt I was watching some actor playing a by the numbers villain just for the kicks of it. Daniel Von Bergen as Nix delivers a great and evil performance. He uses anyone and everyone, he is selfish in his quest for ultimate knowledge and power over the supernatural and will do anything to have it. The guy is pure evil...and when he is about to be re awakened you almost feel sorry for the poor dopes who are doing it. Another one of the movies assets is that it is done in the fashion of an old detective flick, with Scott Bakulas character Harry D Amour as the grounded on reality Detective who is constantly being confronted with the fact that this world is filled with things that we know nothing about. We see the film through Harrys eyes as he plunges himself deeper into the world of magic and Illusion. This is a smart lead character and cool thing about it is that you don't feel like its a bunch of teenagers making mistake after mistake, this guy knows what he is doing, he is a detective taking a full plunge into the dark world of Nix's religious cult. But by far the coolest thing about this movie is its story. Barker carved up a fine spooky tale. Something to really scare you. The story is complex, and keeps you interested all through out, like a good mystery should. Not only that, but he directed the film with some real style. The movie just looks beautiful in everyway. A really good example of this is Swanns Illussion show in which he performs his "Last Illusion". Great sets and music in those sequences. Speaking of the music, as is the case in most of Barkers films, the music elevates everything to another level of grandiosity. You get this feeling that you are watching something epic and forbidden. All in all, I would say that no doubt this is Barkers finest film to date. Its got a great involving story, good performances a great and memorable villain and a feeling of realism even though we are dealing with magic and Illusions. Barker is a master at weaving fantastic and dark fantasies, this my friends is his best one, go check it out! Rating: 5 out of 5