Review of Lord of Illusions (1995) by Tim W — 15 Jul 2014

Lord of Illusions - horror film written and directed by Clive Barker. It is based on the short story called 'The Last Illusion'. Starring Scott Bakula, Famke Janssen, Kevi J. O'Connor.

Film is about a magician cult-leader 'Nix' in the desert, who is rounded up by his former members led by 'Swann' for kidnapping a teenage girl for sacrifice. He's caught and buried deep under so that his body should never be found. 13 years later, the girl now adult 'Dorothea' (Famke) has married Swann - who's himself become a popular stage-illusionist in Los Angeles. But their fear still lives on - what if Nix crawls out of the grave?

After mysterious death of colleague of Swann - he feels suspicious about the circumstances under which he was killed. Swann hires the New York based private-investigator D'Amour (Bakula) to investigate the murder. D'Amour has strong interest in subject of 'cult', and often he suffers from demonic illusions and exorcism that he once witnessed. On a stage-show where Dorothea and D'Amour also join Swann dare to attempt an impossible illusion, in which he dies before their eyes. D'Amour's swift and thorough investigation unlocks the dark mystery in the magician world.

I remember this film (but not its title then) from 1996 - shown by my elder brother. The only scene that I remember of this film was the onstage horrific death scene of 'Swann'. Actors are average with respect to their acting style, which not to be considered amateurish at all. Barker uses fair use of music-composition as well as photography to increase scare-factor. Due to mediocre budget the film carries undeveloped 'special-effects' - nevertheless these scenes were attentively chosen.