Thirteen years after illusionist, Philip Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) kills and buries his evil mentor, Nix (Daniel Von Bargen), Nix's cult members set about resurrecting him. Private deceptive and occult investigator, Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula) is hired by Swann's wife, Dorothea (Famke Janssen ) to investigate the murder of one of Swann's friends,who was also involved in the overthrow of Nix. Soon the cult members catch up with Swann and Dorothea and set about resurrecting Nix, with only D'Amour standing in their way.
Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions (1995), based on his short story, The Last Illusion, which introduced his reoccurring character, Harry D'Amour explores the fine line between stage magic and ceremonial magic and merges the film noir detective story with the horror genre. It's flawed. No doubt budget restrictions kept the story smaller than it probably really needed to be, but overall is an engaging movie with some nice set pieces and some intriguing characters that could have used a bit more fleshing out. Interestingly, the main villain, Nix, even though his relationship with Swann somewhat mirrors the Star Wars Sith Lord and apprentice relationship, ends up being a far less interesting villain than his true apprentice, Butterfield (Barry Del Sherman).
A bit uneven, Lord of Illusions is still worthwhile viewing. The Bluray from Shout! Factory contains both the directors cut and the theatrical cut as well as a slew of extras.
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1 comment:
I started watching this the other night. It was getting very late and I was getting very tired so I turned it off. I'm hoping to start it back again in the next few days as it seemed quite interesting.
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