Lord of Illusions (1995)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It was confusing, boring and aged. It wasn't scary. It's about this evil sorcerer who died decades ago and his body is buried in this desert. A police officer who specializes in crimes with exorcism and black magic investigates the death of the magician Swann who died on stage...or did he? He also falls in love with the magician's ex wife and finds other diabolical characters that are searching for the deceased body. It was just a mess.

Earlier this year, 2015, actor Daniel von Bargen died. He was only 64. While I had seen many of his movies and some TV roles, I had never seen this movie, "Lord of Illusions." An IMDb member recommended that I see it. So I found a nice used DVD of the movie and now own it.The title and references in the movie distinguish between "magic" that is performed with illusions and "magic" that is real, perhaps black magic of the evil spirits or the devil. It centers on a cult in the desert and the movie opens with scenes representing 1982. The cult leader is Daniel von Bargen as Dix, and it is clear that the magic he performs are not illusions. He is shot and killed by a young girl.Forward to 13 years later, 1995 which is the release year of this movie, and a detective stumbles upon some old evidence and a magician who was part of that cult 13 years earlier. The girl has grown up into a beautiful woman, being hunted by evil members of the old cult. My only reason for getting this movie was to see von Bargen's performance, and it is a very good one. In fact now it would be hard to imagine anyone else in that role. I knew him in college, we were students at Purdue, and we were in a 4-week, 28-performance student musical in 1969. It is both extremely fun and extremely sad to see him on screen, knowing that he is already gone.SPOILERS: In 1995 they found someone who could tell where Dix had been buried, and dug him up. He became "re-animated", of course still evil and uttering the words "I was born to murder the world." But in a series of events he was propelled down a deep shaft into what looks like molten lava and apparently destroyed. But who really knows? As the director comments in the DVD's selectable director's commentary. Good horror movie.

Long story: Years ago, mid-Nineties, I saw bits of a movie at a friend's house after opting not to videotape it back home. It turned out to be better than I expected, and now, years later, I'm trying to find it. Problem is, I don't know the name of the movie. Or the actors.So why bother the fans of LORD OF ILLUSIONS? It clearly isn't this movie as I downloaded the trailer last night. But what I do remember of the target I'm searching for is (1) character name Swann (2) bad guy had a mandrill in a cage, a young girl in a cage, he intimated that he was going to put the girl in the cage with this horny creature (3) mind-bending powers of bad guy...You're all screaming this is LORD OF ILLUSIONS. I insist that it is not. I saw your movie trailer last night, and Scott Bakula doesn't ring a bell, and I'm RavenGlamDVDCollector, Famke GOLDENEYE Janssen would have rung a bell.The movie I saw was on South African pay-channel M-Net during the mid-Nineties, which places it in the same era as your movie. MAJOR POINT HERE: TV Trope & Idioms site refers to the movie's maniac monkey as a mandrill. From the flash of it seen in the downloaded trailer, THAT IS NOT A MANDRILL. Movie I'm talking about featured a big, hulking male mandrill with that 'war-painted horrible face', not the little fun thing from FRIENDS and CALIFORNICATION gone momentarily berserk.Identifying it hinges on the mentioned key scene: Does your LORD OF ILLUSIONS feature a despicable guy threatening to put a captive girl in a cage with an adult male mandrill (with for all practical purposes is a rainbow-faced baboon, very intimidating)And if I have just been wasting your time, kindly note that SOMEWHERE OUT THERE IS A MOVIE VERY SIMILAR IN KEY STRUCTURE, perhaps inspired by Clive Barker's work. Or am I 'barking' up the wrong tree? [email protected] eagerly awaits your response. Please enlighten me with any comments and clues.

Liverpool born Clive Barker is a well-known name in fiction, and especially in horror. His novels have sold millions of copies all over the World and many of his stories have been adapted to the screen over the last three decades, one of those films was Lord of Illusions, based on the short story "The Last Illusion" from Barker's "Books of Blood Vol. 6", a compilation of stories from 1985.Directed by Clive himself, Lord of Illusions is a fantasy horror starring Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap), Kevin J. O'Connor and Famke Janssen (X-Men). This was the last film that Barker directed after previously stepping behind the camera for Nightbreed and Hellraiser. The director's cut of "Lord…" is, in Barker's words, the "definitive version of the film" while the theatrical cut does not represent his true vision. This release from 101 Films features the theatrical cut on Blu- ray as well as the director's cut, complete with director commentary, on DVD. This alone makes it worth picking up this version.The plot is very Barker-eqsue. It tells the story of Private Detective Harry D'Amour (Bakula) who happens upon a cult that is awaiting the resurrection of their "leader" Nix. Nix trained Philip Swann (O'Connor) in the art of magic and illusion, and Swann went on to become a success much-like a David Copperfield. Philips wife, Dorothea (Janssen), hires D'Amour to protect her husband from the impending rise of his former master, Nix, and his demented cult members. An "accident" with Swann leads to D'Amour investigating and discovering a world of magic he didn't know existed. A twisting and turning story of magic, deception and evil, Lord of Illusions is an intriguing and unusual film that plays in the fields of horror, fantasy and sci-fi.There are few films that deal with magic and illusionists, and even fewer that deal with it in the way that Lord of Illusions does. The director's cut is much better viewing than the theatrical version, the version I had always been familiar with until seeing this release. An absorbing premise, the film offers something very different and while it isn't flawless, it is still a very palatable and enjoyable experience that I will return to once again in the futureThe acting is hit and miss. They often feel trite and border on lethargic at times, but Bakula is charming as D'Amour, and Janssen, though much improved since her work here, offers a polite performance that doesn't really offend. I found O'Connor to be a little puerile at times and it made for some scenes that bordered on cringe worthy, but it wasn't enough to put me off watching.The story isn't Barker's best, and as a reader of plenty of his novels and short tales, I am surprised that he didn't adapt something better to the screen than this. The Damnation Game, Pig Blood Blues and The Body Politic all come to mind and were released before or around the same time as "The Last Illusion". Still, Barker saw fit to make this, and it isn't a bad movie, just not on the same level as Nightbreed and Hellraiser. Barker was a fine director too and it would be nice to see him try his hand at it once more, perhaps adapting a newer novel such as Mister B. Gone to film.101 Films have done a commendable job with this release. It looks the part, and the picture quality and sound on the Blu-ray is of a high quality for a film of this type. The extra DVD featuring the director's cut of the film as well as a directors commentary is a lovely addition and should be a big reason to buy this release.It's not brilliant, and it doesn't feature an iconic antagonist like Pinhead, but Lord of Illusions is still worth a watch, and the director's cut is just dandy.