Bereamic Awesome Movie

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

tonyband Now I've been a Clive Barker fan for years. Whether its his writing, directing, or painting I think he is quite brilliant."Lord Of Illusions" is an example of his brilliance. Great enriched storytelling about the ideologies within the story about death and the difference between magic and illusion.Bakula surprisingly is able to carry this film on his back but its the cult favorite Kevin J O Connor that pulled me in most of the time.Famke jansen of xmen fame is stunning to look at has a real film noir quality. Very erotic.Clive Barker is a true visionary in the field of horror, perhaps too much so for his own good. Studios meddling may have compromised his theatrical films, but thankfully all the necessary footage to restore his visions have beem saved. "Lord of Illusions" may be the most flawed of the three pictures he made, but it's still an unconventional film. It holds up very well upon repeat viewings.

GL84 Hired to protect a widow, a private detective learns of her husband's work in the supernatural when his instructor, the leader of a black-magic cult awakens and seeks his vengeance upon them for their past work against him.This turned out to be a massive disappointment due to the fact that there's just not a whole lot here to like. One of the few good elements is the traditional use of an obscure atmosphere and occult imaginings that are just really creepy and chilling as they tamper with themes they have no business doing so with. As well, the search for the leader's writings and hiding place make for some pretty interesting times and the finale in the decrepit halls of his sanctuary and the full use of the black magic is a lot of fun. The main problem here with the film is the fact that it's just far too long and really takes far too much to get going as there's just so many useless scenes that add unnecessary time to the proceedings that there's no real use in featuring them, which include the scenes of them in the magic club, the following home from the funeral and the numerous failed attempts on his life that make the cult seem wholly incompetent to risk that kind of exposure that often with so many failed attempts. As well, the special effects are wholly terrible with primitive CGI that looks laughable and totally unconvincing, a villain with a changing conquest plan that makes no sense and a really thin story that's never fleshed out. These here drag it down quite a bit.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

Gavin Dobbs What the &@#% is this @$&%!?!? First off, I have always loved Clive Barker films more perhaps than any other author in the genre because the books are primarily kept in line with the stories and maintain a strong visual representation to his original vision. Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Dread, and Books of Blood all while suffering changes, maintained the vision.This movie... this movie does not in any shape of the imagination. The first problem I have is with the way characters are portrayed. Butterfield is transformed form a high powered attorney to a homosexual sadomasochist looking thing, Swann is portrayed as this young 90s hipster looking thing rather than a man that that woman he's seducing at the beginning of the novella comments that she prefers men 20 years younger than, Dorotheia is a child who was saved from cult activities rather than a prostitute, and there are just so many things wrong with Valentine (like the lack of him being a demon) that I don't want to start.Then we have the problem with the movie itself. The idea of "cremate Swann before the Gulfs can tear his soul apart" story of the novella was very good and very compelling. It was a fascinating read that I didn't want to let go of until it done. This travesty with Nix, and cults, and scenes taken from "Sins of the Father" was a jumbled mess that stomped all over the plot points which made the original story so good.My belief? Read the novella and watch this merely as a companion piece. Because quite honestly it comes down to this: Stephen King had the ABC miniseries It that debased the work it came from... well Clive Barker has this movie to his credit.

p-stepien 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.