Product Details

• Actors: Scott Bakula, Kevin J. O'Connor, Joseph Latimore, Sheila Tousey, Susan Traylor
• Directors: Clive Barker
• Writers: Clive Barker
• Producers: Clive Barker, Anna C. Miller, JoAnne Sellar, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Steve Golin
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Special Edition, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303869173
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #328,640 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

Clive Barker's new picture is a good attempt at genre-snatching: he's taken clichés from horror and film noir and welded them together in a supernatural detective movie. The story-about a New York investigator who becomes involved in the black-magic lives of several illusionists and California cultists-rambles along unconvincingly, with a logic that is hazy at best. But Barker's images have the thrilling creepiness of a Nine Inch Nails video. The first half of the film, which includes some gruesome mutilation, is as comically suspenseful as the gimp scene in "Pulp Fiction." Unfortunately, at a certain point the supernatural takes over; the ending is just a blast of horror effects. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Now You See It, Now Your Dead, November 3, 2002

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lord of Illusions (DVD)

Unlike many authors who show up in the horror section of the local bookstore, Clive Barker has always stood out as one of the few who is willing to step aside from the mainstream and experiment with the limits of horror. He understands that there is an architecture and symbolism to horror the must be there if the tale is to rise above the modern gore-fest. "Lord of Illusions' is a case in point.

Using the character of Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula), a slightly run down, hard-boiled, compulsively heroic private investigator, Barker turns his eye to the thin line between illusion and magic. D'Amour, who is no stranger to the touch of evil, finds himself witness to the torture and death of a fortuneteller and as a result is hired by Dorothea Swann (Famke Janssen) to look into a set of eerie circumstances involving her husband Phillip (Kevin O'Conner) who is a world famous illusionist.

Just as Harry starts his investigation, Phillip Swann is killed horrifically in the middle of his act. Determined to follow through on his commitment to Dorothea the detective digs and discovers that he is surrounded by ghosts and shadows, full of false realities and illusions that can kill. At the heart is a Nix (Daniel Von Bergen), a cult leader and mage once killed by Phillip and now somehow working his way back into reality.

Barker works the story in layers, using apparent illusions to step from one world into another. Nothing is quite what it seems, other than the ultimate nature of evil. Some of Barker's manipulation is blatant (his heavy use of cruciform and tarot images), at other times, it is the subtle repetition of a rune. The story is unnerving in its progress and eventually our imagination is even worse than what the film presents.

Technically, the film is excellent. A great deal of attention is paid to the details of the settings, right down to carvings on table legs and scrawled messages on walls. Barker prefers a certain gritty reality that is far from the modern trend of antiseptic horror where everyone seems to take a shower between death scenes. He relies on only a bare minimum of special effects, preferring to use make-up and acting to get to make impact.

The acting is uneven, but the action is compelling enough to get the viewer through the rough spots. I have seen far worse performances in films that have drawn more notice. The key extra is a running commentary by Barker, who directed as well as wrote the film. If you have missed this film and have a yen for a combination of diabolic horror and noir detective theme make a point of seeing it. I don't think you will be disappointed.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "I was born to murder the world...", December 29, 2002

By 

N. Durham "Big Evil" (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lord of Illusions (DVD)

Based on his short story "The Last Illusion", Clive Barker helmed this adaption entitled Lord of Illusions, and offers up a good amount of shocks, scares, gore, and a near excellent plot; a combination that made one of Barker's previous films, the original and classic Hellraiser, such a great horror film. Scott Bakula (TV's Quantum Leap, now he's famous for TV's Enterprise) stars as private detective Harry D'amour, and he gets involved with a bizarre case involving a magician (Kevin J. O'Connor) who years before had killed prophet and mentor Nix (played to perfection by Daniel Von Bargen). However, Nix has seemingly been resurrected, and he and his followers have plans on the destruction of the world. Just about everything about Lord of Illusions is great: the visual effects and Barker's direction and storytelling are great, but there are some plot holes and now and then some crummy acting (courtesy of the beautiful Famke Janssen), but for the most part Lord of Illusions is a great horror film from one of the great masters of horror. The film has gained quite a cult following over the years, and MGM realized this and packed the DVD with some great extras including a commentary by Barker, an isolated music score (most of the music is absolutely creepy and sets a perfect tone), and some never before seen scenes as well.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Thriller, December 12, 2006

By 

Mark "Gay Madison Man" (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lord of Illusions (DVD)

I really enjoyed this film. I have been wanting to purchase it for sometime and I am very glad that I finally did. It is full of suspense and has alot of plot twists in the movie as well. I did watch the special features section of "deleted scenes" and felt that there were some deleted scenes that should have stayed in the final cut of this movie. Scott Bakula was a very strong actor in this movie as well as everyone else. I highly recommend this movie for anyone that likes a "classic" horror film.