The Movie:

This review is for the Director's Cut of Lord of Illusions.

Lord of Illusions attempts to mix supernatural macabre horror, existential thriller and neo-noir, eventually ending up as a bit of an atonal mess. A quite fascinating and always intriguing mess, but a mess in the end. Like almost all of Clive Barker's work, it takes a genre template and follows it to tee while trying to elevate the material by inserting philosophical and theological questions about the real meaning of physical life and the possibility of an existence beyond the unknown.

The film begins with a cold open horror set piece that looks like we're actually watching a sequel, as if the first scene is supposed to catch us up with the ending of the previous installment. The fact that the opening feels more like the climax of a different film represents just the beginning of the many structural issues with Lord of Illusions. It feels like Clive Barker pitched a bunch of ideas, regardless of genre consistency or a coherent screenplay structure, and constructed Lord of Illusions as a random amalgamation of those ideas.

Anyway, the overly long opening sequence shows a group of magicians led by "super-illusionist" Philip Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) on their way to stop a powerful magician named Nix (Daniel von Bergen), who uses real magic to gain demonic powers. Swann catches up to Nix and performs a complex ritual that really doesn't make any sense, since Barker doesn't bother to explain the details and the circumstances of the operation, sucking out all tension out of the scene, despite the macabre horror bells and whistles meant to convince us that something immensely important is going on. Eventually, they kill, or at least incapacitate Nix.

Thirteen years later, private detective Harry D'Amour (Yes kids, Scott Bakula actually starred as the main character in a 90s theatrical feature) is assigned to a case that leads him to the mysterious death of Swann, who became a world famous illusionist, using real magic to trick the audience into thinking he was the world's greatest trickster when in fact he actually possessed supernatural powers. During a sold-out magic show, one of his Houdini-like tricks goes horribly wrong and his show ends up as an ultra realistic Broadway adaptation of Saw.

While investigating Swann's death, D'Amour is pulled down into a mysterious cult of real magicians who are trying to bring Nix back to life, which might signal the end of the world. The upside is, he begins to have an affair with Swann's wife Dorothea, who's portrayed by mid-90s Famke Janssen.

The idea of a world where illusionists and magicians are in separate camps, magicians actually performing the supernatural tricks illusionists can only fake through clever sleight of hand, is a fascinating one and is ripe for badass horror-action fare. Injecting a 1940s-style noir protagonist and story structure to this premise is even more intriguing.

However, Barker's problems are not with ideas, but how they are put together in a feature as a whole. The director's cut adds a bit more than ten minutes of extra footage to the theatrical version, which received mixed reviews upon its initial release, adding some character development and a little bit of extra gore. Even in this state it still can't manage to build a convincing universe of its own, swinging haphazardly back and forth between heavy and moody noir to goofy and gory supernatural horror.

It's interesting that Barker himself states in his commentary that he wanted to make sure people understood they were in for a serious horror film and not a horror-comedy. There are even some mocking references to intentionally ridiculous creatures used in such films: When D'Amour sees a grotesque creature used as a hologram to ward off trespassers, he calls it "Hokey". The problem is that less than ten minutes afterwards, Barker presents a creature that seems to be inspired by the ancient art of origami, which is at least, if not more, hokey. His use of CGI in its infancy in a relatively low-budget horror flick doesn't help the film's attempt at raw horror.

The Blu-Ray:

Video:

The Director's Cut is presented in a 1080p transfer that has a healthy film-like look, is pretty clear and representative of the source material. However, the transfer is full of dirt and scratches, which become exceedingly obvious while watching on a projector system or a really large TV. The superimposed composite effects are the worst offenders as the transfer makes sure the scratchy effects pull us out of the movie.

Audio:

One thing you can expect from Clive Barker is a solid and stylistic audio/visual experience when it comes to macabre horror. In this case, Simon Boswell's grand and gothic score (Which, if I have to be honest, belongs in a much better film) really takes over the DTS-HD 5.1 mix every time it appears. During scenes of actual magic, the sfx has some presence on the surround channels but not much more should be expected from the sound mix of a mid-budget horror project.

Extras:

Theatrical Cut: The first Blu-Ray disc contains the theatrical cut without any other extras. The cut's transfer looks identical to the director's cut, making me wonder why they didn't present a branching transfer on a single disc.

A Gathering of Magic: A 20-minute typical EPK with the cast and crew having nothing but great things to say about the production. There's some interesting behind-the-scenes footage.

Original Behind the Scenes Footage: A making-of documentary that runs for an hour and gets deeper into the film's production. For die-hard fans only.

Deleted Scenes: Three minutes of scenes with commentary by Barker.

Interview With Storyboard Artist Martin Mercer: Now we're getting into content that's really for huge fans of Barker's work. Mercer talks about his experiences working for Barker. The 11-minute featurette also shows a side-by-side storyboard and final film comparison.

Commentary by Clive Barker: Barker very calmly and meticulously explains his motivations behind constructing every scene. This is a very informative commentary that fans should benefit from.

Final Thoughts:

Lord of Illusions tries to find the sweet spot between noir and horror like the much superior Angel Heart and comes up short. However, it's still a mildly entertaining product of the mid-90s and should at least fill horror fans with a bit of nostalgia.

Oktay Ege Kozak is a film critic and screenwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He also writes for The Playlist, The Oregon Herald, and Beyazperde.com