Macabre…ish Horror Review: Lord of Illusions

Lord of Illusions, 1995/ 2 hrs 1 min.

In 1982, a cult gathers in a house in the Mojave Desert when their leader, Willian Nix aka The Puritan (Daniel von Bargen) says he is ready to perform the ritual to save the world and grant the disciples wisdom. It includes the sacrifice of a young woman but former members arrive to stop the ritual and bind Nix, rendering him powerless, if they can.

Thirteen years later, a private investigator who specializes in the occult, Harry D’Amour (Scott Bakula) is shook by an exorcism. He escapes to L.A. on what he hopes is an easy case to take his mind off of that case. He’s wrong, it’s not so easy and he runs into people from his past. One is now a fortune teller, Caspar Quaid (Joseph Latimore) and another is a famous stage illusionist, Phillip Swann (Kevin J. O’Connor) who is married to Dorothea (Famke Janssen), the girl who was once a potential ritual sacrifice.

After seeing one of Swann’s show’s that was a disaster, D’Amour realizes he uses real magic taught to him by Nix. Later, they discover Nix loyalists want to recover his body and resurrect him back at the old Mojave house. While the disciples wait they cut their hair and flesh and kneel on broken glass.

Once resurrected, Nix, is a grotesque, decayed monster but still powerful, powerful and more violent. And he demands more suffering from his devoted followers. When the ritual begins, the Earth opens along with creature that lives in his 3rd eye. Then it rains and the Earth swallows them whole.

This movie is based on the short story, The Last Illusion in The Books of Blood by Clive Barker. And it is a trippy gore fest with a lot of 90s CG but some pretty grotesque physical effects too. It is always more gory and violent than I remember. There are also a fair amount of jump scares and in all the grotesque violence there is humor. Recognizable cast and the story is simple but seemed a little long but otherwise, entertaining.