In the Mojave Desert, practitioner of the dark arts Nix (Daniel von Bargen) leads a cult and has kidnapped a girl named Dorothea. His apprentice Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor) leads former cult members to rescue the girl. Nix can't be killed but Swann binds him and buries him. Thirteen years later, Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula) is a NY private eye specializing in the occult. He travels to L.A. on a case where he stumbles onto Swann, and his now wife Dorothea (Famke Janssen) as followers of Nix try to find the burial site and free Nix.

This is a fine Clive Barker story. It has a compelling plot. Scott Bakula is good as the lead. The major drawback is the weak special effects and some weak directing from Barker. The CGI is pretty bad and some get really cheesy. The Nix apparition looks horrible. The final battle has some good parts and some bad parts. The makeup is mostly good. I like the henchman character Butterfield but I wish that he be played by the same actor in both time frame. I don't understand why there are two actors playing that character.

In 1982, a group led by a man called Swann breaks in a cult in the Mojave Desert to rescue a teenager from the evil leader Nix the Puritan. Thirteen years later, New York private detective Harry D'Amour (Scott Bakula) is assigned to investigate a embezzler that is spending money in Los Angeles and he stumbles upon the fortune teller Quaid (Joseph Latimore) that was tortured and murdered by two men. Soon he is hired by Dorothea Swann (Famke Janssen),the wife of the famous illusionist Philip Swann (Kevin J. O'Connor),to investigate the murder of Quaid. She invites D'Amour to go with her to a show of magic of her husband. When Swann is killed on stage during his act of illusion, D'Amour meets other illusionists in the Magic Castle where he learns that magic does exist in the beginning of his weird journey to the evil world of Nix.

"Lord of Illusions" is an horror film written and directed by Clive Barker and still great in 2020. The noir-style makes the film timeless and with an intriguing beginning. The special effects are ahead of time (for a 1995 movie),with good performance of Scott Bakula and the debut of Famke Janssem in a feature. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Mestre das Ilusões" ("The Lord of the Illusions")

LORD OF ILLUSIONS is the third film directed by Clive Barker based on his own writing. I'm a fan of HELLRAISER so I was hoping for something of the same power and I got it: this is surprisingly similar to the writer's 1980s breakout and I'm saddened that it didn't do so well on release. It has all of the elements to make a good pulp horror story, from Scott Bakula's weary, private detective lead, to the sinister subject matter of black magic and real-world supernatural powers. Things kick off with an outstanding back story set-piece inside a crazy pastor's cult complex, before moving into mystery story territory. The likes of Bakula, Kevin J. O'Connor and Famke Janssen all deliver effective turns, but it's Barker who is the real star here. The film is filled with gruesome special effects work and ideas and there's a great deal of bodily horror, destruction, and dismemberment in the HELLRAISER style. CGI is used sparingly and, although dated, not too distracting. LORD OF ILLUSIONS is something of an underrated effort, icky and outrageous enough to work as a horror film, and with a chilly, chilling atmosphere from beginning to end.