Story Movie
An ordinary case being investigated by private detective Harry takes a frightening turn when he encounters the mystery surrounding world-famous magician Philip Swann and his beautiful wife Dorothea. Harry finds himself drawn into a monstrous maelstrom of mystery, deception, and unimaginable horrors. The illusion is a trick, but the magic is real....
Review 4K Movie
Private investigator Harry D'Amour arrives in Los Angeles at the request of his client. There he meets Dorothea, the wife of famous illusionist Philip Swan, and accompanies her to his performance, where the audience is promised a dangerous new trick involving falling swords. But something goes wrong, and during the performance, the swords pierce Swan's body, killing him. Dorothea hires D'Amour to find her husband's killers. As the investigation progresses, Harry discovers that Swan was once, many years ago, a student of Nix, the leader of a sect whose members called themselves Puritans. Nix possessed the secrets of levitation, commanded the elements of fire, earth, air, and water, and was able to hypnotize and subjugate people's minds. Was he a magician or just an illusionist? The sect was more satanic in nature, and the leader's followers revered him as God, calling him Puritan, but Swan killed him. Perhaps Swan's death was revenge by the cult members? Many of them say that Nix will return, and his power, having conquered death, like the power of his followers, will be limitless. After all, death is only an illusion. The flesh is a trap. And magic sets us free.
Clive Barker directed the film Lord of Illusions based on his own novel of the same name, also serving as screenwriter and producer. Being, among other things, a painter and photographer, Barker is a master at creating visual horror on screen, which he successfully uses in his films—both in his earlier works Hellraiser and The Night People, and in this, his third feature film. He knows how to show the terrifying appeal of fear, the ugliness of the human body and soul, the power of dark forces, the black depths of despair, and the relentless cruelty of absolute evil, from which there is no escape and which cannot be defeated. Simon Boswell's music only reinforces this impression, as evil is felt on the level of sound vibrations.
There is no place for paradise in Barker's films and books — there is only hell with its endless torment, death, and pain. His works are somewhat akin to the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch: they are equally full of terrifying images and symbols, hopeless horror, and despair.
The faces of many characters in the film resemble frightening, distorted, ugly, or even caricatured masks. It is as if they are not people, but only evil caricatures of them, far from friendly caricatures. There is a saying, “God marks the scoundrel.” The heroes of Lord of Illusions seem to be marked by Satan himself, such are the expressive and repulsive images of the servants of that very dark side that attracts the detective with its dangerous secrets and mysticism. What is it that he has to face: mere illusion or real magic? And what is the difference? How can you tell what your eyes are seeing? Is it a complex optical illusion, a clever trick, or is it something otherworldly, real black magic? The difference between divine power and a skillful trick can be so subtle. Is it death or just an illusion of it?
This film combines two genres—mystical horror and classic noir—with the essential elements of both. On the one hand, there is a mysterious cult leader with paranormal abilities, fanatical followers, gruesome deaths, and a ritual return from the afterlife, the earth opening up beneath their feet, turning into a quicksand swamp and sucking in those sacrificed to it. On the other hand, there is a private detective with a gun, lonely, tired, and courageous, a femme fatale who hires him, and the passion and sex between them.
An investigation that leads deeper and deeper into the wilderness from the main direction, a search for witnesses who don't reveal the most important details and suddenly die a painful death. Everything is just like in real detective stories.
In addition to all this, there are nightmarish dreams with bloody boys and various spectacular devices for illusion shows, trap hiding places, swords piercing victims, laser projectors, and monsters spawned by them in the most unexpected places. It is this component that serves as the link between the two genres, like a fine line between the real and unreal parts of the script. Noir and horror fight each other like two snakes, intertwining ever closer and devouring each other in this struggle. Mysticism and horror gain weight and power, supplanting the detective investigation, turning it into a journey beyond the edge, a path into a nightmare, where in the labyrinth of darkness, consciousness splits, unable to resist an alien will, an alien force, and an alien otherworldly madness. The closer to the finale, the less room there is for reality—its place is taken by mysticism, magic, illusion, and obsession, turning into a real apocalypse, a desperate battle between good and evil, life and death at the very end, according to all the laws of both genres.
But in the realm of mysticism and horror, all this is drowned in pain, blood, moans, and curses of the unfortunate martyrs, suddenly transformed from devoted followers into petty change. The illusion of their lives is the best payment for the illusion of someone else's death, otherwise why are they needed at all? A pitiful, half-mad herd, living by collective reason in the absence of their own. Just shear them like sheep. But they themselves do it with pleasure, cutting their hair together in a common religious ecstasy, calling on their shepherd to return to them from the other world. He will come and be with them, and they will kneel before him. Their faces are covered in blood, their eyes are empty and insane, they are no longer human, there is nothing human left in them. This whole sect resembles a pack of bandarlogs from the Soviet cartoon about Mowgli, frozen in fear and awe before Kaa, shouting stupidly and enthusiastically: “He is with us!” as they kneel on broken glass and listen to their deity, begging him for a miracle. This scene is undoubtedly one of the most powerful in the film. It reveals the very essence of any cult, its meaning as a way of life, and the level of manipulation within it.
Anyone there can get the illusion of purpose, power, happiness, life, and death—all you have to do is believe in the Lord. It's better to have at least an illusion, because life is even worse.
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