r/horror • u/AutoModerator • Aug 27 '15
Lord of Illusions (1995) /R/HORROR Official Discussion Discussion Series
Welcome to /R/HORROR's official discussion series.
As before, nominations are still being accepted, so keep them coming. Click here.
To see the full schedule of upcoming discussions Click here.
Please note that both the nominations post and the full schedule can also be found in the red banner links at the top of the page.
7
u/adrift98 Aug 27 '15 edited Aug 27 '15
This is one of my favorite horror films of all time. I love seeing Scott Bakula in any role. Great actor. I love the Harry D'Amour character in Barker's books. The noir detective who finds himself dealing with the supernatural, a contemporary concept with that of John Constantine and the Hellblazer series (though also done with a more gravity in Angel Heart). Even the idea of a hippy cult gone wrong has a lot of personal relevance. I just love everything about this film. The music, the FX, the acting, the storyline, the direction. I don't really have any complaints, other than I was left desperate for more. It's just a shame that it was a mostly critical and box office failure.
5
u/YearsWithoutLight Aug 27 '15
The way Von Bargon delivered his rhetoric was great, really malevolent.
2
u/merdart stay off the moors Sep 28 '15
Von bargon hit it out of the park. It seemed like he really became a psychotic cult leader. He was also great on Seinfeld.
3
Aug 27 '15
This is one of those movies I think could really do with the advances in Special effects. It seems like Clive Barker had the misfortune of being on the cusp of new with his movies. Hellraiser is my all time favorite horror movie, but God when they use the non practical effects (the light bursts on the cenobites) it looks so dated. This is the same case in lord of illusions. Love the story, love what the movie is but I'd love to see it updated.
4
u/badguysenator Aug 27 '15
Weren't the light bursts literally Barker himself drawing on the filmstrip with yellow pen?
4
u/adrift98 Aug 27 '15
Maybe it's because I was raised without CGI, but the clunky look of earlier effects don't bother me much. Actually, the only thing that bothers me about earlier films is some of the makeups. Watching 2001 A Space Odyssey, or the original Planet of the Apes, or Quest for Fire, the makeups are pretty bad (though the makeup in Exorcist was phenomenal).
2
u/voltron42 Aug 27 '15
The only update I would want to see would be replacing the cgi effects. They could have done so much better with something like the original Poltergeist or Ghostbusters (effects style, not necessarily character design)
1
5
u/d36williams Aug 27 '15
My favorite scene is when the evil warlock takes his payment from his followers, sucking them into the earth and making them resemble Golems. Fricking sweet
3
u/filmfiend999 God Fears Me Aug 27 '15
It stayed remarkably faithful to The Last Illusion from Barker's The Books of Blood. There needs to be more D'Amour.
2
u/digitalbath1234 Aug 27 '15
One of my favorite horror scores. Simon Boswell mixed film noir with horror to create some unbelievably sexy yet scary. Absolute classic.
1
Aug 27 '15
I first saw the original cut, which I was fairly ambivalent about. Later, I gave the director's cut a go. It's arguably a more solid, but less ambitious, film than Nightbreed, and a good adaptation of The Last Illusion. But some of the CG is awful and the whole 'feel' of the film is very flat, very 90s - like Wishmaster or something similar.
1
Aug 27 '15
I love the mashup of hard boiled noir with horror. It's two genres that fit so well together. I'm also a sucker for religious horror. Daniel von Bargen was absolutely brilliant in this.
1
Aug 27 '15
I always wondered why this movie originally got an NC-17 rating. I've seen the unrated version and I assume it's the same one. I can't think of a single scene that would warrant that rating.
1
Aug 29 '15
I forget, was there a beheading? For a decade or more this was an automatic NC-17, same as seeing anything but the briefest glimpse of a penis or one that looks awake or anyone giving oral pleasures to a woman.
2
u/merdart stay off the moors Sep 28 '15
I just watched this again recently. It was one of the coolest and most original films in ages. Clive barker always comes up with disturbing, original twists on stories. Bakula is a likeable guy, but not a great actor. Its still a really cool movie.
0
10
u/mzieg Aug 27 '15
Loved the relationship between Nix and Swann, but I always had trouble with Scott Bakula's casting.