History Film / LordOfIllusions

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-->''"Flesh is a trap. Magic sets us free."''

* ComfortingTheWidow: Harry D'Amour strikes up a romance with the late Philip Swann's wife Elizabeth only a few days after Swann's death and while Elizabeth is still mourning over her husband's casket. [[spoiler:D'Amour shacking up with his wife ''majorly'' pisses Swann off when he's revealed to have faked his on-stage death, and he nearly kills D'Amour.]]

* OurLichesAreDifferent: Post-resurrection, Nix is a zombified revenant, but no less evil a sorceror.

* BodyHorror: Par for the course with Barker; especially noteworthy is the whammy Nix lays on Swann showing him "flesh through a god's eyes."

* QuicksandSucks: [[JustifiedTrope Justiied,]] as [[AWizardDidIt a wizard]] ''[[AWizardDidIt literally]]'' [[AWizardDidIt did it.]] The freshly-resurrected Nix [[spoiler: kills his followers by turning the ground beneath them into this trope, and waiting for them to sink fully before solidifying it. One manages to survive but is trapped from the waist down.]]

* QuicksandSucks: [[JustifiedTrope Justiied,]] as [[AWizardDidIt a wizard ''literally'' did it.]] The freshly-resurrected Nix [[spoiler: kills his followers by turning the ground beneath them into this trope, and waiting for them to sink fully before solidifying it. One manages to survive but is trapped from the waist down.]]

* QuicksandSucks: [[spoiler:The freshly-resurrected Nix kills his followers by turning the ground beneath them into this trope, and waiting for them to sink fully before solidifying it. One manages to survive but is trapped from the waist down.]]

* FatalMethodActing: In-story, [[spoiler:Swann is gruesomely "killed" on-stage during an escape trick.]]

* RescueRomance: Dorothea [[spoiler: with Swann after he rescues her from the cult, and later with Harry following the final showdown with Nix.]]

* EvilSorceror: Nix was an evil wizard who had actual magical powers. He sees it as his mission to turn the world into a graveyard. He becomes a lich after his cultists revive him.

* EvilSorceror: Nix was an evil wizard who had actual magical powers. He sees it as his mission to turn the world into a graveyard.

* PureIsNotGood: Nix sermons to his followers that he has been named "the Puritan" by holy decree. [[spoiler:They get to find out just how purely evil this guy is when he kills them for being mindless slaves.]]

* IronicNickname: The sadistic sorceror Nix names himself "the Puritan". He doesn't even aspire to purity, except maybe pure malice.

''Lord of Illusions'' is a 1995 movie directed by CliveBarker, based on his own short story "The Last Illusion." A blend of [[FilmNoir noir]] and horror, the story opens in the early 80s at a run-down cult compound in the Mojave Desert. Nix, the leader who calls himself "the Puritan," wields magical powers he promises to share with his enthralled followers. Unfortunately for him, some of the group decide Nix has gone too far by kidnapping a teenage girl. Led by Nix's prize pupil Philip Swann, the rebels manage to overpower and subdue him. They leave him bound in an iron mask and buried deep under the sands of the Mojave, with the loyal followers scattered to the winds.

* OurLichesAreDifferent: Nix, post-resurrection.

--> '''Nix:''' You're not worthy...You just waited like lambs. I'm not your shepherd.

* BuriedAlive: [[spoiler:Nix does this to the cultists shortly after his resurrection by turning the floor into quicksand with his magic.]]

* MismatchedEyes: One of Butterfield's eyes is a pale blue, the other dark brown.

* AGodAmI - Played straight in spirit, yet subverted in letter by Nix after his return.

* AlmostDeadGuy - Quaid survives just long enough to warn Harry of Nix's impending resurrection

* BloodMagic - The mask Swann and the rest use to bind Nix's powers is screwed into his skull, secured with dabs of Swann's blood.
* BodyHorror - Par for the course with Barker; especially noteworthy is the whammy Nix lays on Swann showing him "flesh through a god's eyes."
* ConspicuousCG - The ghostly figure that attacks Harry [[spoiler:after Swann catches him sleeping with Dorothea.]]

* DistressedDamsel - Dorothea falls into this role [[spoiler:twice - once as a teenager, and again when Butterfield uses her to draw out Swann and D'Amour.]]
* TheDragon - Butterfield, to Nix.
* FakingTheDead - [[spoiler:Swann tries this after Caspar Quaid's murder, staging his death as a stage illusion gone bad.]]
* FatalMethodActing - In-story, [[spoiler:Swann is gruesomely "killed" on-stage during an escape trick.]]
* FilmNoir - Blends the traditional elements of a noir detective story with supernatural horror.

* HollywoodExorcism - Harry's involvement in one of these is alluded to in flashback, and the experience continues to haunt him in the early part of the story.
* InfantImmortality - Averted in a brief scene in the director's cut, where a former cultist butchers her family, including her young children (though the violence is off-screen, we see the aftermath).
* InsistentTerminology - Swann's assistant Valentin is adamant that Harry understand his boss is an ''illusionist'' - he does ''not'' perform real magic.
* LeftForDead - Swann, Quaid and the rest thought they had managed to put Nix down for good. Turns out, not so much.
* MadeOfIron - Butterfield's goon, who takes repeated blows to the head, crashes through a window, falls two stories and walks away.
* ManiacMonkeys - Nix keeps a vicious pet mandrill.
* MismatchedEyes - One of Butterfield's eyes is a pale blue, the other dark brown.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat - D'Amour knocks one of Quaid's attackers through a second-story window, but the thug shakes it off and disappears before the police arrive.
* OurLichesAreDifferent - Nix, post-resurrection.
* PrivateDetective - Harry D'Amour, of the worn-down, worldy-wise sort.
* ReCut - A director's cut was released after the movie landed on home video.
* RescueRomance - Dorothea [[spoiler: with Swann after he rescues her from the cult, and later with Harry following the final showdown with Nix.]]
* SealedEvilInACan - The binding that should have killed Nix doesn't quite do the job, but it does keep him pent up for thirteen years.
* StageMagician - Swann rises to stardom after the cult breaks up, using the skills he learned from Nix to juice up his "illusions" [[spoiler:and ultimately to fake his own death.]]
* YouHaveFailedMe - Nix pulls this after his return, but not on the one responsible for his earlier defeat - rather he lashes out at the slavish, sycophantic cultists.

Thirteen years later, private detective Harry D'Amour is working an insurance fraud case in Los Angeles when he witnesses the murder of Caspar Quaid, one of the group who helped Swann bring down Nix. With his dying breath, Quaid warns that the Puritan is returning.

'''This movie contains examples of:'''

Shortly after Quaid's funeral, D'Amour is approached by Swann's wife Dorothea to investigate the killing. He takes the job, and quickly finds himself neck-deep in a battle of magic, illusions, good and evil.

* ConspicuousCG - The animate fire that attacks Harry [[spoiler:after Swann catches him sleeping with Dorothea.]]

* ManiacMonkeys - Nix keeps a vicious pet baboon.

* CompleteMonster - Nix, born to murder the world.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat - D'Amour knocks Quaid's attacker through a second-story window, but the thug shakes it off and disappears before the police arrive.