Lord of Illusions
The Prophecy
Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions partakes of this fantasy, linking power with the ability to provoke fear. In the film, which takes place primarily in LA, good magic (that practiced by the prophets in the Bible) is “glittering” and false, merely a magician’s trick. True magic is dark and evil. The prophet with real power in Lord of Illusions is a Hell’s Angel gone to seed: Nix (Daniel Von Bargen) is a sweaty, grizzled guy with a beer gut who tosses fire from hand to hand and is immortal. The story is that Nix has kidnapped a girl for sacrifice (and enjoys letting his pet baboon terrorize her). A former protege, Swann (Kevin J. O’Connor), is offended by this latest ugly turn and decides to save her. Years later, detective Harry D’Amour (Scott Bakula) is drawn into the whole mess.
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Barker’s focus is on blood rather than shadow, viscera rather than paradox, gory slayings rather than enigmatic sayings. Lord of Illusions opens with a legend across the screen that’s a patent absurdity masquerading as an insight: “Death itself is an illusion.” This may be true in a metaphoric or religious sense, but Lord of Illusions makes the statement ridiculously literal. When a character says that Nix gets inside people’s heads, he means he sticks his fingers through their skulls. Immortal Nix must be killed so that he can rise from the dead; but since death is an illusion, how can this be done? Barker’s chosen method involves a metal hockey mask with screws that bore into the skull, presumably a more fatal solution than decapitation.
Lord of Illusions is based on one of Barker’s own short stories, but Gregory Widen’s much more ambitious The Prophecy is loosely based on Milton’s Paradise Lost. After a seminary student named Thomas (Elias Koteas) loses his faith, he becomes a cop. Years later, while investigating a murder, he’s drawn into the second war of the angels, trying to protect a young girl (Moriah Snyder) from the angel Gabriel (Christopher Walken). Gabriel is after the soul of a vicious war criminal, which he believes the good angel Simon (Eric Stoltz) has hidden in the girl. It’s not your usual story line, but Widen makes it sufficiently plausible; unfortunately, the film’s fireworks ending isn’t as subtle or spooky as the rest of the movie.
Lao-tzu, a Taoist philosopher, says: “When the people of the world…all know good as good, there arises the recognition of evil.” Both Lord of Illusions and The Prophecy are fascinated by religion: to believe in Satan, it seems it’s necessary to believe in God. When the devil decides to help mankind, he gives Thomas “angel-fighting” tips, telling him that “what holds an angel’s whole being together is faith.” If Thomas stops believing, he can still live despite the loss. But for an angel the loss is fatal: if the foundations of Gabriel’s faith are shaken, his existence is over.
