Clive Barker’s expansion of a short story into a film as writer and director, rewat5ching for the first time in decades after seeing Book Of Hungry Names author Kyle Marquis mentioned it in a late Halloween film thread as the kind of thing worth remaking.
Imagine if two factions on a NIN message board were able to wage magikal war on each other.
Jessica Ritchey
It has some great stuff like a a really horrible cult a drive away from LA and a heroic treacherous apprentice, some interesting but odd stuff like someone doing real magic on stage and because of the big expansion of the initial story this not really being a big deal, a classic villain error, some CGI that works fine and some that looked like screensavers then.
And above all it has some really interesting casting against type. Of the main four, only Famke Janssen is playing her usual kind of thing. Scott Bakula plays shabby hard-bitten occult detective Harry D’Amour in a gap between spending years as warm trustworthy genre heroes. Kevin J. O’Connor is a bit weird and creepy but in a tragically heroic way rather than his usual weaselly comic relief.
Most of all, Daniel von Bargen does not have any standard Evil Wizard vibes - I could see him playing a cult leader well but downhome prepper nut cult. He normally played cops and military and had that look, here added with ratty robes and stubble so he looked like a squatter. Heavy magic people being out of society is an interesting idea, and contrasts with Swann’s success, but makes him seem unlikely as an apocalyptic threat. If this had been the third in a series or so this would have been a nice reversal of a norm that had already been established in the setting as well as in the genre overall, as is it’s a really odd choice, interesting but undercuts his villain style. Something to keep in mind for a Big Bad who isn’t the first the PCs face. (I suppose I’m thinking of the Mayor from Buffy.)
I recently reread the novella (The Last Illusion), which is solid, but the movie's basic premise of a dirtbag wizard war is so much more interesting than the demons in the original story. The novella is good--shades of Viy, Faust--but the movie is elevated by its creep-sleaze vibes.
Kyle Marquis
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