Between physical pain and bodily alterations, “The Master of Illusions” by Clive Barker, unprecedented in the room with us, is the 3rd film of a director as sulfurous as they are controversial. An amazing work to see on Prime Video.
Almost unknown to the general public, the British Clive Barker, now 72 years old, has been leading a singular career for several decades. At the same time a novelist, playwright, comic book scriptwriter and even video games, painter, filmmaker … He is a real jack-of-all-trades, having developed a universe often eyeing SM and tortured flesh.
The head of the line what has been called the Splatterpunk; A movement of fictional horror which is distinguished by its very graphic side, often gore, descriptions of violence, a counter-cultural aspect (via punk), and the absence of limits in the description of horror. Suffice to say an artist with often extreme biases, who will logically not please everyone …
In the cinema, he had struck a big blow in 1987 with a film that became cult, Hellraiser, which will also generate (and alas ..) from ever lower suites. But also a very surprising film, Cabal, in 1990, which relates the misadventures of a group of monsters / mutants trying to escape a serial killer … embodied by none other than David Cronenberg. Unlike the previous one, Cabal was a big failure in the dining room, but also knew how to win his stripes as a cult film.
MGM
Physical pain and bodily alterations
In 1995, Clive Barker signed his 3rd film, the master of illusions, who will remain unprecedented in the room in our regions. If this work was the first entirely American film by Barker, it was, alas and also, revamped and even pushed by its studio, MGM.
Combining elements of neo black, magic aware of Splatterpunk and his excesses of unhealthy violence which established the reputation of the writer, the master of illusions tells the story of Harry d'Amour (Scott Bakula), a private New York detective specializing in cases relating to occultism, having to investigate the threats that weigh on the life of a famous illusionist.
The latter succumbing to a violent death during one of his shows, Harry's suspicions are first oriented on Dorothea, the wife of Swann (embodied by a then almost unknown Famke Janssen, who will be revealed the same year by Goldeneye), before his investigation leads him in the footsteps of a group of fanatics wishing the return of Nix, their chief and guru. Swann thirteen years earlier. Harry d'amour will have to dive into a paranormal universe and avoid corpses that pile up on his way to the truth …
MGM
Always faithful to his obsessions, in particular physical pain and bodily alterations which give rise to rather intense gore scenes, the master of illusions remains however one of the most accessible works of Barker, really to discover.
It is precisely available in the video premium catalog. We will still put a slightly sorrowful downside: this is the “short” version of the film, and not the full version, 20 min, which was published in 2018 in Blu-ray by the smoking cat. An initiative all the more appreciable as the film, released on DVD with us at the time, was the censored version. But given the relative rarity of the film, we are not going to complain too much.
