Nix wields real magic and plans to sacrifice a girl, telling his followers he will save the world and grant them wisdom.

Thirteen years later, in New York City, occult-specializing private detective Harry D'Amour has been shaken by an exorcism case.

During his investigation, D'Amour happens upon Quaid, now working as a fortune teller, being attacked by Butterfield and Ray Miller, a man possessing great strength.

As he dies from multiple stab wounds, Quaid reads D'Amour's palm, seeing it is his destiny to "walk the line between Heaven and Hell".

Dorothea reveals to D'Amour that she was the girl Nix kidnapped years ago, rescued by Swann, and marrying him out of gratitude and obligation.

Nix's loyalists (who had waited all this time and slaughtered their families before returning) are present as his iron bindings are removed, resurrecting him.

While burning in the pit, Nix manages to launch a final spell that disintegrates Swann's body to bones, and then seals the chasm.

In the original 1985 story "The Last Illusion", Harry D'Amour has had only one previous encounter with the supernatural, having fought a demon in Brooklyn, and is still shaken by the experience.

He is asked to guard the body of dead illusionist Swann by the man's wife Dorothea, leading him into a confrontation with more demons, including the story's antagonist Butterfield.

He returned as a major character in the 1994 novel Everville,[4] the second installment of the "Book of the Art" trilogy, a year before Lord of Illusions hit theaters.

According to an interview with Fangoria in 1992, Barker started the first draft of the screenplay in 1991, at which time the movie shared its title with the original short story "The Last Illusion".

[citation needed] Regarding how to translate D'Amour's character and the original short story, Barker said in an interview with Fangoria (#138, 1994) that "The Last Illusion was almost a Philip Marlowe type of thing, but this movie isn't a homage to '40's noir.

[citation needed] Clive Barker claimed he picked Famke Jannsen based purely on her photograph and that he considered Scott Bakula to be the perfect casting for D'Amour in both appearance and manner.

[citation needed] On the documentary "The Making of Lord of Illusions" included on the director cut's laser disc release, Bakula said: "It helped tremendously to have the writer saying, 'You're the guy, you're perfect for Harry'.

Still I had to come up with my own interpretation of Harry - who he was - and bring this 40s film noir detective into the 90s and make him seem fresh and new and relevant to these situations that only Clive could put him in".

In the film adaptation, Butterfield was made into a human acolyte of the new villain Nix, a cult leader who becomes a vessel for demonic power.

In an interview with Cinescape in 1995, Barker explained: "Halfway through shooting this picture, somebody came in with a newspaper with a headline about these mass deaths in a cult in Switzerland [the Order of the Solar Temple].

[citation needed] Clive Barker said: "I had four or five images in my head which were starting places for scenes: the look of the magic show - Swann's spectacular - which we've staged at the Pantages; the look of Nix's lair; the cultists' house; the look of the Bel-Air mansion where Swann and his wife, Dorothea, reside and actually Harry's apartment - that was a late addition ..."[5] The entire film was laid out in storyboards prior to filming.

MGM insisted on removing roughly twelve and a half minutes from the film and Barker conceded as long as a director's cut could be released later.

A kiss D'Amour and Dorothea Swann share is longer in the director's cut and leads into a sex scene that is largely missing from the theatrical version.

Extra scenes include: Valentin coming to D'Amour's hotel room to hire him at Dorothea's request; Valentin driving Harry to meet Dorothea; a dream Harry has involving the Swann case and the supernatural creature he encountered in Brooklyn; Harry formally meeting Walter Wider at the Magic Castle and chatting with him before he is given a tour; D'Amour briefly speaking to Valentin on the phone before calling Billy to meet him at the Magic Castle; brief scenes of Nix's followers killing their families and leaving to reunite in the cult's old compound; Dorothea dreaming of Nix's followers and compound, then waking to discover her housekeeper dead and Valentin wounded; a discussion between Philip Swann and D'Amour regarding Nix's power, teachings, and goal as they ride in a car together.

He added: "Playing the antihero D'Amour, Bakula is appropriately rumpled but seems emotionally uncommitted, and his out-of-the-blue bedding of Dorothea is laughable.

[9] Joe Leydon of Variety called the film "a much more conventional effort than Barker’s earlier outings", while also finding it "more sophisticated and satisfying than anything the genre has offered since Wes Craven's New Nightmare".

Leydon said Bakula's "virile good looks, low-key humor and matter-of-fact authority make him an engaging Everyman, the perfect traveling companion for a journey through Barker’s nightmare world".

[10] In a retrospective review, Karl Williams wrote in AllMovie that Lord of Illusions "starts off strong with an intriguing premise, but then goes quickly nowhere".

Contradicting Leydon, he argued that Bakula's everyman demeanor makes him completely inappropriate for the role of D'Amour, and found the script confusing.