First let me state that I’ve seen both Lord of Illusions and Nightbreed. Both of these movies are based on different stories from this book. I wasn’t really into Nightbreed, but I loved Lord of Illusions. It had something no other horror flick I’d seen as a kid had, occult magic!That movie was based on the final story in this collection: The Last Illusion. It was great, but completely different from what I remember of the movie. The basic hook was the same and it had the same characters, but the actual plot and story were completely different. I’m having a hard time deciding which version I like better, but they are each awesome in their own right. His description of the demons in this story take the cake for the most disturbing creatures I’ve ever read.Cabal, the basis for the movie Nightbreed, is a novella that takes up the first full half of the collection. It read much like I remember the director’s cut of the movie, and I was not surprised since Barker directed that one. Again, the monsters were superb, and the real monsters were horrible humans. The other stories were good as well, they just didn’t stand out as much as these two.I highly recommend this collection of Barker’s. I think it is his best collection since reading Books of Blood volumes 1-3.
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