Upon further review...
...this is a very effectively put together picture. I first saw it in my "summer of R" (when I could pass for 17 and purchase tickets at the box office instead of sneaking in)- a pretty great summer for movies.
Anyway, I think a lot of the subtext was lost on me then - I enjoyed the gruesome killings/effects, Dr. Sam Beckett, and Famke. And, to be fair, those are fun things.
Bought the director's DVD (one of my first!)around 2003, and enjoyed the movie, albeit it felt more familiar to me and I saw more flaws.
Finally read the short story the other day, and pulled the dusty DVD off the shelf - it holds up really well! This is a case where CB took the themes in the book (real magic and its horrifying possibilities, D'Amour's draw to the darkside, Swann's damnation) and really elaborated a cool world. Nix is a fantastic villain, too.
Things that hold up really well:
Butterfield
Evil pudgy NIX
Evil crusty undead NIX
Evil monkey (ape?)
Evil neo nazi minion (loved this the 3rd time around)
Famke
Illusions
Mystic death cult violence
D'Amour's flashbacks
Magic Castle folks (excepting Billy Asia, young gun magician)
Foreshadowing
Quotable lines (Born to murder the world..., Changed his mind...If you are very quick...)
Effects (KNB, no shock there)
NIX skull head
Things that don't hold up so good:
Billy Asia, young gun magician
Swann's hair do - yeesh, hard to look at
Whiny Swann
Bakula's cool detective vest
Vegas style, semi nude magic show (so 90s! So Showgirls!)
Bakula's back tat (mystical/edgy at the time, now hilariously passe, like my college roommate's)
Young Butterfield's gooch at the beginning - Egad
Even the dated stuff was so dated 90s edgy/cool that it added to my enjoyment. A very fun walk down memory lane for me, and an excellent synthesis of Barker's themes with cinema.
7/10 seem fair?