'Yawn, did I miss something here? 'Special Effects' is categorized as Drama, Thriller, Horror. Well, the Drama part is correct. There's very little thriller elements and certainly no horror - unless you count the horror in realizing the horror you were watching was not a horror film as expected!
What I'm about to tell you might sound like spoilers, but it's just the intro. If you still don't want to know, skip this paragraph, and the next one. Keefe (Brad Rijn) manages to track down his wife, Andrea, who now makes a living as a nude model. He wants her to come back to him and be a mother to their young son. However, Andrea has no intention of going back and wants to make a porn movie instead.
Arriving at a once bankable director's home, she flirts with him hoping to get the part. Neville, the director, has secret cameras set up in his bedroom and when he wants to film them having sex, Andrea has an argument with him when she realizes they are being filmed, and he kills her.
Ok, you can start reading again. After committing the murder, director Christopher Neville decides to make a movie about the murder. And this is where my issues with the movies started. He decided to cast real-life actors in his movie, even Keefe. I found this absurd, to say the least, and just as in the film Neville was making, it felt as if director Larry Cohen was making up 'Special Effects' as he went along.
Meanwhile, Detectives are investigating Keefe, believing he could have been responsible for the murder. I didn't find the turn of events believable, and also found the film very slow moving. There are also no special effects here. The special effects referred to are merely improvisation - by the characters in the film, and I almost believed by the actors themselves as well. This is a very boring movie.
I did enjoy the hint of satire. When the director is flipping through photographs of potential female stars for his movie, there's a picture of Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie. Ha-ha, hilarious!!
What I'm about to tell you might sound like spoilers, but it's just the intro. If you still don't want to know, skip this paragraph, and the next one. Keefe (Brad Rijn) manages to track down his wife, Andrea, who now makes a living as a nude model. He wants her to come back to him and be a mother to their young son. However, Andrea has no intention of going back and wants to make a porn movie instead.
Arriving at a once bankable director's home, she flirts with him hoping to get the part. Neville, the director, has secret cameras set up in his bedroom and when he wants to film them having sex, Andrea has an argument with him when she realizes they are being filmed, and he kills her.
Ok, you can start reading again. After committing the murder, director Christopher Neville decides to make a movie about the murder. And this is where my issues with the movies started. He decided to cast real-life actors in his movie, even Keefe. I found this absurd, to say the least, and just as in the film Neville was making, it felt as if director Larry Cohen was making up 'Special Effects' as he went along.
Meanwhile, Detectives are investigating Keefe, believing he could have been responsible for the murder. I didn't find the turn of events believable, and also found the film very slow moving. There are also no special effects here. The special effects referred to are merely improvisation - by the characters in the film, and I almost believed by the actors themselves as well. This is a very boring movie.
I did enjoy the hint of satire. When the director is flipping through photographs of potential female stars for his movie, there's a picture of Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie. Ha-ha, hilarious!!