Special Effects

It seems like Larry Cohen was trying to emulate DePalma with this ambitious, but poorly realized knock off of "Body Double." Some nice sets and decent shots cannot change the fact that Zoe Tamerlis is the WORST actress ever captured on film. If you thought Bo Derek or Pia Zadora were bad actresses, then after seeing Zoe in THIS, those ladies will look like Kathryn Hepburn and Meryl Streep by comparison. Usually poor acting isn't too much of a distraction if the material is good, but every time Tamerlis speaks it is painful. Eric Bogasian and Brad Rijn fare much better. Larry Cohen has made so many great movies, mostly in the 1970's, which seemed to be his decade. Interestingly he made another film the same year as "Special Effects," called "Perfect Strangers," which is actually MUCH better than this one. Strangely it's not nearly as well-known, probably due to the fact that it isn't flashy, and loaded with sex and violence. You do get plenty of that in this film. My advice is to skip this one and seek out "Perfect Strangers" instead. This movie gave me a headache, and I feel like i lost some brain cells in the process.

Larry Cohen's "Special Effects" is an average snuff-themed horror film.Eric Bogosian plays here an on-the-decline director who murders a starlet(brilliant Zoe Tamerlis,who sadly died in 1999)on camera and decides to use a dead ringer to make a film about the killing."Special Effects" is average-the script is mediocre and the action is dull at times.Still the snuff/murder scene(the strangling)is pretty nasty!The ending is also effective.All in all I'd recommend this film for undemanding horror fans-it's really nothing special,but if you want a passable time-killer...

Keefe Waterman (Brad Rijn) travels to New York to find his wife Mary-Jean (Zoë Lund), who has abandoned him and their young son to find fame and fortune as a movie actress. Mary-Jean, now going by the name of Andrea Wilcox, is none too pleased to see her husband, and escapes to the swanky pad of film director Christopher Neville (Eric Bogosian), who talks the woman into his bed. However, when the aspiring actress realises that Neville is filming their romp, she rejects him, which leads to the director strangling her to death.

The discovery of the strangled woman's body in her car on wasteland leads to the arrest of Keefe, but he is bailed out by Neville, who reveals that he is intending to make a film about the murder, with Keefe playing himself. All they need is someone to play Mary Jean. That person is Elaine Bernstein (also played by Lund), an exact double of the dead woman. The filming commences, with Neville planning to splice in the actual footage of the murder into his movie. His plan also involves setting up Keefe for an exciting final act in which the young man dies - for real!

Special Effects is B-movie director Larry Cohen's attempt at a sexy, sophisticated thriller al la Brian De Palma, a film that attempts to say something meaningful about the world of movie-making, in particular the way in which film-makers can use the medium to break down the boundaries between reality and make-believe. Perhaps if Cohen had employed better actors than Zoë Lund and Brad Rijn as his protagonists, the theme of blurring of illusion and real life might have been more effective, but at no point are his performers remotely believable. Eric Bogosian, as murderous director Christopher Neville, is a much better actor, but even he can't make this trite nonsense bearable, his character insufferable (he would have been more chilling had he been more charismatic).

True to his B-movie roots, Cohen ensures there's some nudity, sex and a modicum of violence, and one can't help but feel that, in trying to be stylish and classy, the director is punching way above his weight, and that things would have been much better had he just been out and out exploitative in his approach.

3.5/10, rounded down to 3 for the extremely intrusive and irritating synth score.

"Special Effects" could easily pass for a weak episode of "Columbo", except for two things. There is nudity and there is no Peter Falk. I can just imagine an episode titled "Reel Death" on my television screen. This is not far fetched, as director Larry Cohen wrote no less than three episodes of "Columbo". Unfortunately "Special Effects" has problems. The gorgeous Zoe Tamerlis would not be one of them, that is until she opens her mouth. Her acting was perfect in Ms.45 since she played a mute. The New York locations and Eric Bogosian's artistically decorated film studio offer more entertainment than the film itself, which is almost awful ........................... MERK

Eric Bogosian of "Talk Radio" fame stars as Chris Neville, a hotshot young filmmaker. His career is going downhill fast, so he decides to try something unusual. He films himself murdering aspiring starlet Mary Jean (the late Zoe Lund of "Ms. 45" cult stardom), then proceeds to make a movie telling Mary Jeans' sad life. Swept into the filmmaking process are Mary Jeans' husband Keefe (Brad Rijn, "Smithereens"), and the detective (Kevin O'Connor, "Let's Scare Jessica to Death") investigating the case; the detective quickly gets stars in his eyes. Neville actually finds a young woman who's a dead ringer for the murdered actress, also played by Lund.

There is a good idea here, about satirizing the entire movie-making business, and showing what happens as real life and reel life blend together. It's written and directed by low budget movie icon Larry Cohen, so you know that he will come up with some interesting material, and movie moments. (It IS intriguing to think what a filmmaker of Brian De Palmas' sensibilities could have done with this!) It's a good blend of art and trash, with a little bit of sex and shots of the beautiful Lund baring her body. It's also a marvel of art direction: dig that garish studio and townhouse in which Neville does his dirty work. Perhaps the most entertainment value arises out of O'Connor enjoying his "technical adviser" capacity and becoming fixated on receiving the appropriate credits. Given that Neville is such a smarmy character, you watch and keep waiting for him to get his just desserts. Michael Minard supplies a fun electronic score that unfortunately is used a little too much.

The performances are fine. Lund has a field day in her dual roles. Bogosian is superb as the creepy director. Rijn, O'Connor, Bill Oland, H. Richard Greene ('Mad Men'), and Steven Pudenz offer fine support.

The most striking image of all: Neville standing on a floor completely covered with headshots. (Among those he thumbs through is one of Dustin Hoffman as "Dorothy Michaels" in "Tootsie".)

Seven out of 10.