Effects

I am or was when I watched this, quite pleasantly surprised. The production values may not be the best (low budget and all), but the story of a movie being shot and the suspicion being there might be something real to the violence going on ... well while this may not seem like revolutionary or even new if you think about movies you've seen, but I would assume it was back then.

And it aged quite well, which has to do with quite the tight script. Some dialog and acting exercise may not feel "real", but it can be easily excused if you let yourself enjoy the movie for what it is and what it's supposed to represent. Horror movies could and did try to shock in more than one way ...

A low-budget horror film is being shot in a secluded mountain area by a hard-working crew and a cast of bewildered actors.However it soon becomes apparent that another crew is shooting the making of the horror film and their intentions are evil.They intend to make the ultimate horror film with real victims,real blood and real death-a genuine snuff movie."Effects" is pretty hard movie to recommend.There are plenty of dull moments where nothing interesting happens.The acting is fairly decent and there are some memorable moments including the director showing 8mm snuff film to his crew,the hunt for Dominic in the woods and startling final twist.It's a shame that the pace of the film is so sluggish.Worth a look for fans of snuff phenomenon.

Effects is based on quite a clever idea - maybe even too clever for a slasher flick. The title, of course, refers to special effects - and that's essentially what the film is about. Effects is a slasher flick based on a bunch of people making a slasher film. The director seems obsessed with blood and gore and a cast member starts hallucinating - although that particular cast member had just been smoking weed. The director later shows his crew a film that may or not be a snuff film, and then the cast start getting picked off, though there's doubt over whether it's real or 'effects'. It really does seem that this idea was too clever for this film because it doesn't pull it off. A potentially interesting idea is turned into a snooze fest thanks to far too much talking by dull characters and a plot line that really doesn't ever get to the point. This film was apparently lost before someone resurrected it for DVD. The last 'lost' slasher film that I saw was A Night to Dismember, and like that film; this one shows that lost slashers really needn't be brought back. The most notable thing about 'effects' the fact that Tom Savini appears and does the effects, although he has had better days in both departments. We don't really get what we came for until the final third of the film and by then I was pretty bored of it. Overall, Effects is a pretty dismal slasher and I definitely don't recommend it.

Some crew members of a company shooting a horror film begin to suspect that the "killings" in the movie are real, and that they are actually making a "snuff" film.

There are two things about this film that keep it interesting all these decades later. One is the abundance of George Romero-connected people involved: Tom Savini, John Harrison, Joseph Pilato, Pasquale Buba, Nancy Allen (but not THAT Nancy Allen) and others. Filming took place in 1978, around the time that "Dawn of the Dead" was made; it seems that many involved in "Dawn" were making their own film on the side.

The other interesting historical note is how this film for many years just never existed. Although it was shot in 1978 and seems to be copyrighted in 1980, virtually no one saw it in the 1980s or 1990s. Due to a distributor bankruptcy problem, the film never received a theatrical or home video release. It never aired on television, or got passed around as bootlegs either. The October 2005 Synapse Films DVD was the film's first official release anywhere in the world. The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) is now (2017) releasing a Blu-Ray of the film mastered from a rare 35mm print that was made before the distributor backed out, so it can be discovered by a new generation.

Perhaps due to this film's misfortunes, Dusty Nelson did not return to directing until the "Tales From the Darkside" episode "The Unhappy Medium" (1986). Others involved (Savini and Harrison in particular) achieved great success in its wake. How such a movie went hidden for so long is something of a mystery. If its existence was known, it would be widely sought after. The film was such a secret, we never see it mentioned in interviews or even within in-depth books such as Joe Kane's "Night of the Living Dead".

The most logical reason it would fade into obscurity would be if it was an awful film. But, on the contrary, it actually happens to be quite good. While not the era-defining classic that "Dawn of the Dead" is, it is far better than many other independent horror features of its time. Heck, it even blows away Romero's early works (especially "There's Always Vanilla"). The film-within-a-film is creepy and effective. Dusty Nelson could have been somebody!

A historical footnote: The first known use of the term "snuff movie" is in the 1971 Ed Sanders book, "The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion". He alleges that the Manson Family was involved in making such a film in California to record their murders. His allegations were, for the record, false. The idea caught on, however, and we received the film "Snuff" in 1975, as well as this film. The most interesting thing about snuff films is not how they have captured the imagination of people who spread urban legends… it is that they don't exist. While it would be nearly impossible for such a thing to exist as an industry, it seems plausible that at least some killer would record their exploits and at least some of those tapes would get traded on a bootleg market. But apparently not.

The AGFA Blu-ray comes out August 22, 2017, featuring a new 4K scan from the only surviving 35mm theatrical print. We get an archival commentary track with John Harrison, Dusty Nelson, and Pasquale Buba covering their memories of a bygone era. These should be enough, but wait… there is also a "Beastie" short film by Dusty Nelson and a "Ubu" short film by John Harrison. Heck, we even have the "After Effects" documentary with optional commentary track!

I knew nothing about the film "Effects" going into it. I'm glad I avoided reading any reviews or summaries because in the end I walked away from it feeling like I had not watched just another 70s exploitation or slasher flick- and those are most of my collection by the way.

I have a feeling that there will be a large number of Tom Savini gore fans who will go into it expecting a slice 'em up blood fest in the tradition of Maniac or Dawn of the Dead. Instead, what you get is a film that resembles more of a drama about a group of people making a low budget horror film. It isn't really until the 3rd or 4th quarter of the film where the true horror begins; and it throws the story into a spin. This is why i'm glad I didn't research this film and spoil it. I was really impressed with the way these actor performed. This film could have easily given any "high brow" dramas a run for there money. For you Day of the Dead fans, Joe Pilato doesn't play an "out of his mind" military man in this one. Instead he plays one of the main characters, and his performance is on the mark. He is a likable guy in "Effects". That is one of the strengths of this film; there is a decent amount of character development. What may confuse people is that a few of the characters in this movie are also actors in the horror movie they are shooting. So you get sort of a duel role from the same people. So for all you pot smokers or slow people out there, this may mess with you- LOL.

All and all this is a much better film then a lot of horror fans may give it. And if it rubbed you the wrong way the first time, give it another try. If you want to watch a zombie-slasher movie with lots of blood and guts, then pick up any of the classic zombie flicks- hey Cannibal Holocaust just got re-released on DVD!