IMDb RATING
5.4/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
A director makes a movie based on a murder he committed.A director makes a movie based on a murder he committed.A director makes a movie based on a murder he committed.
Zoë Lund
- Andrea Wilcox
- (as Zoe Tamerlis)
- …
H. Richard Greene
- Leon Gruskin
- (as Richard Greene)
John Woehrle
- Studio Executive
- (as John Woerhle)
Larry Cohen
- Journalist
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOne of the head shots Neville and Detective Delroy look through is Dustin Hoffman as Dorothy Michaels in Tootsie
- GoofsAndreas hair changes from wavy to curly in each scene
- Alternate versionsThe UK video version was cut by 30 secs and edits shots from the stranglings of Andrea and the blackmailer, as well as heavily reducing a scene of Neville watching film footage of Andrea's murder.
- ConnectionsFeatured in King Cohen (2017)
- SoundtracksJust A Face (But Just The Same)
Performed by David Snider and The Defiel Band
Music and Lyrics by Michael Minard
©1984 Minard Music Company-ASCAP
Featured review
Not very special.
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.
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.
helpful•72
- BA_Harrison
- Jun 30, 2020
- How long is Special Effects?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 46 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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