I searched this long lost & forgotten Thriller because I'm a Joe Pilato fan (R.I.P) & also i like Tom Savini, so had to check this out. "Effects" is above a small film crew working up at a cabin & a house near some woods, where they are shooting a low-budget Horror movie. Here you do get a look at what it was like to be on the set of a crew making a low-budget film back in the day & i liked the Pittsburgh setting during Autumn & the Atmosphere is very creepy & unsettling.
Horror great, Joe Pilato (Day of the Dead) is the special fx guy & also a camera man, named Dominic. Now, Pilato does give a good solid performance as Don & comes accross as a nice & chilled-out type of blue collar guy whose just doing his job the best he can. Pilato here is nothing like his Iconic performance as the unhinged "Captain Rhodes" from George Romero's Zombie Masterpiece "Day of the Dead" but his performances here is still very good & easily the best performance in this film. Horror legend & special fx wizard, Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn) stars as a weird creep who is apart of the film crew & is just a weirdo, so no real great performance as his role is just being strange & abit cocky as Nicky. The Director of the movie within a movie is Lacey Bickel, played by John Harrison & "Lacey" is another really weird guy, infact everyone in this film is really weird except for Joe Pilato's Don!!! There's also the main star of their Horror film, called Caleste & a few other's of their small crew. Now, this is a gritty & very dark & moody Mystery Thriller with some Slasher elements but it's more a "Thriller" & is about a Snuff film actually being made & not their Horror possession flick & Dominic doesn't realise this but most of the crew are secretly in on it. There's a very creepy & disturbing scene where the main guys of the film crew are all "Coked-up" & watching a real Snuff film late at night that the director (Lacey) wanted to show his crew as inspiration for the kind of "Realism" he wants for his movie!!! It's a very uneasy scene & Pilato looks so uncomfortable & reacts how a normal person would. That scene is a standout part to this flick & also a hunted scene near the end where Dominic is aware of his deadly situation & must fight to survive before he becomes a victim of the secret Snuff film. It's got some good tension & a very dark & sinister look & mood but there's also a few too many of very boring, dull & just weird scenes where nothing happens & the cast talk & sit around & it's very weird, intentional or not? This also had a nice cold Autumn setting & definitely a dark & raw feel to the whole thing. "Effects" is a good solid little gritty Thriller & i felt that the 90's Nicolas Cage Snuff Thriller "8MM" was a distant cousin to this film as both are very similar but this is a little Sub genre anyway & before these films there was the disturbing 70's "HardCore" that fits into this sub genre too. "Effects" is a good film & i liked it even though i didn't get the ending i wanted, it's still a solid forgotten Thriller "gem" with a great performance from Horror legend Joe Pilato. I wish Pilato made it bigger & had much more roles, especially lead roles because here he's the main role & he's great.
Horror great, Joe Pilato (Day of the Dead) is the special fx guy & also a camera man, named Dominic. Now, Pilato does give a good solid performance as Don & comes accross as a nice & chilled-out type of blue collar guy whose just doing his job the best he can. Pilato here is nothing like his Iconic performance as the unhinged "Captain Rhodes" from George Romero's Zombie Masterpiece "Day of the Dead" but his performances here is still very good & easily the best performance in this film. Horror legend & special fx wizard, Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn) stars as a weird creep who is apart of the film crew & is just a weirdo, so no real great performance as his role is just being strange & abit cocky as Nicky. The Director of the movie within a movie is Lacey Bickel, played by John Harrison & "Lacey" is another really weird guy, infact everyone in this film is really weird except for Joe Pilato's Don!!! There's also the main star of their Horror film, called Caleste & a few other's of their small crew. Now, this is a gritty & very dark & moody Mystery Thriller with some Slasher elements but it's more a "Thriller" & is about a Snuff film actually being made & not their Horror possession flick & Dominic doesn't realise this but most of the crew are secretly in on it. There's a very creepy & disturbing scene where the main guys of the film crew are all "Coked-up" & watching a real Snuff film late at night that the director (Lacey) wanted to show his crew as inspiration for the kind of "Realism" he wants for his movie!!! It's a very uneasy scene & Pilato looks so uncomfortable & reacts how a normal person would. That scene is a standout part to this flick & also a hunted scene near the end where Dominic is aware of his deadly situation & must fight to survive before he becomes a victim of the secret Snuff film. It's got some good tension & a very dark & sinister look & mood but there's also a few too many of very boring, dull & just weird scenes where nothing happens & the cast talk & sit around & it's very weird, intentional or not? This also had a nice cold Autumn setting & definitely a dark & raw feel to the whole thing. "Effects" is a good solid little gritty Thriller & i felt that the 90's Nicolas Cage Snuff Thriller "8MM" was a distant cousin to this film as both are very similar but this is a little Sub genre anyway & before these films there was the disturbing 70's "HardCore" that fits into this sub genre too. "Effects" is a good film & i liked it even though i didn't get the ending i wanted, it's still a solid forgotten Thriller "gem" with a great performance from Horror legend Joe Pilato. I wish Pilato made it bigger & had much more roles, especially lead roles because here he's the main role & he's great.