Review of Special Effects (1984) by Eric R — 18 Feb 2010

Special Effects is the story of a runaway wife Zoe Lund (infamous writer/actress who's notorious for her role in Ms. 45 and her writing of Bad Lieutenant!) whose an actress-wannabe in New York City trying to make it big until husband Brad Rijn tracks her down and forces her to watch videos of their beautiful son.

Eager to get away, she concocts a story of being in the next Chris Neville film. Neville (played nicely by Eric Bogosian) is a once major director who has completely bombed and fled to NYC in an attempt to make his comeback film.

Lund talks her way into Neville's house, then bed until she catches him trying to film their sexual escapade, to which she verbally tears him apart, which ends in her murder. He covers it up and the husband gets pinned for it, but Neville is so fascinated that he wants to make a movie surrounding the death, which he talks the husband into starring in alongside his wife's doppelganger (also played by Lund).

The two spark up a relationship despite Bogosian's evil intentions. The end result of this movie has genuinely left me confused. The story is fantastic and iconic writer/director Larry Cohen (It's Alive franchise, Phone Booth, etc) does an exceptional job making this film, but why was it just ok? I'm thinking that maybe the entire cast, save for Bogosian and Lund's second character were overall intolerable.

Despite the story have many textured layers to it, there are a lot of choppy and awkward parts that don't play out well throughout. This may be one of those films that requires multiple viewings to get an actual appreciation and understanding for.

A great incite into the movie business. Not bad, but better served being viewed more than once to fully grasp.