Special Effects

1984 "Mary Jean is just dying to get in the movies… She's about to get her wish."
5.3| 1h46m| R| en
Details

After murdering a young would-be actress, megalomaniacal movie director Chris Neville sets about making a feature based on the murder, casting the dead woman's clueless husband as the patsy, and finding a dead ringer to play the part of the dead actress.

Director

Producted By

New Line Cinema

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Trailers & Clips

Also starring Zoë Lund

Reviews

CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!
Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story
WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
merklekranz "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
Randall Phillip WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN. This is an okay one-time watch, but don't expect anything spectacular. The only thing that made this interesting for me was the "cheese factor." In other words: bad acting, bad hair-do's, terrible music soundtrack, moronic plot, lazy directing. This cheese does, however, get tiresome quickly. Larry Cohen obviously thought he was being oh-so-clever when he made this. Like wow, I'm a director, maybe I killed someone. Please! He even screwed this up at the end by making the police detective character "the director." Lame. It is also obvious, Cohen got his idea from Brian DePalma's far superior "Body Double." At least with "Body Double" DePalma took the cheese factor to the max. Re-watch that instead.
bigpappa1--2 A failed movie director kills an actress he is auditioning for a film. He then begins to make a film about her life and tries to frame her boyfriend in the process. An interesting idea is hampered by rather uneven performances, poor plotting, and a low budget. One wonders what the master of the genre Hitchcock could have done with this. My rating: 5 out of 10.
Parca Nicely twisted and rather unpredictable thriller, with a very interesting character played by Bogosian. Worth a check...