TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Python Hyena Special Effects (1984): Dir: Larry Cohen / Cast: Zoe Tamerlis Lund, Eric Bogosian, Brad Rijn, Kevin O'Connor, Bill Oland: Innovative thriller that counters special effects with reality. Eric Bogosian plays a sleazy filmmaker who strangles a would-be actress and films it. Her husband is charged with the murder since he aggressively hated the lifestyle she led, particularly when he catches her doing a striptease for a group of males in the film's opening. Central plot regards Bogosian in negotiations with police in a film that recreates the horrific murder. They manage to find a young woman whose appearance greatly resembles the murder victim. With that said, she is to play that role, while the decease's widow reluctantly portray himself. Director Larry Cohen previously made It's Alive and Q but here he is aided by one of his best screenplays. Zoe Tamerlis Lund is a stunning and beautiful presence in duo roles fresh off her rousing performance in Ms. 45. She plays the niave murder victim as well as the lookalike caught up in the scheme. Bogosian plays off the sadistic desire of a filmmaker to bypass fiction with reality. Brad Rijn plays the husband caught up in a film that can falsely expose him as a murderer. The detectives are standard issue although one desires film credit for his involvement. The result is an underrated thriller with a lot of nudity, thrills and absolutely no special effects. Score: 8 ½ / 10

Scarecrow-88 Zoë Lund stars in dual roles, her first being a wannabe star, Mary Jane, a woman who ran out on her husband and son for a life as an actress..her dream is snuffed out(pun intended)when she has the misfortune of showing up at the massive art deco home of failed director, Christopher Neville(Eric Bogosion), whose decorum has a strange emphasis on flowers. Neville, reacting to Mary Jane's insulting in a moment of furious anger, strangles her when she ridicules his recent firing from a big budget Hollywood movie, after becoming upset that he has a camera hidden behind a mirror to film them having sex. Keefe Waterman(Brad Rijn)is the third party in this situation, Mary Jean's husband, who had come to New York City to take her home, even if it was against her will. Leaving MJ's dead cleaned body in Keefe's station wagon on Coney Island, Neville has just gotten away with the perfect murder. Even worse, Keefe is arrested for MJ's murder when there were witnesses seeing the disgruntled husband forcing her into the station wagon to go to her apartment to get some things. Neville decides, after realizing he had recorded the murder on film, to shoot a biography on MJ's life, with plans to implicate Keefe by getting him out on bail and in the movie! Kevin O'Conner is Detective Phillip Delroy, the cop on MJ's case, who is included as an adviser on the film! It's a way for Neville(a clever, calculating, cold-blooded bastard)to seduce Delroy by having him part of the "Hollywood process" and soon another will become enamored in the title role, a feminist named Andrea(Zoë Lund's second role)Keefe discovers at Salvation Army. Andrea loses her own identity as she immerses herself in the role of MJ, having a hard time overcoming the allure of being part of this movie. When we see Neville strangle a blackmailer with film(that tears into the victim's throat), we know he's not playing for keeps. When Keefe ruins the snuff footage, Neville has plans to stage the scene again, this time Andrea's life is in danger.Another one of those great Larry Cohen oddities, I think he had Marilyn Monroe in mind as inspiration for the roles of Andrea and Mary Jean. It's interesting, I was thinking about actors/actresses who spend a lifetime portraying other people, and having a hard time determining where the character ends and real person begins. I think that is what really spoke to me as I was watching SPECIAL EFFECTS. I think the draw of Hollywood is what Cohen uses most in his satiric(albeit a dark one)script for the movie. Kudos to Zoë Lund for portraying two distinct personalities, Mary Jean, selfish and self-absorbed, yearning for success, and willing to bed Neville in order to do so, & Andrea, a vocal, blunt, honest woman who sees through the director's bullcrap, often calling him out for the phony that he is(as she puts it, he's always working a routine, never authentic in anything he does), but not denying the thrill of being in his film. I think Cohen establishes in the opening dialogue that Neville was destined to commit murder, describing Zapruder as his most favorite director because he caught a real murder on film. Cohen makes sure to incorporate the title within his script as Neville is notorious for blowing a budget primarily on special effects, obviously wanting to make his pictures as authentic as film will allow. Unusual synth score and, as typical for a Cohen production, good use of New York locations. I personally found SPECIAL EFFECTS a fascinating film(not average at all, although the ending where Neville finally gets his comeuppance, is kind of a cop out)with layers, and was entranced by Zoë Lund..there's just something about her that holds me in a trance, I'm not sure what it is about her. The final scene, where Andrea makes a decision to "adopt a new personality", is quite intriguing, I think..resisting Keefe's desire for her to be Mary Jean, instead of who she really is, there's a subtext regarding "playing the role" which I found compelling.

Woodyanders Arrogant and unscrupulous down-on-his-luck faded former big shot director Chris Neville (an excellent live-wire performance by Eric Bogosian) films himself murdering naive aspiring actress Andrea Wilcox (the gorgeous Zoe Tamerlis of "Ms. 45" fame). Neville decides to make a movie around the snuff footage and hires sassy lookalike Elaine (also played by Tamerlis) to portray Andrea in the picture. Neville even convinces Andrea's earnest, clean-cut hick husband Keefe Waterman (likable Brad Rjin) to be himself in the life and persuades pesky, hard-nosed Detective Philip Delroy (a fine turn by Kevin O'Connor) to serve as a technical adviser. Writer/director Larry Cohen, taking a break from his usual monster horror affairs like "Q" and "The Stuff," expertly crafts a deliciously twisted and absorbing thriller which unfolds at a gradual, yet hypnotic pace, offers a fascinatingly cynical inside look at the film-making process, maintains a properly bleak and eerie tone throughout, and builds a reasonable amount of tension as it culminates in one doozy of a startling double whammy surprise conclusion. Cohen gets a lot of intriguing millage out of distorting reality and astutely explores such weighty themes as the dangerously seductive allure of cinema, the manipulation of the truth, and American culture's obsession with making stars out of nobodies. The acting is uniformly sturdy and impressive, with Tamerlis a particular stand-out in a demanding dual role. As a tasty added bonus, Tamerlis bares her beautiful body a few times. Paul Glickman's glossy, glittering cinematography, Michael Minard's shivery, flesh-crawling synthesizer score, and the gritty New York City locations all further enhance the overall sound quality of this spooky, unsettling, and underrated little pip.

HumanoidOfFlesh Larry Cohen's "Special Effects" is an average snuff-themed horror film.Eric Bogosian plays here an on-the-decline director who murders a starlet(brilliant Zoe Tamerlis,who sadly died in 1999)on camera and decides to use a dead ringer to make a film about the killing."Special Effects" is average-the script is mediocre and the action is dull at times.Still the snuff/murder scene(the strangling)is pretty nasty!The ending is also effective.All in all I'd recommend this film for undemanding horror fans-it's really nothing special,but if you want a passable time-killer...