#effects 1979

[cabriolette]

effects (1979) dir. dusty nelson

[werewlflvr]

digital diary of a new wave cinephile log 002.

Spoiler Warnings for... Effects (1979) dir. Dusty Nelson ★★★

Overview: While shooting a low-budget horror film, members of the cast and crew begin to suspect that they may actually be filming a snuff film.

My Review

The Positives:

" Effects definitely wasn't what I was expecting. I specifically searched Tubi (which is a streaming service extremely beloved by me) for some sort of B-movie slasher to start my day with. I was looking for cheap, ridiculous, kills, and even more ridiculous, and otherwise forgettable, characters. However, within the first few minutes of Effects I realized that I had been mistaken (as is usually the case since I watch the majority of my movies completely blind.) In Effects I, instead, found a visually compelling exploitation horror film.

I liked the horror of this film. I held out hope for a, albeit unique, slasher plot line far too long into the film, I'll admit. Instead I was met with a little over an hour of suspense and unease built up through interactions between our SFX artist Dominic and the director Lacey. Lacey is an egomaniacal, nepobaby, misogynist who hides all his deranged personality traits behind the question of "what does it mean to create art?" Funnily enough, the entire time I was watching I couldn't help but feel like the guy was a Quentin Tarantino caricature despite the fact that Tarantino would have only been 16 at the time of its release. Anyways, point being, the majority of this films horror didn't come from a masked maniac with a razor blade. It came from the violent amounts of unchecked misogyny present amongst the director and his closest crew members. It came from Dominics slow realization that the men around him were, not only, leveraging their positions to get women to sleep with them, but they were also brutally torturing these women on camera. Now, this isn't to say that Dominic is a saint by any means. I mean, the guy was totally into any sex that could have been exploited out of these women. He only, sorta, turned tail to run when he realized that Lacey was, potentially, making snuff films, and even then he treats the topic (when discussed with Lacey) as something that can be "agreed to disagreed" and not, y'know, as a morally deplorable crime. The horror of this movie is commentary on the social dynamics of men. Which, in all honesty, might not have been on purpose/the movies original intention, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Now, as much as I'm pretty neutral on the character of Dominic, I, unfortunately, found his romance with Celeste to be charming (an aspect I will touch on in my negatives section). Now, whenever I think of horror movies with the plot of "something goes wrong on the set of a horror movie" (especially older ones) all I can think of is the absolute bore that was 1987s Return to Horror High. I love this plot in concept, but in execution it always just...falls flat for me. However, something about the romance between Dominic and Celeste just...did it for me. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the "sorta normal guy absolutely, utterly, infatuated with this weird ass girl" trope, but anytime there was a scene with the two in it I was just very endeared by them. Maybe it's because I liked Celeste far more than Dominic. This lights tech, expert at blood and special effects, strange woman who doesn't like the majority of her male colleagues (including her boss) and makes that known at any given opportunity. Then there's Dominic, the geeky SFX artist who wants nothing more than for her and her work to be acknowledged for what it is; incredible. I think I'd love this plot/concept in horror movies so much more if it gave me more romances like this. Genuinely."

The Negatives:

" On that ending note of the positives, I will say, I seriously did not care for Dominic enough for him to be the main character. Seriously. What made him interesting, in any capacity, was his relation to Celeste, and his, vaguely, working moral compass that (like monkeys banging on cymbals) managed to scrape up the conclusion, "duhhh...hurting women bad...". Celeste should have been our main character, our final girl, and I found myself utterly confused (and dumbfounded) by an ending that saw her working (as the only woman) side by side with these violent men making a snuff film. With her as a fellow mastermind, in the end (just like every other woman who has come into contact with director Lacey), screwed over and killed by the other mens hands.

I will say, however, erm...I was confused! I'm sorry to say. Maybe that ending bit of criticism of Celestes character would be retconned if I could just...figure out what the fuck was going on? Through out the film there was a clear line between what was the film and what was the film within the film showcased by a scene ending with the shot panning out to the rest of the film crew (which was clever, I'll admit). However, as the plot picked up speed we're then met with the knowledge that there's another film within the film that's being filmed alongside the film within the film! Guagh! It makes my head hurt! Then Celeste starts screaming about a script and before we can even figure out what's happening she's killed right before our eyes, and...it's just all so...needlessly convoluted. There was something good happening at the beginning of Effects, which I feel was then ruined by Dusty Nelson biting off much more than he could chew."

[gravevelvet]

whys he smiling so polite like this guy is not even real

[cabriolette]

effects (dir. dusty nelson, 1979) had a very small release initially, but gained a little more popularity upon its dvd release in 2005. starring joe pilato (known for day of the dead) and involving names such as tom savini, pasquale buba and john harrison, this film has a strong link to a specific group of pittsburgh-based filmmakers involved with george romero (creator of the night of the living dead series).

spoilers from this point onward

effects follows dominic salvucci (joe pilato), a cinematographer, as he works on a horror film directed by a man named lacey bickel (john harrison). throughout the film, he slowly develops a relationship with the gaffer, celeste (susan chapek). however, it is slowly revealed that lacey is working on a different project altogether -- he is turning the experiences of his cast and crew into a loosely-scripted snuff movie, allowing them to harm and kill each-other on film without them knowing.

bays thoughts this is one of my favourite films that i've recently watched. i've been into a lot of 70s horror recently, and this lived up completely to the kinds of films i'd seen and loved beforehand. i went into this completely blind, which i think made me enjoy all the plot twists even more. i love the way that the film tricked the audience in so many different ways, as well as revealing hints to the future story very obviously (on a second watch), but not giving the audience enough information to do anything with it. the cinematography and shot composition was amazing, and the colours in each scene were so harmonious and nice to look at (see some of my fav shots here!). i adored the sound design -- the music was done by john harrison (composer for day of the dead), which basically meant i was bound to love it. i'd definitely recommend this film to any fans of romero-type films or 70s horror :O)

you can check out my letterboxd reviews for effects here!