Effects

I read that you have to push through to the last 20 minutes for it to get good. IMO, having to put up with the first hour the last 20 minutes was not worth it. It was OK during the last 20 minutes but nothing exciting. Even if I rated this just on that 20 minute time frame it would maybe make a 3 star. I rarely give a one star and it has to have no redeemable qualities for it to be a 1 star. If it has some such as this where the acting was fine I will give it a 2.Oh, and if you are thinking that MAYBE it might have some zombies or something zombie like since it mentioned friends of George Romero then stop now. It has zero to do with zombies. Romero's name was name dropped to get people to watch. How anyone gave this above a 3 is baffling. As I said it isn't OMG end of world terrible but trudging through 1 hour of boring in hopes of a mediocre 20 minute payoff that you saw coming was not worth it. It would have also gotten another star if the ending wasn't figured out by the halfway mark.

Very very good film with a great and unique twist, a real 80's horror film. Highly recommended!!!!

An interesting film.

The character Barney was absolutely amazing

the dvd was okay. my goal is to see most of the horror from the 80's

Pittsburgh is more than just my hometown. If you believe a source as vaunted as Joe Bob Briggs, we’re also the birthplace of modern horror, thanks to George Romero and friends creating Night of the Living Dead right here (well, actually Evans City, 45 minutes north of the city).Horror may have laid dormant for a decade or so, but the 70’s and 80’s were packed with genre-defining creations made right here in the City of Bridges. There’s Dawn of the Dead, Martin and Day of the Dead just to name a few.Then there’s the 1980 film Effects, made by several of Romero’s friends and all about the actual process of making a scary movie and the philosophy of horror. Much like every fright flick that emerged from the Steel City — let’s not include 1988’s Flesh Eater, a movie I’m not sure anyone but S. William Hinzman has any pride in — it goes beyond simple shocks to delve into the complex nature of reality, man’s place in the world and what it means to be afraid.Pittsburgh is a complex city, one that started last century as “Hell with the lid off,” died in the late 1970’s and rose, much like the living dead, to become a hub for tech many years later.Joe Pilato (Captain Rhodes from Day of the Dead) stars as Dominic, a cinematographer who has travelled out of the city to the mountains — around here, anything east of the city is referred to as “going to the mountains” — to be the cameraman and special effects creator for a low-budget horror movie.In case you are from here, he’s going to Ligonier. For the rest of the world, imagine a rural wooded area, the area where Rolling Rock beer once came from — yes, I know it’s Latrobe yinzers — Anheuser-Busch bought it, moved the plant to Newark, New Jersey and stopped making it in glass-lined tanks. As a result, it now tastes like every mass-produced beer out there. It’s also a place with a Story Book Forest theme park.I tell you that to tell you this — imagine a team of horror maniacs descending on this quiet little town to make a movie about coked-up psychopaths making a snuff film in the woods.Director Lacey Bickle (John Harrison, who created the music for many of Romero’s films and directed Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) is a strange duck, one who wants to push his crew to film scenes days and nights.Luckily, Dominick meets Celeste, a gaffer who is disliked by the rest of the crew. They quickly fall in love at the same time as our protagonist discovers that an entirely different film is being made, one whose special effects don’t need any technical wizardry. As secret cameras begin to roll, what is real and what is Hollywood by way of Allegheny County wizardry?Dusty Nelson, Pasquale Buba, and John Harrison — the three main filmmakers — all met at public TV station WQED, the home of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and all worked together on the aforementioned Martin. Inspired by their work on that film, they started an LLC and raised $55,000 from friends and family to make this movie.Due to a distributor problem, Effects was never released in theaters or on home video. Its lone theatrical screenings were at the U.S. Film Fest — which is now the Sundance Film Festival — and it had its world premiere at the Kings Court theater in Oakland, right down the street from Pitt, on November 9, 1979.According to the website Temple of Schlock, Effects was picked up by Stuart S. Shapiro, a distributor who specialized in offbeat music, horror and cult films like Shame of the Jungle and The Psychotronic Man. His International Harmony company distributed the film, but it played few, if any, theaters. Shapiro would go on to create Night Flight for the USA Network. In October 2005, Synapse would finally release this film on DVD for the first time ever.Pittsburgh is a lot different now. The Kings Court, once a police station turned movie theater transformed into the Beehive, a combination coffee shop movie theater, is now a T-Mobile store, a sad reminder that at one time, we rejected the homogenization of America here in Pittsburgh. Nowhere is this feeling more telling than at the end of this film, where the movie within a movie has its premiere on Liberty Avenue. Now in the midst of Theater Square, this mini-42nd Street went the very same way, with establishments like the Roman V giving way to magic and comedy clubs. As a kid, when my parents drove down this street, I was at once fascinated and frightened by dahntahn. But no longer.

The following review appeared first on Cultsploitation Website. No changes have been made.PLOT SUMMARYDirector Lacey Bickel is in the process of shooting a horror film, but secretly he is making a snuff film! Unbeknownst to some of the cast and crew, they are being filmed all around the set and eventually, the good stuff that all snuff lovers love is about to go down…eventually. It just takes some time to get to it.Director: Dusty NelsonActors: Joseph Pilato, John Harrison, Tom SaviniGenre: HorrorYear of Release: 1980FILM REVIEWEffects is a collaboration of friends who wanted to make a fun horror film on the cheap. Scrounging up some loose change (when was $55,000 ever considered “loose change”?), some friends of George A. Romero (RIP) got together and made a horror film guerilla style. Effects is a bit on the slow end and takes some time to get going, but once the film reveals its true intention, it becomes a no holds barred intense ride to the final minute. If you can manage to get through the first slowish 1 hour, the final 20 minutes make the film much better. In fact, after the ending rolled around, I wanted to watch the film again to pick up on what I missed. That says something.Effects stars a bunch of people you may or may not know. Right away you are going to notice the main lead, Joseph Pilato, who starred as the evil Rhodes in Day of the Dead. (Funny enough, the film Night of the Living Dead is mentioned in Effects.) Also showing up is Tom Savini playing a sleazeball and John Harrison, who directed several Tales from the Darkside episodes and the Darkside movie. Horror films will be getting a kick out of seeing some early acting work from some notable genre staples.It certainly appears that Effects was shot on the lower end of the budget scale, with smaller sets and some stilted acting. However, the heart and soul that was put into getting this film made shows up on screen, and the film turned out to be a much better movie than many other low budget films of its time. It’s a damn shame the film had such a troubled history getting it distributed as I think it would have taken off if given the opportunity.VIOLENCEEffects isn’t a violent film. Any time blood appears on screen it’s usually a prop being tested out for the film within the film. The flick tends to shy away from the practical effects, which is funny given the name of the movie and the people behind it.SEX/NUDITYWe start things off pretty good with a soapy shower, eventually leading into some boobs during a snuff film, and a few sexual interactions being filmed without prior consent. We don’t see much more, though, save for some hairy legs and a man’s butt. Sadly, no Tom Savini nudity to be found.INTERESTING ELEMENTS-Audiences are dumb and want blood flying everywhere. I actually agree.-What in the hell kind of film were they pretending to film?-That sudden ending!BLU-RAY SPECSAudio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0Language: EnglishSubtitles: EnglishRegion: Region A/1Rating: Rated RRuntime: 84 minAspect Ratio: 1.78:1ExtrasAFTER EFFECTS documentary with optional commentary trackUBU short filmBEASTIE short filmArchival commentary track with John Harrison, Dusty Nelson, and Pasquale BubaLiner notes by Joseph A. Ziemba of AGFA and Bleeding Skull!New 4K scan from the only 35mm theatrical print in existenceBLU-RAY REVIEWVIDEOAmerican Genre Film Archive (AGFA) has released Effects on a Blu-ray package that features a rough video transfer. Nevertheless, the film has been cleaned up by doing a 4K scan of the only 35mm theatrical print in existence. There are numerous instances of dirt and debris, but this only gives the film a more proper low budget, snuff film look. To me, this is one time where a poor transfer helps the movie.AUDIOAudio fares better with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and has no apparent hiss and distortion occurring, at least not enough to distract from your listening experience.EXTRA FEATURESThe Blu-ray features a 1 hour documentary on the film titled After Effects, which was shot in 2004. It features interviews with everyone involved in the making of the film, along with George A. Romero. There is an optional commentary from Michael Felsher, who shot the documentary. Rounding out the features are two short films by John Harrison and Dusty Nelson, and finally an archival commentary track with John Harrison, Dusty Nelson, and Pasquale.AGFA, along with MVD Entertainment Group, has done a splendid job releasing Effects on Blu-ray and fans will finally get to see this interesting horror film the way it was meant to be seen.

As any horror fan could confirm we are lucky to have Effects, which was a movie shot in 1978 that went missing due to a bad distribution deal. Apart from a few festival appearances Effects was shelved and was thought lost until it was found again and picked up for DVD in 2004.Effects is a movie within a movie where we follow a film crew in the woods who are making a low budget horror film. But one senses throughout that the director played by John Harrison is more interested to do a snuff movie. Tom Savini a guru FX wizard at the time plays a goofy gaffer on the set and Joe Pilato is probably the stand out as the cinematographer who is wet behind the ears.Most new horror fans won't like Effects. It is a slow moving film and is a great commentary on what low budget horror film making used to be like- the drink, the drugs, the messing around. The era is caught very vividly. Some may be put off by this, also don't expect tons of gore and killings it isn't here. What Effects does is build up our characters and the movie turns into something that isn't really that important for the horror genre but is more a timescape and should be treasured. A neat little movie from the boys from Pittsburgh.This DVD includes some great extras, commentary, 2 short movies and a great documentary updated with all of the actors/actresses from this film and a very interesting doc on Pittsburgh and its importance to the horror film.

George Romero

Yes, I love AGFA. Effects is totally nasty, and totally entertaining. Give me more!