Blu-ray Review – Special Effects

Larry Cohen clearly loves making movies. 1984’s “Special Effects” is partially a valentine to the madness involved in cinematic storytelling, giving Cohen (who also scripts) a chance to play with some Hitchcockian elements while remaining in the grungy, B-movie mode that’s made up most of his career. Execution isn’t a friend to the helmer, and despite his best effort to craft something twisted and weird, Cohen ends up with an unbelievably stiff picture in “Special Effects.” Suspense is intended but rarely conjured, and performances are almost amateurish in this endeavor, which hopes to provide a few turns and chills as it follows the dangerous ways of a sociopathic director working to restore his career through the cinematic ways of murder. Cohen has a ghoulish idea, but he fumbles most of this half-baked offering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com