you guys need to change the name to: "Cocaine Snuff." That's pretty much the whole movie in a nutshell. Dominic is a special effects artist working on a low budget horror film. The rest of the crew are doing blow and getting hammered, especially Nicky, played by Tom Savini. The other cast members sit around playing poker and, you guessed it, snorting drugs. In one scene, Dominic, Lacy The Director, the two comic reliefs Lobo & Scratch, are doing some lines when Lacy plays them a short snuff film. The snuff film is by far the best part of this film and is the reason I gave this piece of trash 3 stars. A lady is tied up to a chair and is sliced and diced by a fat bastard wearing an executioners mask. To the rest of the crew this is all too real so be careful what you wish for as the film within a film slowly becomes a snuff thanks to Nicky being whacked out of his skull on crack he agrees to kill the cast and I've said to much so.....you be the judge.

This movie seriously had me worried that I might be autistic! Forty-five minutes into the film and there still wasn't the slightest sign of plot development and/or essence. I don't know about you, but especially when dealing with early 80's low-budget horror flicks, I like to know if it's at least going somewhere. I was slowly starting to behave like Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man"; continuously repeating 'I need a plot … I need a plot …. I badly need a plot". "Effects" is a long, slow-moving, incoherent and visually exhausting movie and I honestly regret to say that because I'm a devoted fan of the genre and usually I really, really, really support obscure horror titles like this. Sadly, however, "Effects" is amateurish nonsense with sequences that are endlessly stretched and a story that literally never shifts into gear in spite of its great rudimentary potential. The crew of a cheap horror film, well … actually just the effects guy and the lighting girl, notice that the director is behaving very suspicious on set. They're right, too, because that sleazy bastard is actually planning to turn his little film project into a genuine snuff movie with the cast and crew members as the unaware and probably very reluctant lead players/victims. Sublime idea for a bona fide 80's shock feature, if you ask me, but the execution of the film is horrible. All of a sudden, I'm not even surprised anymore to find out this film was apparently "lost" for 20+ years. Even with Tom Savini and Joe Pilato (the latter giving a terrific performance and totally unlike the role in "Day of the Dead" that made him famous) in the cast, this is an infuriatingly lame movie. There's actually very little gore in the film and if you were, by any chance, hoping to learn some "kitchen secrets" about the special effects industry, you'll be sorely disappointed as well. "Effects" only specializes in overlong and pointless padding footage – especially the chase through the woods seems endless – and oppressed slasher ideas. Another extremely disappointing snuff-themed thriller, joining the same list as Roberta Findley's "Snuff", "Live Feed", "Snuff-Movie", "Vacancy" and Larry Cohen's "Special Effects". For good snuffies, stick to the Spanish "Thesis", the massively underrated "Mute Witness" and the legendary classic "Peeping Tom".

A low-budget horror film is being shot in a secluded mountain area by a hard-working crew and a cast of bewildered actors.However it soon becomes apparent that another crew is shooting the making of the horror film and their intentions are evil.They intend to make the ultimate horror film with real victims,real blood and real death-a genuine snuff movie."Effects" is pretty hard movie to recommend.There are plenty of dull moments where nothing interesting happens.The acting is fairly decent and there are some memorable moments including the director showing 8mm snuff film to his crew,the hunt for Dominic in the woods and startling final twist.It's a shame that the pace of the film is so sluggish.Worth a look for fans of snuff phenomenon.

Being a fan of Tom Savini, I was excited to see this old film of his that he did the effects for. Now, think of this: Tom Savini, Joe Pilato (Rhodes from Day of the Dead) John Harrison (the composer of Romero films like Creepshow and Day of the Dead) in a movie about a making of a snuff film! Sounds like good ol' 70's exploitation horror, right? As Arnold said in Terminator "Wrong!" This boring suspense drama is about...well, not too sure since there was no plot. But something about a crazy director who secretly video tapes his cast and crew have sex, snort cocaine, talk about George Taki's sex life, and then tries to kill his cinematographer for no reason. Tom Savini is funny as a scumbag stunt man who loves his women (basically Tom just played himself). But there is no blood or gore, there is nothing scary about the film, and the editing is really poor. I would rather see midgets shoot their little people pee all over a bag of Dorito's for 90 min. Now that would be an effect! I would rather see mentally challenged people drool all over bare breasts for 90 min. That would be an effect! Watching Joe Pilato mope around and fall in love with a female gaffer on some cheap movie is not an effect! Effect rhymes with erect.