Special Effects
BUY AT:
See more details, packaging, or compare
Synopsis
Aspiring actress Andrea (Zoe Tamerlis Lund, Ms .45) has run away from her domestic life in Dallas to New York City, with dreams of becoming a future movie star. Director Christopher Neville (Eric Bogosian, Uncut Gems) promises Andrea a role in his next film - but when she visits him at his apartment one night, a sexual encounter turns violent, and Andrea is murdered while Neville’s camera captures the whole sordid affair. When Andrea’s estranged husband Keefe (Brad Rijn) arrives to look for her, he is immediately suspected of her murder, until he finds an unlikely ally in Neville. In exchange for helping secure his freedom, Neville persuades Keefe to help him with his new film, and to find him a new leading lady, one who bears a remarkable resemblance to Andrea…
Special Effects is a pungent, grindhouse-friendly riff on psycho-sexual thriller classics such as Vertigo, Peeping Tom and Blow Out, presented with inimitable style from the king of low-budget NY genre cinema, Larry Cohen (Q: The Winged Serpent, The Stuff).
Picture 7/10
Radiance’s Transmission line presents Special Effects on Blu-ray, delivering the film on a dual-layer disc in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with a 1080p/24hz high-definition encode. The disc is locked to Region B, so North American viewers will require a player capable of playback for Region B content.
The high-definition master supplied to Transmission is obviously an older one, which isn’t much of a surprise, but the end results look better than I would have expected. Grain is a little more muddled compared to what newer scans and restorations tend to deliver, though nothing ever looks overly egregious, and the image still retains a respectable film-like texture. That can likely be attributed to the encode, which remains clean and avoids enhancing the baked in digital anomalies already present in the master. The image is also reasonably sharp throughout, delivering finer details without much issue.
Colors show that older video-era look, which pushes skin tones a bit pinker, but they otherwise appear pleasing enough, with reds, pinks and blues popping nicely. Black levels can cary throughout, looking deep and inky in some sequences while appearing muddier in others, which can limit shadow definition, though overall they still hold up fairly well.
Though I'm sure Transmission did their own pass over the material, the underlying restoration work has also been fairly thorough. Outside of a handful of minor marks, there’s little of note remaining. In the end, nothing about the presentation stands out, but it still delivers a very solid representation of an older master.
Special Effects - Screen Captures
Audio 6/10
The lossless dual-channel monaural PCM presentation ranks about the same: nothing exceptional, but perfectly serviceable. It remains clean and free of any severe distortion or damage, while still delivering a respectable amount of range when called for. Fidelity can occasionally sound a little flat, though dialogue remains clear and easy to understand throughout.
Extras 7/10
Transmission throws in a few supplements, including two audio commentaries: an archival one from 2016 featuring director Larry Cohen with Steve Mitchell, and then a new solo track featuring Mitchell on his own. Unfortunately, neither stood out as particularly strong. Of the two, I probably preferred the duo commentary, with Cohen sharing stories about filming guerrilla-style in New York at the time, while also getting into the city’s art and acting scenes. He talks about the script (the first feature he wrote), its Hitchcockian influences, the casting process, and what it was like working with Eric Bogosian. He also speaks fondly of Zoe Lund (credited as Zoe Tamerlis at the time), along with some of her other work, amusingly referring to Ms. 45 as “M-S 45.”
Mitchell keeps the conversation moving with questions and his own observations, and while there are some worthwhile insights throughout, I never found the track especially engaging, with Cohen occasionally sounding somewhat detached. Mitchell’s solo contribution more or less summarizes material covered in that other commentary, though entirely from his own perspective, which at times had me questioning his point of view. For example, during a scene where Bogosian’s director character and others are looking through headshots for the victim role in their film, one of the photos is of Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. Mitchell interprets it as a deliberate joke by Cohen, though on the earlier track Cohen himself doesn’t even sound aware that it was Hoffman, describing it instead as just a random photo they happened to throw in. It’s possible Cohen was kidding (it's a helluva coincidence), though it certainly didn’t sound that way.
Far more engaging is a new 22-minute interview with Bogosian recorded last year. This one is terrific, with the actor first talking about a one-man show Cohen attended that eventually led to him being cast in the film. He confirms he made a few “demands” during production (Cohen alludes to the two butting heads in the commentary) and also talks about rehearsing a sex scene with his co-star only days before shooting it, which was supposed to be their first scene together. Unfortunately, his co-star was originally supposed to be Anne Carlisle, and after arriving on set Bogosian was surprised to discover Lund had suddenly taken over the role, which apparently caused tensions almost immediately. Despite that, other conflicts on set, and grueling 16-hour workdays with a non-union crew (which required plenty of sneaking around and misleading Teamsters when they came looking for them), Bogosian still describes it as a valuable first experience, particularly because it made him far more aware of working conditions and safety on film sets (it sounds as though he came seriously close to being electrocuted at one point). It’s a really terrific interview and easily my favorite addition to the release.
Transmission also includes a 71-minute career-spanning interview with Cohen, filmed in 2017. He begins by reminiscing about first falling in love with the movies before moving onto his finding success as a writer in New York, and then moving to Los Angeles, where he jokes he “couldn’t get arrested,” unable to find work. Eventually, after a lot of trial and error, he transitioned into directing, and from there he moves through his filmography one film at a time, discussing his experiences working with studios (including Warner Bros.) along with aspects of his creative process. He quickly moves through titles, rarely focusing on individual titles, but the interview moves briskly enough to remain engaging throughout.
And finally, Christina Newland contributes a terrific 13-minute piece on Lund, covering her early career in New York, her many talents that she didn't really get to show off to a wider audience, and eventual transition into film. The feature focuses primarily on Special Effects and Ms. 45 before moving onto her screenplay work on Bad Lieutenant and her tragic overdose years later. In the end, Newland delivers a thoughtful appreciation of Lund and her work. My second favorite feature after the Bogosian interview.
Transmission then rounds things out with a 30-page booklet featuring an essay by Juan Barquin on Cohen and the way his love Hitchcock bleeds into this film and much of his other work, a subject Cohen himself discusses extensively throughout the disc’s supplements. This is followed by an excerpt from Michael Doyle’s Larry Cohen: The Stuff of Gods and Monsters, featuring an interview with Cohen specifically focused on the film.
The material overall is hit-and-miss, but I really did enjoy Transmission's new exclusive material.
Closing
There’s certainly room for improvement, but Transmission has assembled a respectable new collector’s edition for the film.
BUY AT:
