Effects (1979)

... aka: Death's Director

... aka: Manipulator, The

Directed by:

Dusty Nelson

What makes this otherwise rocky low budget regional production of special interest to genre fans is that it was made by a whole host of George A. Romero film alumni. Director / writer Nelson had previously served as an editor and cameraman for the Romero directed and produced sports series The Winners. Producer / editor / sound man Pasquale Buba was one of Romero's trusted editors. Composer and executive producer John Harrison, who also gets to play an important supporting role, had already done the scores for several Romero films. Tom Savini, who'd first made a name for himself in the world of special effects through the early Romero films, also did the make-up for this one and plays a supporting part. And Romero fans will recognize a number of the other cast members, including leading man Joseph Pilato, who played small roles in both DAWN OF THE DEAD and Knightriders before graduating to play the lead baddie in Day of the Dead. There are a number of other Romero world connections littered throughout that I could mention, not least of which that this was filmed entirely around Pittsburgh. Romero himself, along with frequent collaborators Richard P. Rubinstein and Michael Gornick, are all given a special thanks in the credits.

That they could have, yet didn't, use Romero as a promotional tool is pretty bizarre, as is the fact this wasn't widely available until it was nearly three decades old. Shot all the way back in 1978, this had its premiere in late 1979 and was then given an extremely limited theatrical release in 1980, but never turned up on home video in the 80s and 90s. By the time Synapse Films released a DVD in 2005 the film had long been forgotten. The official story given for the hold up boils down to the original distributor not having the financial means to give it either a wide theatrical release or a home video release yet still retaining the rights into the 90s. By the time the makers regained ownership again, there was a general lack of interest in low budget genre films on VHS. Video stores were already full and owners were mostly interested in stocking major studio films with Hollywood stars. It wouldn't be until the DVD market picked up in the 2000s that the film finally received its release. 

I wish I could say it was worth the wait.

Effects takes place on the set of a super low-budget independent horror movie called "Something's Wrong," which seems aimed at the lowest common denominator with lingering camera shots of a woman showering and cheap gore fx. The pompous, cold-blooded director - Lacey Bickel (Harrison) - curiously seems disinterested in the whole affair. A wealthy trust fund brat who inherited a lot of money, he's not the least bit interested in realism or quality and brushes any suggestions off. After all, "Nobody has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of an audience." That puts him conflict with Celeste (Susan Chapek), who's usually an actress but has taken a job as the film's gaffer and wants to be involved in a quality production. Celeste doesn't like Lacey's script, doesn't like Lacey's insistence on piling on unconvincing gore and doesn't like Lacey's attitude. She also just doesn't like Lacey period. The two used to be romantically involved, which she brushes off as two people using one another. He wanted sex. She wanted access to his money. Simple as that.

Pilato plays Dominic, the production's easygoing cinematographer / cameraman / fx guy. (Hey, it's a cheap regional production so everyone wears many hats!) Dominic begins to date Celeste and suspects she may be bitter because, as of yet, she's failed to secure an acting role in the production. The lead actors are bickering real-life husband and wife Barney (Bernard McKenna) and Rita (Debra Gordon), who seem perfectly cast playing the bickering fictional couple in the film. Almost everyone is heavily involved with drugs. Not many of them seem like they can stand one another. Nicky (Savini), who supplies everyone with coke and does miscellaneous jobs on the set, causes some problems, and there are a lot of film-within-a-film bits meant to disorient. Sometimes we're not sure if what's being shown is part of the movie or is really happening.

It's obvious from the get-go that things aren't exactly what they appear to be. For starters, if Lacey has so much money, why are they shooting on 16mm with such a small crew? And then there's the fact the entire home they're shooting in has hidden cameras and audio equipment in certain rooms that only a few of the crew members are aware of. We're soon clued in that the secretly-recorded footage, including crew members having sex, is being sent back to a modern studio which Lacey and a shadow crew are watching and editing. There's some kind of parallel production going on that only some characters are aware is being made.

We're given a clue as to what's actually going down when Lacey whips out an 8mm film reel to show part of his crew. The b/w silent film depicts a woman tied to a chair getting slashed to death with a razor by a man wearing an executioner's hood. At first, Lacey claims the scene is the real deal; that the woman seen being murdered was actually murdered and the film was shot specifically for a British snuff film collector friend of his. He then backtracks on that claim and says he shot the footage himself and the murder was faked. Being experienced in special effects himself, Dominic suspects it's authentic, but doesn't remove himself from the situation as quickly as he should.

With its meta elements, discussion of other genre films (The Omen and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD are among those mentioned) and critique of amoral opportunists hoping to capitalize on numbed audiences always on the lookout for more extreme and shocking forms of entertainment, this feels thematically ahead of its time. However, a clever central idea isn't quite enough to overcome the film's myriad problems. While the performances are adequate and the gritty, grainy 16mm photography and poor lighting create a potent dreary atmosphere, the pacing is sluggish, characters are flat and uninteresting, a number of scenes are needlessly drawn out, the film fails to shock, disturb or create any suspense and many of the story detours are half-developed and confusing. A good example of the latter is the minor subplot involving the Barney character's gradual transformation from your standard husband type to a more flamboyant alternate personality.

This was supposedly based on a novel called Snuff by William H. Mooney, though I was unable to verify the existence of such a novel. Years later, Harrison would direct and write Donor Unknown (1995), which was also supposedly based on another Mooney novel called Corazon, which also doesn't appear to exist. I'm not sure if these were unpublished novels or these credits were simply made up. I was able to verify that a writer by the name of William H. Mooney does indeed exist. He's a graduate of Penn State, a film scholar, professor and the author of several film-related books, so I assume it's the same guy.

The budget was just 55,000 dollars. Director Nelson went on to make Necromancer: Satan's Servant  (1988) and a couple of action movies. In 2017, American Genre Film Archive released this on Blu-ray. Though the film has been restored from the only 35mm in existence, the print used is heavily damaged, which shouldn't be a problem at all for those who enjoy the grindhouse aesthetic. The AGFA release comes with a commentary track, two short films from director Nelson and Michael Felsher's hour-long documentary After Effects: Memories of Pittsburgh Filmmaking (2005), which features interviews with Romero, Savini, Nelson, Buba, Harrison and most of the primary cast.

★★

Island Fury (1989)

... aka: Please Don't Eat the Babies

Directed by:

Henri Charr

Reportedly this began shooting in the early 80s (1982 or 1983 are the years usually given), but the production was shut down before completion. Someone then acquired that footage and shot new scenes in 1988 to complete the film and the finished product, which has an end credits copyright date of 1989, was being marketed soon after. I'm not sure where the 1983 release date that this is usually listed under came from nor am I sure if the same person was responsible for both the 1982-83 scenes and the 1988 scenes, or if it was two separate directors. Only Charr is credited. I've also run across a few sources that claim Bruce Geller directed the earlier scenes. Geller was known as the creator of the Mission Impossible TV series and had just a handful of directorial credits prior. However, I'm not sure what involvement Geller could have possibly had seeing how he passed away in 1978! I suppose there's the possibility it was an entirely different director named Bruce Geller who made this and nothing else, but who knows?

Born Henri Charbakshi in Iran, credited director Charr was a graduate of Columbia College and (according to his self-penned IMDb bio) had been named one of the most promising new directors by AFI. He made his film debut back in the mid-70s with something called The Last Affair. Affair was shot in Chicago and began life as a drama with hardcore sex scenes meant to cash in on the "porno chic" craze of the day. Charr did a reedit and shot additional scenes for an R-rated release. Though the full film was never released to home video and now appears to be missing, Roger Ebert actually saw it during its brief theatrical run and wrote a scathing review, calling it "appallingly bad," "an epic of boredom" and "the most godawful R-rated mess I've ever seen." He also claims that since the makers could not find a distributor for their film, they cut out the middle man entirely and just purchased a movie theater to show it in instead! I'm sure if Ebert considered Affair a inept mess, he would have been every bit as appalled by what goes down here.

Things open with what appears to be the late 80s scenes judging by both the fashions and hairstyles on display and the fact these scenes are used as a framing device to house the earlier footage. Roommates Sugar (Monet Elizabeth) and Bobbylee (Tanya Louise) are doing a bit of shopping (and shoplifting) in Chinatown. Two mulleted thugs - Repo (Michael Wayne) and Willie (Mike Jacobs Jr. - MURDER WEAPON) - start stalking them and then chase them through the busy streets. The girls make it back to their car but are then kidnapped at gunpoint and taken to an empty warehouse where Sid (Joe Lombardo) roughs them up a bit and demands to know how Sugar ended up with a Spanish doubloon necklace. Turns out she acquired it many years earlier during a vacation. We then jump to flashbacks (the older footage) that explain where the coin came from, which is cut with the present day footage of the thugs dragging the girls back to the island.

In the flashbacks, ten-year-old Sugar (Sheri Oliff) and Bobbylee (Robin Haden) head to a remote island located somewhere in "The Devil's Triangle" along with older teen divers Todd (Ed McClarty) and John (Jo Lucas), and their girlfriends Candy (also Sugar's sister) and Sylvia (Darcy Lee). Candy is played by Kristen Baker, who's the only recognizable performer in this group of fodder due to her previous unclothed appearance as the skinny-dipping victim in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981). While she doesn't take her clothes off here (her nude corpse found later is an obvious dummy), she does spend the entirety of her screen time wearing a red bikini.

After docking, the group hear about a reputed lost treasure in a nearby cave from a young boy named Jimmer (Stanley Wells) who sells them oxygen for their tanks. The boy is one of the only residents of the entire island, along with his grandpa Jebediah (Hank Worden, who you'd never guess was a veteran actor with over 200 credits based on his performance here), granny (Mitzi Stollery) and their mentally retarded son Junior (Jonathan Gravish), who may or may not be Jimmer's father. None of these characters are the least bit developed.

The young travelers soon realize that they've stumbled across an entire family of psychos. Half the group are invited inside for some (drugged) herbal tea, pass out and then wake up locked inside separate sheds. One of the unconscious (or perhaps already dead) girls gets molested by Junior, while one of the guys locates some colorfully-lit catacombs (a boiler room actually!) through a hatch in the floor and is seduced by a topless woman who slashes him up with a razor. Bodies are stored in a "refrigerator shed" where, one can assume, they'll soon be eaten by the crazed family. Though no real cannibalism is shown, the grandpa character does make mention of wanting some "vittles."

The cobbled together scenes from the earlier shoot show that they almost had a movie back then... but not quite. There's a proper plot set-up and opening scene, as well as enough footage for an ending, but a lot of what goes down in the midsection is incomprehensible. Poor editing cuts and jumps are present throughout, as well as characters who just disappear and then turn up dead later on. It's also quite obvious that there was never enough plot to flesh out a full length feature to begin with, which results in boring and repetitive filler scenes of characters sitting around in the woods. Since two of these characters are little girls, that also means a LOT of whining and unconvincing crying, though the acting from most of the adults isn't any better. Some obviously flubbed lines are included in the finished cut and there's one head-scratching moment that seems to insinuate that the island is also populated with giant cockroaches (?!), which is yet another plot point left muddied.

Further adding to the film's lack of appeal is that it skimps on blood and gore, which was never going to sit well for something like this in the heyday of gory slasher flicks. Aside from a bloody cleaver to the face murder, nearly every other death takes place off-screen, as if they never got around to actually filming any of those scenes. The bit where Baker and her boyfriend are killed in the tunnels (which are never again seen in the film) by that random topless woman (who is also never again seen after this one scene) appear to have also been added later on. It would be interesting to hear from the director or one of the actors whether or not they were brought back later to shoot this particular scene or if it was part of the original shoot. My money's on the former.

After this mess, Charr would somewhat redeem himself, at least in my sleazy-movie-loving eyes, by making a troika of fun WIP exploitation movies; Caged Hearts, Cellblock Sisters: Banished Behind Bars and Under Lock and Key, which were all released in 1995 and used to play on cable TV all of the time. The executive producer was the Iraqi-born Mardi Rustam, who Charr had previously worked with as an editor on EVILS OF THE NIGHT (1984).

As for when this was first released, I'm not entirely sure. It may have played in a theater or two at some point but all that I could verify was a 1994 VHS release from A.I.P. under the Island Fury title as well as a Japanese VHS release from Prism Entertainment using the Please Don't Eat the Babies title, though I'm not sure of the date of that particular release. Dark Sky Films / BPI released a full screen version on DVD in 2008, pairing it with the Jaws cash-in Barracuda (1978).

★