Years before working together on Day of the Dead, Pittsburgh pals Tom Savini and Joe “Captain Rhodes” Pilato starred in Effects, a 1980 film directed by Dusty Nelson. It wasn’t until 2005 that the film was widely released on home video, and it’s now getting a brand spankin’ new Blu-ray courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive!
Alamo Drafthouse’s American Genre Film Archive, the largest non-profit genre film archive in the world, just announced an August 22, 2017 release date for the Effects Blu-ray. The new 4K transfer was made using the only 35mm print of the film in existence, recently discovered in the archive.
Cobbled together with loose change by George Romero’s friends, Effects is a mesmerizing do-it-yourself horror movie starring Tom Savini, Joe Pilato, and John Harrison.
A group of coked-up filmmakers — including Savini and Pilato — gather in Pittsburgh to make a slasher called DUPED: THE SNUFF MOVIE. As filming begins and “accidents” happen, it’s clear that something isn’t right. And no one can be trusted.
Landing somewhere between Michael and Roberta Findlay’s SNUFF and a student film by John Carpenter, EFFECTS is a meta-enhanced takedown on the philosophy of horror that doubles as a sleazy and terrifying movie on its own.
Blu-ray features include:
- Archival commentary track with John Harrison, Dusty Nelson, and Pasquale Buba
- AFTER EFFECTS documentary with optional commentary track
- UBU and BEASTIE short films
- Liner notes by Joseph A. Ziemba of AGFA and Bleeding Skull
- Reversible cover art with illustration by Charles Forsman (Netflix’s THE END OF THE FU**ING WORLD)
To celebrate the Blu-ray release, AGFA teams up with the Alamo Drafthouse’s Terror Tuesday series in Austin for a screening of Effects on August 22 with a full cast and crew reunion. Tom Savini, Joe Pilato, John Harrison, Dusty Nelson, Pasquale Buba, and Zilla Clinton will be in attendance.
