Synapse Films

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bcsparker · #1 Post by **bcsparker** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:47 pm

Mr Pixies · #2 Post by **Mr Pixies** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:39 pm

Recently got Blue Sunshine, the Deadly Spawn. and Entrails of a Virgin (all released by Synapse), and have A Better Place (which won't play in my Toshiba dvd player).

The Blue Sunshine disc is pretty good, I really enjoyed the movie, and it has great a short film from the same director called the Ringer, and includes a cd of the soundtrack.

The Deadly Spawn was a lot of fun, and Entrails of a Virgin, when it's being a horror film, was terrific, but it's more of a soft core porn that gets pretty boring.

God Has A Rap Sheet sounds pretty interesting, might get it next time I'm at Best Buy, they had it for about 12 bucks.

bcsparker · #3 Post by **bcsparker** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:54 am

"Vampyros Lesbos" and "She Kills In Ecstasy" were the first titles from Synapse I ever bought. A great starting point for getting into Jesus Franco."Evil Dead Trap" is a great one (best eye injury on celluloid EVER).
I thought "Stacy" was a little too hokey, while "Entrails of a Virgin" is a nice sleazy guilty pleasure. Personally I think Synapse started out great, but with their spotty release schedule and slowly dwindling catalog (titles going OOP), they've been surpassed lately by Blue Underground. A great company though. I can't wait to buy "Thriller - a Cruel Picture"!

bcsparker · #4 Post by **bcsparker** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 3:15 am

These are listed as "upcoming" on Synapse's website -

• “The Booby Hatch/The Liberation of Cherry Jankowski Double-Feature”
• “Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee” – A Puppet Film from George Higham
• “Let Me Die a Woman”
• "Lucker the Necrophagus"
• “Madam O” (The Asian Cult Cinema Collection)
• "Olga's Girls"
• “Rosarigasinos” (aka Gangs of Rosario)
• “Schoolgirl Hitchhikers” (Jean Rollin)
• "Singapore Sling"
• "Street Trash" 2 Disc DVD Special Edition

I don't really know any of these, but there you go -

#5 Post by **zedz** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 4:59 pm

I can gingerly admit to having seen Let Me Die a Woman, an ultra-bad-taste sex-change 'documentary' by the notorious Doris Wishman. It's so bad just thinking about it makes my teeth ache, but if you're a connoisseur of such stuff (and can stomach explicit surgery sequences and really bad drag) you won't be disappointed. The words "Thanks, lady" are still echoing in my head. . .

So this is on its way and we're still waiting for Ugetsu?

DDillaman · #6 Post by **DDillaman** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:20 am

SINGAPORE SLING is the only one I've seen, and it's some form of twisted genius: achingly beautiful b&w photography set on dark stormy nights, a plot apparently strongly adapted/stolen from LAURA (which I haven't seen), but strung together with a jawdropping series of transgressive or just outright bizarre scenes.

Definitely on my list.

kazantzakis · #7 Post by **kazantzakis** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:14 pm

I agree about Singapore Sling. It seems to be a pre-cursor of sorts to more recent cinema like Snake of June. Most of the work by Nikolaidis is worth looking for. I believe most of these were recently released in his home country but I have not heard any comments on the quality (my guess is that it wont be satisfying). Most worthwhile are his earlier films, especially Sweet Bunch and Morning Patrol.

But that list Synapse posted is nothing new. Most of those titles have been on that list for the last 4-5 years.

filmghost · #8 Post by **filmghost** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:03 pm

A whole box set of Nikolaidis films were released in Greece (where I live) I think two years ago...I've no idea about the picture quality and I doubt there will be any english subtitlles but I can check if someone is interested....

kazantzakis · #9 Post by **kazantzakis** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:12 pm

filmghost , I would greatly appreciate it if you could check on picture quality. I was thinking of getting those at some point before they go OOP.

bcsparker · #10 Post by **bcsparker** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:27 pm

kazantzakis wrote:But that list Synapse posted is nothing new. Most of those titles have been on that list for the last 4-5 years.

You know, I'm really not surprised by that. Synapse only seems to update their site every six months or so - in time for their latest single release, of course.
I wish these guys would get on the ball. They were my favorite DVD company for awhile, but Blue Underground has just left them in the dust in term of quality and quantity. Example - Synapse managed 2 Jess Franco releases. I think BU is now nearing 10. .

bcsparker · #11 Post by **bcsparker** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:28 pm

kazantzakis wrote:But that list Synapse posted is nothing new. Most of those titles have been on that list for the last 4-5 years.

You know, I'm really not surprised by that. Synapse only seems to update their site every six months or so - in time for their latest single release, of course.
I wish these guys would get on the ball. They were my favorite DVD company for awhile, but Blue Underground has just left them in the dust in term of quality and quantity. Example - Synapse managed 2 Jess Franco releases. I think BU is now nearing 10. .

kazantzakis · #12 Post by **kazantzakis** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:52 pm

They are a very small company, run by a handful of people. Personally, I appreciate what they did early on, by increasing interest in people like Franco etc. BU is a bigger company from what I know.

bcsparker · #13 Post by **bcsparker** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 2:48 pm

Good point. I don't mean to be picking on Synapse. It's just I get sad every time I go to their website and I see their catalog dwindling (about 6-8 titles out of about 30 are OOP).
I will say Thriller: A Cruel Picture is a great release! It might not be to the tastes of many of the PC cineastes out there, but I love it!
Budo: The Art of Killing looks like it might be a good one too.

DrewReiber · #14 Post by **DrewReiber** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 4:09 am

bcsparker wrote:I will say Thriller: A Cruel Picture is a great release! It might not be to the tastes of many of the PC cineastes out there, but I love it!

Any serious film fan should check this movie out. It's the link that explains how we got from Bergman to George Miller's Mad Max.

colinr0380 · #15 Post by **colinr0380** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:22 am

I'm a big supporter of Synapse (after reading about films in Pete Tomb's book Mondo Macabro like Organ, and the Entrails film and its sequel, it was great to actually see them!) and it is a shame that they seem to have had more than their fair share of trouble over the years with distribution and also sometimes the directors they work with. For example Todd Doogan at The Digital Bits website wrote this article about how Jim Van Bebber had a falling out with Synapse over Deadbeat at Dawn.

And just recently it seems that Synapse has had some trouble with Thriller: A Cruel Picture from the director Bo Vibenius:

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_901.html

I have an update on the Synapse Films and Thriller A Cruel Story Distribution rights. Legal counsel for Synapse films emailed us this afternoon and this is what it had to say. Some of you may recall we earlier ran a story about how Thriller was being distributed ilegally. Synapse films has responded and here is their response. We appreciate synapse taking the time to respond for our readers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 25, 2004

SYNAPSE FILMS TO PROCEED WITH WORLDWIDE RELEASE OF “THRILLER –A CRUEL PICTURE” DESPITE UNLAWFUL THREATS FROM THE FILM’S PRODUCER / DIRECTOR BOARNE VIBENIUS.

On September 28, 2004, Synapse Films, Inc. (Synapse) will proceed with the worldwide release of Thriller–A Cruel Picture (Thriller) aka They Call Her One Eye on DVD. In late 2001, Synapse was approached by Chrome Entertainment, Inc. (Chrome) who paid producer/director Boarne Vibenius $10,000 U.S. Dollars for worldwide distribution rights to Thriller. Chrome told Synapse they could not complete their production work on Thriller and they had total confidence in Donald May, Jr. and Synapse to successfully release a DVD version. Fortunately, the distribution agreement between Boarne Vibenius, Channel 1 and Chrome allowed assignment of the distribution agreement to Synapse upon purchase of all of Chrome’s assets. In early 2002, Synapse purchased all the assets of Chrome and received an assignment of the distribution agreement which remains legally in effect.

For over two years, Synapse has been ruthlessly and relentlessly defamed and harassed by Boarne Vibenius. Simply put, Boarne Vibenius does not want Synapse to release Thriller. These attacks intensified after the increased publicity for Thriller due to the release of Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004) and from fine comments made about Thriller from director Quentin Tarantino in various press articles and interviews. Synapse has, in good faith, responded to numerous letters from Boarne Vibenius explaining that Synapse has full legal worldwide rights to release his film. Boarne Vibenius refuses our letters and correspondence. Just today, we received a pack of documents we had sent Boarne via Federal Express that came back to us with a note stating “Return to Sender”. Boarne also blocks our faxes and refuses our e-mails.

Boarne Vibenius’ latest tactic is hiding behind an alias named “Otto van der Leyfen” and emailing false accusations, from an anonymous Hotmail email address, to many of our loyal distributors, defaming Donald May, Jr. and Synapse Films. He is now emailing the editors and webmasters of publicly accessible film and DVD information websites with false accusations.

Synapse intends to assert all legal means to protect and defend its rights to the film Thriller. Despite all these accusations and threats, Synapse fully intends to pay Boarne Vibenius royalties which will be in addition to $10,000 U.S. Dollars Boarne Vibenius has already received.

Gordon · #16 Post by **Gordon** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:20 am

I have heard rumours that Synapse are working the excellent Australian horror film, Long Weekend - a film that has never had an uncut 2.35:1 widescreen release on home video.

I have the Australian R4 PAL edition which is uncut and 2.35:1 anamorphic and has a commentary and audio interview with John Hargreaves: http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/228722

The transfer is good considering this was a low-budget film from 1977 that was shot anamorphic in pitch darkness at times. I feel it is one of the most underrated horror films of the last 40 years and it fully deserves a high-quality R1 release. Synapse (or Blue Underground) are the folks to do it.

Mr Pixies · #17 Post by **Mr Pixies** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 1:08 am

I recommend God Has A Rap Sheet. Watched it the other day, a great little film, it's basically 8 men plus on who claims to be God, in a jail cell together, reflecting all the different races/religions arguing with each other about who is better/right/supreme. Written and directed by Kamal of the Jerky Boys.

Nihonophile · #18 Post by **Nihonophile** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 12:19 am

I am all about their upcoming release of Bizarre on June 28th

Their site has yet to post the release date but dvdtalk's review lists this date.

Review here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=16169

I'm so happy about getting these WS Burroughs shorts on a dvd plus the movie looks really fun. I've already seen horror hospital Balch's other narrative directorial effort and that was fantastic. I'm expecting more camp silliness.

mogwai · #19 Post by **mogwai** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 1:31 am

Fangoria posted this news article on May 19th. Includes specs and cover art for both titles.

Cinesimilitude · #20 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:55 am

The Limited edition of Thriller will most likely go OOP when they release the "Vengeance Edition" on tuesday Aug 30th, its the movie only with all the sex taken out. i got the limited edition in my gold box yesterday so it's on the way.

DrewReiber · #21 Post by **DrewReiber** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 4:32 pm

SncDthMnky wrote:The Limited edition of Thriller will most likely go OOP when they release the "Vengeance Edition" on tuesday Aug 30th, its the movie only with all the sex taken out.

That's seriously depressing. If they have control over the content, there's no reason they can't keep it in print as is. I could have sworn I saw unrated copies at Best Buy, so what's the problem? If this alteration does indeed go through, this will be the first time Synapse's content control has disappointed me.

Narshty · #22 Post by **Narshty** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 6:04 pm

It's not a case of going OOP - the uncut version is, according to Synapse, limited to 25,000 copies. I have no idea whether all those have been pressed yet. In any case, it's still widely available.

Cinesimilitude · #23 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:49 pm

yeah, i assumed this was going to be sold very quickly, but since it's still available, and I figure I'm ready for it, Might as well own the sexed up edition.

ben d banana · #24 Post by **ben d banana** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:59 pm

The sex is just penetration insert shots so the film could also be sold as X to porn theaters, so unless random pole banging random hole raises the stakes of your filmic appreciation, you ain't missing much. Of course, I'm not about to swap mine, but more for the sake of absurdity than anything else.

Billy Liar · #25 Post by **Billy Liar** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:25 pm

Gordon McMurphy wrote:I have heard rumours that Synapse are working the excellent Australian horror film, Long Weekend - a film that has never had an uncut 2.35:1 widescreen release on home video.

Very good film, not really horror though. Remember seeing this on video as a youngster during the video boom of the early 80's.

Just out of intrest what cuts were made to this film?