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Well, I want to thank all the fans and friends for supporting us! Our DEMONS and DEMONS 2 Steelbooks are now around 33% sold through of each, in just a little over 24 hours. Jerry and I want to give back a little something to our fans by having a surprise 50% sale on our website http://www.synapse-films.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;! Now, to early morning Sunday, we're offering up a 50% coupon code: synapsesale. Entering this code at checkout, will give you 50% off your order (excluding some of the early preorder items, of course). As always, we offer free shipping in the U.S. Again, thank you all and we hope you have a fantastic day!

Today, we begin the process of, what we hope to be, the 2K restoration on CURTAINS. We're the first people to crack open these cans since 1983. Fingers crossed.

Today is the kind of day I both loath and love about this business. We have, in our hands, the only existing vault materials for a horror film that many love and have wanted for years to be done right on home video. I'm assigned to the task. The excitement is overwhelming just to SEE the film and find out what is in the cans. The "loath" part is usually the bad news where we find out it was improperly stored, torn, shredded, faded or whatever... But, we'll find out. Synapse will MAKE THIS WORK! 2K scan work commence!

A little treat for you all today. Here is a full aperture shot from the 35mm Interpositive of CURTAINS. It's not formatted, or fully corrected, but you can DEFINITELY see the difference. This is going to be FUN!

Here's what the old video master looks like. Bleh!

Full aperture, uncorrected, unsized 35mm frame from the OCN of PROM NIGHT. Because you wanted me to post a frame from it, too. Here ya go.

Synapse Films wrote:[W]e're currently finishing up the HD master and will go Blu and DVD [...] The restoration has been difficult.

EddieLarkin wrote:Screenshot comparison:

Demons 2 from Arrow
Demons 2 from Synapse

Funny you should ask... yes, indeed! Probably November or December.

It is with great sadness that I have to report some unfortunate findings regarding CURTAINS. I know a lot of you have asked about the "alternate" original version of CURTAINS, with the original director, ending, alternate death scenes and before some of the actors were replaced. Obviously, this version existed in some form, at some point, and we were very hopeful because many early tape elements from 1981-82 appeared on an inventory list I had received. Unfortunately, it seems that all the original 3/4" UMATIC work tapes of the original rough cut, and a few other edits have been ordered destroyed by whoever controlled the library a few years ago. All the original film elements for the original version are long gone from the vault, as well, with no clue as to where they went (it was over 30 years ago, after all). There was evidence of a 105 minute version from 1982, split onto two tapes... it was destroyed in 2009, along with outtakes and even the original TV spot elements. This kind of thing SICKENS me. The fact that there were tapes that contained additional footage all the way up to August of 2009, then unceremoniously chucked into the garbage, just makes be shake my head. The items were originally stored at Bonded Toronto, then someone ordered all the "obsolete" 3/4" UMATIC tape elements that were taking up space in the vault (and costing money) to be thrown out. The remaining elements were then moved to Iron Mountain Toronto. Neither Bonded, nor Iron Mountain now have these tapes. (sigh) I know this sort of thing is very common in the industry. License holders who have NO idea that these "obsolete" tape elements may hold a potential gold mine of material (or even a different version of a film they could exploit for profit) just toss it away like a used Kleenex. Anyway, just so you can see what was destroyed, Here is a rather long list. It is very despressing:

3/4" CASSETTE MCLAVERTY #1 PART 1 OF 2, #82 - 03 FEB 22 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE MCLAVERTY #1 PART 2 OF 2 #82 - 03 FEB 22 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE PART 1 FINAL ROUGH CUT REEL 1 - 6 JULY 14 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE PART 2 FINAL ROUGH CUT REELS 1 - 6 JULY 14 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE PART 1 105 MIN #83 - 11C 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE PART 2 105 MIN #83 - 11C 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE DON'T PUT YOUR DAUGHTER ON STAGE BURNING PHOTOGRAPHS 15 MIN

3/4" CASSETTE PART 1 FEB 26 1981, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE PART 2 FEB 26 1981, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE FINAL ROUGH CUT PART 1 OF 2 JULY 14 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE FINAL ROUGH CUT PART 2 OF 2 JULY 14 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE MCLAVERTY #1 PART 1 OF 2 #82 - 03A FEB 22 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE MCLAVERTY #1 PART 2 OF 2 #82 - 03A FEB 22 1982, 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE PART 2 OF 2 90 MIN #82 - 15A 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE PART 1 OF 2 90 MIN #82 - 15A 1174'

3/4" CASSETTE SPOTS 1 - 5 ENG VERSION , MAY 24 1983 , 610'

1" VTR SUBMASTER SPOTS 3X :30 , 2X :10 267'

1" VTR EDITED MASTER TV SPOT 1 , 2 ENGLISH VERSION 531' MAY 24 1983

1" VTR EDITED MASTER 3X :30 SPOTS 531' FEB 16 1983

1" VTR EDITED MASTER 2X :10 SPOTS 531' FEB 23 1983

1" VTR MASTER ENGLISH VERSION TV SPOT 1 - 5 3170' MAY 24 1983

The treasure trove of footage and material these tapes probably held would've been a fantastic find for CURTAINS fans, and the horror community. All gone. Obviously destroyed by some person who had absolutely NO idea what they were getting rid of.

Something extraordinary happened today. A day I really never though would come. Let me explain.

Around 20 years ago, when I first started in this business, I never dreamed I would have the opportunity to work on so many horror/cult classics. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, LEMORA, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 1-3, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 1 & 2, EVIL DEAD 2, STREET TRASH, INTRUDER, THUNDERCRACK!, RE-ANIMATOR, THE STEPFORD WIVES, PROM NIGHT, BRAIN DAMAGE, FRANKENHOOKER, CURTAINS, TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, BLUE SUNSHINE, DEMONS, DEMONS 2, PHENOMENA, TENEBRE, all those HAMMER classics … Just a small selection of the many films I’ve helped release on home video (some listed above are still to come, of course) in one form or another with the two companies I’ve owned.

I grew up on these films, and it is a huge honor that I’ve been able to work on them all before I either quit the business or dropped dead (probably from exhaustion caused by actually working on said films). But there are still a few films on my “bucket list” that I’ve always wanted to work on that I haven’t been able to for one reason (money) or another (stingy studios). My “dream” films. Many others I really wanted to work on slipped right through my fingers even though we started working on them: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4 & 5 (The license expired too quickly and we only got out the first three. But we tried. Hard.), MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (I don’t even remember why that failed to get finished), and WILD AT HEART (After a huge amount of pre-production, phone calls and element searches with David Lynch and his office), too. The film license was left to die after I left Elite Entertainment, I guess. We even made an ad for it! Then there was the huge DVD life-project I started with Clive Barker around 10 years ago, when we discovered the “NIGHTBREED: CABAL CUT” VHS tape in a random box at his place. Clive was a saint, and I loved visiting when he was covered head to toe in paint, but his agents stuck a fork in all our great plans. Maybe another day, Clive.

But, there is ONE particular film that, since I took that risky, all-or-nothing head-first dive into the home video biz, I’ve always wanted to do and it’s always been out of reach. I’ve met and talked with the director over the years about it, but was never able to get it. But, we got a lead not long ago, and pursued it immediately. There was a small bit of hope.

I was working on DEMONS at home when my business partner, Jerry Chandler, called me with the news. I pick up my phone and he says in his non-reactive, calm, easygoing tone that he always tries to fool me with (but it never works), “Just wanted to let you know, we got the signed contract today. Just throwing that out there, in case you needed to get some good news this morning.” I was sitting on my couch and I just hung up the phone and stared at the floor for a few minutes trying to absorb what I’d just heard. I couldn’t believe it. I have to admit I got a bit misty eyed, too.

Getting this film has been quite a few stressful months in the making. As a matter of fact, knowing that there was really only a slight chance we could get it, we had to let a few other titles slip through our fingers that we wanted. We were in the running for NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, WITCHBOARD and one other film that we know went to Scream Factory. I won’t spill the beans on what that one is. I’ll let SF announce it when they are ready. Truth is, with my bucket list film as a possibility for Synapse, we just didn’t want to put a lot of money towards these other three films. We didn’t offer a lot of money for them because we knew getting this one film was much more important to me. We couldn’t really have afforded larger advances on those other three films, and then this one too (contrary to what some folks would like you to believe, we are a struggling indie company… we aren’t loaded with money, and we have to be smart about how we spend it). We gambled that we would get it, held our breath, and let the other three films slip away… All three films went to Scream Factory, but the film we wanted wasn’t locked up yet. It wasn't a sure thing. I was torn, anxious… almost devastated that we lost the three and started to believe we’d never get the one we gave them up for. This ONE film was more important to me than anything else on the table and I thought we’d made a horrible mistake.

But, then it came to us. The agreement was in.

Now, at this point you are probably like… “Don, what the fuck? Tell us what it is already.” I will eventually, but not today. WAY too much planning, scanning and work await me on this one before I’m comfortable with talking more about what we’re doing. I just had to get this off my chest tonight. I needed to shout out to the world that dreams do come true sometimes. Sometimes. And for me, today was that day.

So I sit here, in awe of what just went down at Synapse Films. I’m stunned, ecstatic, shaking… not exactly sure if I believe what happened, even though I know it did. We got it. Twenty years… and it’s finally mine. Twenty long, hopeful, wishful, mother fucking years! I have never been more proud to be in the home video business than I am right now.

EddieLarkin wrote:Re: Triumph des Willens, Robert Harris says he's been working on a release of the film as well (from a different source), coming soon from Synapse:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/topic/3 ... -ray-1216/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EddieLarkin wrote:What leads you to believe that 1.19:1 wasn't the intended ratio?

The amount of detail ( one can now see camera rising on specially created platforms)

MichaelB wrote:What has that got to do with the aspect ratio?