Recently received a copy of Synapse's long-awaited remaster of one of my all time favourite low-budget Sci-Fi gorefests, DEADLY SPAWN. As one would expect by now, Synapse have done a sterling job putting this package together. The film looks really great - almost TOO cleaned-up in fact for such a grungy flick - and has way cool extras, but sadly I have to qualify my praise by mentioning what no-one else seems to have noticed (including Synapse's quality control dept.), namely that there is a BAD soundtrack error on the disc! Go to Chapter 6 ('Hands Off') and at the 28 minutes point, when the camera slowly zooms in on a picture on the wall that is being moved by a spawn behind it, the original sound is suddenly - glaringly - replaced by a section of soundtrack from a scene a few minutes on in which Charles (the boy) is walking through water in the cellar! This ridiculously wrong sound runs for just over a minute as Charles walks down a (clearly bone-dry) corridor and adjusts his apeman mask before entering the cellar (the proper sound restarts from the next shot of Charles going down the cellar steps, at 29.06). I've located the replicated section of soundtrack, it's correct position starts at about 30.30 on the counter, ending just before the shot of the severed hand floating in the water. In my opinion this is a mistake that should not have happened, especially given Synapse's much-trumpeted restoration of this film, and slightly spoils the film for true DEADLY SPAWN devotees. So, a couple of questions: Firstly, do all copies of the Synapse DVD suffer from this fault, secondly, will there ever be a fix of this mistake? In the meantime, whilst I will keep this disc for the superb extras, the Vipco or German disc is still the only way to see the whole film with its original error-free soundtrack. Bummer!

The sound is that way on my copy too, so I'm gonna guess it would be universal to all copies.

:: The film looks really great - almost TOO cleaned-up in fact for such a grungy flick

The DVD transfer only reflects what was in the original 16mm camera negatives. It's not like Synapse scrubbed grain out of the image, they simply did a new digital transfer from a new film element. It looks like the film would look if you were to screen a new print, basically.

:: In my opinion this is a mistake that should not have happened, especially given Synapse's much-trumpeted restoration of this film

Well, mistakes should NEVER happen, but they do. Synapse spent a pretty penny making a brand-new film element to transfer from, and as far as I know, this is the only major possible mess-up in Synapse's history since they started releasing DVDs in 1998 (Compare that to Anchor Bay, or Shriek Show, of even Blue Underground). Heavens, look at all the mistakes that Anchor Bay made in the past and largely been forgiven for, and they have a gaggle of employees, whereas Synapse is basically a one-man outfit. If this is an error, this is ONE error since 1998 is a pretty damned impressive track record given all the titles he's released and personally supervised with little or no outside help. I certainly don't think Synapse should be thrown to the dogs over it.

Vincent

I didn't even notice a problem when I watched it, I think I'll keep my current disc.

I certainly don't wish for Don to be "thrown to the dogs", but a replacement without the error would be much appreciated for many I would think, not just me. Also I was not criticising the sharpness or brightness of this new print, I only meant that it was a little weird to see such a micro-budgeted flick looking so spruced-up! There are still enough re-assuring scratches etc. to remind one of SPAWN's humble origins. And the extras ARE great, no doubt about it. Nevertheless, with any of these DVD packages, one must bear in mind that the main thing that one should surely expect to be as perfect as possible is the film itself? Whilst I can live with this error, I would rather not have to given my nostalgic love for this film (it was one of the first great 'Video Nasties' I rented on VHS back in the 80s in the UK). It is true that Synapse have one of the better track records compared with certain other labels I won't shame further by mentioning, so it will be interesting to see what happens next. I know Don is something of a perfectionist (luckily for us!) so I have hopes of something being done. By the way Don, I'd be more than happy to watch check-discs for you! ;-)

Well, I know exactly what you are talking about... I noticed this, too, and wasn't sure about it. It just didn't sound "right" to me.

I gave the disc to Ted Bohus and I even questioned the audio engineers who were working on it to check the area and the audio was EXACTLY this way on the original mag tracks that were provided by Ted Bohus.

We were given an original mix mag... probably one before changes were "corrected", or for the lack of a better word, "made" to the final mix. But, that is what we were given... we went back to the only existing original mag mix we could find. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of other little changes in the audio that you just didn't notice.

The mags provided sync'd that way and these are what we used for the mix. If it makes you any happier, we decided not to "add" even more sound effects to the mix that were requested by Ted Bohus (because I felt the fans would want the original version)... the same reason why we didn't include the "alternate" opening within the film.

The audio may sound like a mistake because of the way we were always used to seeing/hearing it in the past, but we used the original audio mix mags for this for the best quality, sonically. The audio company that did the restoration assured me, after I questioned them on this, that the materials they were given were recorded this way. But, that being said, it may be slightly different that what we are used to hearing. Kinda like the way the original theatrical version of STAR WARS had different audio than the re-release in theatres only a few years later! Heh!

Which brings me to my next point. Nigel, you remark, in your initial post that "the Vipco or German disc is still the only way to see the whole film with its original error-free soundtrack". Now, I'm not 100% sure, but I do believe that at least one, or possibly both of these releases you mention actually utilize the alternate opening sequence (that we included as a supplement) cut back into the opening of the film. I think I heard the German release uses the altered opening, maybe not the Vipco. If this is indeed the case (and I don't have either of these releases lying around to check myself), then what you say isn't true, because the altered opening also contains new sound effects added that were not in the original release.

Well Don, I've seen and indeed once owned the original UK Vipco VHS tape, the Vipco DVD and the German DVD. All are identical in content (the German disc is copied from the UK disc which utilises the original 1980s video master), none have the new CGI-boltered intro sequence (I read an inaccurate posting online re. this too), and none have the seemingly mismatched audio sequence as it plays on the Synapse DVD. So it looks like during the audio reconstruction for your DVD some of the elements were wrongly juggled by the filmmakers. Whilst you are clearly not at fault, having questioned the glaring discrepancy yourself, I maintain it is still an 'error' (I mean, as you said yourself, it clearly sounds wrong). However, nothing can be done seems to be the ultimate message here, which is a pity. However I understand the reasons why such a patch would not be financially worthwhile. The Vipco and German discs are indeed STILL the only way to get the soundtrack as offered on the original uncut UK video release and I will now rebuy a Vipco disc (I got rid of my other DS discs to make way for the Synapse version!) for the sake of completion as DEADLY SPAWN is one of my fave old-school gore flicks... It seems perverse to remix portions of the original soundtrack to sound 'wrong' but we must accept that this is apparently what the filmmakers wanted to do. I've posted in good faith, I will now let the matter lie. Any input from other Mobians or the filmmakers themselves would be of interest to me, but the matter seems to be closed already, so any other points or comments may well prove to be merely academic.

I must be a complete tool, because I've watched the DVD 3 times since Christmas and didn't even notice the glitch. I'm thrilled to pieces with the disc and consider it one of my favorites of 2004. It's a keeper!

I have both the Synapse DVD and the '80s Canadian pre-record from VEC, which is almost certainly indentical to the American Continental release, as VEC sub-distributed a bunch of titles from that company. The audio error does not occur on this version. I certainly don't fault anyone who demands perfection in their releases but, in this case, I think the soundtrack fault on the DVD is a pretty minor one (there is no out-of-sync dialogue and the problem certainly pales in comparison to the fault on Media Blasters' SLAUGHTER HOTEL) and only a small drawback for an otherwise terrific special edition.

John Charles

Here is an official response from the producer of the film, Ted Bohus. I just talked to him about it and he says that, the way the audio is on the DVD, is the ORIGINAL mix of the film, before the distributor (21st Century) did it's own tampering.

He knows it doesn't sound exactly the same, but the audio mix we used is his preferred version of the film (which is fine by me). He just told me that when 21st Century Distribution picked up the film for the theatrical release, they blew up the negative and cropped way too much important picture info (which CAN be seen on our version... not so on the foreign DVD releases), and, they fussed with the audio to the point that the filmmakers didn't like the audio mix used in the final film release.

The audio utilized on our release is indeed the original, pre-21st Century Distribution tampered version, according to Mr. Bohus. Our presentation is the non-cropped, 16mm version of the film that they made BEFORE taking it to a distributor that changed things around (in both audio and picture composition).

While you may not necessarily think that the section in question is correct, that IS the way it was on the original audio tracks, according to Mr. Bohus. I will not tamper with any version of the film that has been approved by the filmmakers.

Even with the small section of audio that is different, the film is still a stellar presentation, in my opinion (not to pat myself on the back or anything) and the one other thing to consider is that the picture information shown on our version (on all four sides of the image) completely blows away any other version of the film.

I'm sorry if you don't necessarily like that one small section of the audio mix, but that's the way it was, warts and all.

If you have any further questions, you are more than welcome to hear this same explanation from Ted himself, as he has given me permission to post his contact email address:

spfxted@aol.com

Ive watched it twice with the commentaries and once with out it and I feel the same way. If its there it sure isnt noticeable.

I have to smile sometimes to stop myself banging my head against the nearest brick wall... I thought it wouldn't be too long before posts started appearing seeming to hint that I'm some kind of a shit-stirring timewaster for pointing out what I thought was an error that needed highlighting. Hey, if some of you can't even notice the fault when in my first posting I give you counter settings then... well, I can't even be bothered to finish my sentence. And if this fault is the filmmaker's preferred sound mix for that particular scene, and they (and apparently most viewers) think it is appropriate to have a boy walking down a dry corridor accompanied by sounds of his feet sloshing through water (especially when it is a section of soundtrack designed to match the correct scene a few minutes later on when it is repeated correctly) then who am I to argue? Messed with or not, I prefer the soundtrack that always used to accompany that scene in the other VHS or DVD releases, which was clearly more appropriate. The rest of the soundtrack on the DVD is great, but I still think that brief section is a FAULT. Sorry if I've rattled some cages, but I thought some at least would be interested in my observations. For the record: I AM NOT ANTI-SYNAPSE! Consider this my last posting on this subject here. Life is too short, blah blah blah... Have a Happy New Year...

It sure would be great if we could discuss these issues without them being taken personally ...

The original question was a reasonable one (although it wasn't necessary for anyone to step in and defend Synapse's reputation, as that was never being questioned), and the subsequent investigation and response was a reasonable one (thanks for taking the time to research this, Don).

We're all friends here, folks.