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Where is MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH at this point?
We’re getting everything finished right now. I posted a little sneak on my Instagram recently, just to let everyone know we’re still plugging along. Understandably, people are like, “Oh, it’s been years…” but again, Synapse does not release something until I feel it’s fucking done. I don’t want to put out something just to put it out, if I don’t feel I’ve done the best work I can on it. The problem with MASSACRE was very similar to the one we had with TENEBRAE. We got the masters for that, and there was all this baked-in garbage from a poorly done restoration process that we had to go back in and fix.
It was a very similar situation with MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH: We got the files, and had no control over the master. We didn’t scan it, we didn’t supervise it, and on the surface, it was like, “This is pretty good,” but then I started seeing things: Buttons, details, etc. disappearing and reappearing from frame to frame. And I actually fired two restoration companies that took a crack at fixing it. They made things worse instead of better in some cases. Then we finally found a third company, which also handled MANCHESTER MORGUE for us, and they did a great job. So MASSACRE has taken a while, but it’s coming.
Did Renee Daalder’s death last year (from Parkinson’s/Alzheimer’s disease) affect that project?
It did. Renee was awesome; I miss that guy. When he would call us, we ended up having hour, two-hour conversations. Early on in the project, he told us, “Look, this project means a lot to me, and I want to do my own extras. I know everybody, I can get people.” And my business partner Jerry Chandler and I were like, “OK, fine,” and we started working on other things. Then we started not hearing from him anymore, and got a little worried. And then we heard that he was not going to be able to do the supplements. I didn’t ask for details; they just said, “He can’t do the extras anymore, he’s not going to do any on-camera interviews or commentaries. You’d better find somebody else.” So we hired Red Shirt Pictures to jump in and take over. We waited for Renee for two years; God bless him, he had a passion for the movie, and I was really hoping he could pull it off, but his health was in decline. It hit us very hard, because Renee was one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever worked with in the industry. He was so easygoing and so passionate and funny; he was like, “Maybe we can do HABITAT too!” and unfortunately that never happened.
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