TRACK #258:

A Critical Madness by Kay Reed with The Church of Our Savior Choir

Tim Ritter is pretty awesome. If you’re a fan of 80’s shot-on-video, backyard horror, than you’re definitely familiar with old Tim.

The auteur behind such insane fare as Twisted Illusions, Creep and Day of the Reaper, Tim was a to-the-bone horror fan armed with a camera who just said “Hey! I can do that.”

And did it he did, creating some of the most entertaining and charming additions to this bizarre, homespun sub-genre. If you like that sort of thing.

And I do, so I’m gonna give you all a double shot of Tim Ritter tunes. First up, the by-line Title Track to his 1986 bonkers opus Truth or Dare: A Critical Madness.

Like most of Tim’s output, it’s a film that really must be seen to be believed and even then I’m sure it’ll be a little tricky to fully wrap your mind around.

After happening upon his wife fuckin his best friend, Mike Strauber begins spiraling into a critical madness, first by playing increasingly masochistic games of truth or dare with people that aren’t really there, sending him straight to the nuthouse.

Eventually, he disfigures his own face and then fashions himself a weird-ass cooper mask. Then the dickhead orderlies give him a picture of his wife, ya know, to warm up his cold, padded cell. Yeah, that’ll probably lead to increased mental stability.

Predictably (and thankfully for us) it does no such thing, propelling Mike to escape and embark on a Silent Night, Deadly Night 2-style daytime killing spree complete with nunchucks, a full-on mace and maybe even a grenade, I dunno.

Shot when Tim was only 18, it belies his age and at times appears to be the work of more mature folks. Not all the time of course, but it’s still pretty impressive for someone who couldn’t even legally get drunk.

Which leads us to this song, this gloriously bizarre and out of place song. Some kinda Dion Warwick sounding left field commission, A Critical Madness appears to be sung from perspective of Mike’s wife, by crooning woman Kay Reed, complete with an accompanying children’s choir.

I dunno why Tim thought a movie like his should end with a song like this, but thank God he did.

Halloween Shindig gives you, A Critical Madness.