Tim Ritter: In His Own Words

The history of filmmaker Tim Ritter and his company, Twisted Illusions, Inc.


In 1975, at the age of eight, I participated in a couple of super-8 movies made by my neighbor Joel Wynkoop. He was barely in his teens and was also my babysitter. I acted in one of his flicks that was called THE BIONIC BOY.

By 1978, I had moved to a different South Florida town and had picked up the family super-8 movie camera. I began to film an alarming number of movies with my cousin. Some of the titles made up to 1983 were: SUPERPANTHER, THE BOWLING BALL (yes, a killer bowling ball), IT! FROM OUTER SPACE, TARGET, and INSTANT THRUST (a SUDDEN IMPACT takeoff).

Forseeing the video market, we began to transfer our super-8 movies to video (Beta). In 1984, we shot our first full-length feature film called DAY OF THE REAPER. It had original music and actors from my high school drama class. I was just starting my senior year.

I took out an ad for the movie in the school newspaper, and Joel Wynkoop's nephew saw it. He gave it to Joel and he immediately contacted me. He helped me sell REAPER to local video stores in a crazy plastic case that had a black and white photcopied flyer for box art! Joel still had the burning desire to create and especially act.

During the course of selling REAPER, we ran into Al Nicolosi, who worked at a video store and TV station as well. He saw what we were doing and offered to collaborate on the next project using video equipment he had. The result was TWISTED ILLUSIONS, released before I graduated high school. It was an anthology movie with seven short stories. Joel wrote and directed three and I did three.

This was our first time using sync sound and "real" local actors. Joel starred in the last short on the video that I made called TRUTH OR DARE. This seemed to be everyone's favorite episode...

As we sold the tape to video stores up and down South Florida, some van traders also got it into stores in New York, L.A., and Chicago, despite the shoddy box art (this time in color). Joel, Al, and I began to see the market for a decently made video movie if it was shot with a budget and released in a color video sleeve.

During my senior year in high school, Al opened up a video production company and taught me how to shoot, edit, and use all kinds of equipment as I assisted him in making commercials, how-to videos, and shooting weddings and other events. In the meantime, I purchased a scriptwriting book and hammered out a full script that expanded the TRUTH OR DARE story into something called CRITICAL MADNESS.

I was inspired by everything: Quiet Riot and their metal music (also the cool mask featured in BANG YOUR HEAD), Twisted Sister, the FRIDAY THE 13th movies (which Joel and I sat thru endlessly, part 5 was awesome!), H.G. Lewis (tracking down his videos and books on him---actually talking to him since he was in South Florida! Originally he was set to do a cameo in TRUTH OR DARE), and of course, John Carpenter.

Somehow, in addition to graduating high school, working for Al, and writing that script, I was able to get a video distributor out of Chicago called VSI interested in making a shot-on-video horror movie.

I graduated in May 1985 and spent the next five months trying to get this company to cough up $60,000 so Al, Joel and I could make CRITICAL MADNESS on Beta SP. We lined up everything: Actors (with Joel in the lead), technical people (Al and his television connections), locations, props, special effects (I had a guy named Mike Maddi ready out of LA who had done FRIDAY THE 13th IV), music (Joel and I had met a guy named Jack Starr, who fronted a band called VIRGIN STEEL who wanted to do music---they're very big now!), and myself as writer/director.

My parents were urging me to go to college, but for some reason I just could not stop pursuing this "dream with a real budget." Every day I was on the phone and sending VSI more and more materials: script changes, updates, new characters, new ideas, and even a video showing what we were doing.

VSI almost lost interest, and one of the last calls I almost had with CEO Geoffrey Miller ended with him saying, "Well, all this is nice, but we're real busy. Next time you're in Chicago, drop by." Like it was a town a few miles up from Jupiter, Florida!

Needless to say, Al and I booked a plane flight to Chicago within the next two weeks and met all the VSI staff in person. (The night before we left I finally saw LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT when it was released on video. This movie was a total inspiration for me, from the low budget to the content to the way it was put together!)

VSI was shocked that we actually showed up! Much to my surprise, I discovered they hadn't even actually read the script yet! They did watch the videos, though. This meeting actually made them read the script, and from there, they were EXCITED and COMMITTED to CRITICAL MADNESS.

VSI distributed primarily adult titles, and had done one direct-to-video comedy called VEGETABLE HOUSE. The whole experience was bizarre, from being picked up by a pink limo to speaking with Geoff, who sported a HUGE gold earring in his left ear that appeared to weave inside his head.

To make a long story short, the budget was eventually raised (I had to go to Chicago a few more times to pitch the story to groups of investors VSI assembled) to $200,000.00 + and they added their own people as we went along. Shooting on video was eschewed for 16mm, and they brought in Yale (DEATH WISH) Wilson to supervise and produce (since we were all so inexperienced). Even the H.G. Lewis cameo was cut!

From there, we rode the storm as Joel was cut down to a small guard role and props/stunts, Al was cut out completely (I ended up hiring him to shoot a making of documentary of the movie out of my own pocket), my fx and music people were disgarded, and even I was asked to leave the set on the next to last day of shooting, even though I was the writer/director! They had discovered how old I was (eighteen) and some of the film veterans were so envious and jealous that they basically just tried to sabatoge me.

I can reflect back on it now as a great learning experience, for Yale Wilson basically gave me a hands on, crash course education on putting a movie together Hollywood-style. I had no idea how it all really worked, and here I was seeing my script broken down, taken apart, given to departments, and reassembled to make it happen. Storyboards, production boards, scheduling, stunts (with the CODE OF SILENCE/ SHARKEY'S MACHINE stunt team!), shooting on 16mm film, putting together a limited partnership and dealing with investors (which proved to be more complicated than buying a house with all the lawyers and accountants involved), publicity, trade ads, film permits...you name it, I learned it all by doing it.

When I was cut out (and later "fired" by mail---a letter came from Chicago saying I would receive a "Story By" credit and that was it!), it nearly destroyed me. I had to hire a lawyer and spent most of 1986 in a legal battle to get my credits, spending all I had made off of TRUTH OR DARE (upwards of $8,000.00).

At one point I had an injuction to stop the release of the movie until the credit dispute was worked out, but I would have had to pay for all my Florida witnesses to go to Chicago for the court case! They said they'd give me full writing credit if I stopped litigation, and I let it go. The movie came out and did real well (selling over 30,000 copies in a year and a half, plus numerous foreign deal like Japan, which paid $60,000 for rights!).

Still sparked by the passion of moviemaking and probably the strength of youth, I decided to use what I had learned and channeled it all into another project called KILLING SPREE. Al and I used all the connections and knowledge we had from TRUTH OR DARE and set out to control everything ourselves, right in our own back yard. The hardest part was the sell---getting local business men and family to put in money into an out and out "splatter film."

SPREE proved to be another learning experience, as the fast shoot and tight friendships slowly unwound over money, egos, credits, and a variety of other unforseeable blockades. Somehow we managed to finish the film by the end of 1987, right when the stock market crashed and smaller video comapnies like Vestron began to fall apart like wet tissue paper!

It took me until 1990 to decide to distribute the movie ourselves, after studying how most distributors were offering you no opportunity at all to actually make the money back, and from 1990-1993, I worked on setting up my own distribution branch for one movie. Here I learned all about that business, once again by doing it.

Despite the best of efforts, we ended up getting ripped off again by a variety of foreign crooks. The U.S. video release made us some money, but barely enough to cover expensive boxes, posters, duplicating, and shipping. Many of these companies never paid in a timely fashion when given revolving credit.

By now, I was condemned to making ends meet with lowly menial jobs (as the commercial/wedding business was shattered by low cost camcorders) while pursuing the dream of moviemaking in every spare moment. I learned more and more and more, but it didn't help with the bills!

Still obsessed with horror and making movies, I researched shooting on video again and using all the knowledge I had into starting again. I spent some time looking for money and trying to raise a decent budget, meeting more con artists and talkers than I care to remember! Meeting after meeting after proposal after proposal never really paid off.

Securing some small venture capital money (which later fell apart) and overextending credit cards (which took six years to finally pay off), I continued the "legacy" of TWISTED ILLUSIONS and moviemaking as I used all the connections and knowledge that I had attained! TWISTED ILLUSIONS, INC. was a full service production/distribution company:

WICKED GAMES: Truth Or Dare 2 (1994; Hi-8/S.VHS video)
BLINDED BY THE BLOOD (1994) (Making of 'Killing Spree' and 'Wicked Games')
CREEP (1995) * the largest shot-on-video movie I made, using all video/film formats and having limited partnerships, insurance, and celebrities involved; another distribution nightmare with ripoff artists
ENDANGERED SPECIES: The Alien Agenda (1997) "Ransom" segment
SCREAMING FOR SANITY (1998) *Truth Or Dare 3
MAKING CREEP (1999) Feature Documentary
DIRTY COP 1 & 2 (1999-2000) Shockumentary Concept Videos (Last House On The Left-inspired!)

Additional Project Contributions:

CANNIBAL HOOKERS (1986) * Meeting filmmaker Donald Farmer, I acted in the Florida version of this flick)
VAMPIRE COP (1990) Associate Producer
SCREAM DREAM (1990) Music Coordinator (using the composer of KILLING SPREE, Perry Monroe)
LOST FAITH (1992) Creative Consultant on Joel Wynkoop's karate comedy
OUT OF THE DARKNESS (1996) Florida Flashback footage
ADDICTED TO MURDER 2 (1998) Second Unit Camera
ROT (1998) Second Unit Camera
TALES TIL THE END/JACKER 2 (1998) Second Unit Camera

OF SPECIAL INTEREST:

Making DERANGED 2 (MDM Productions; they retitled CREEP DERANGED 2 briefly)
WYNKOOP CLIPS 1 & 2
WYNKOOP INTERVIEWS
STAY HUNGRY: Making Lost Faith
RAW FOOTAGE 1 & 2 (raw footage tapes of WG & Creep)
WICKED WAYS (compiled from outtakes/alternate scenes; never released long-form rock video)

---

For more on Tim Ritter and Twisted Illusions, check out their official websites.
Twisted Illusions, Inc.
Dirty Cop, No Donut