Day of the Reaper

Obviously this movie will be very hard to find, but it is a great example of what can be done with no budget. The story was ahead of it's time with it's tale of battling psychopaths. Excellent fun is to be found in this rare video.

While the acting might be a little stiff, you have to give credit to the amateur actors. Many people make movies while in high school, but Tim Ritter was able to get his work seen by the "right" people and move on to making "real" movies. This is the movie that helped Tim to get noticed, while not having the distribution of his later works, this movie is one that is worth tracking down.

I think this movie is better then "Truth of Dare – Critical Madness". Fans of Tim Ritter movies would really love to see this early example of his work.

If you're a fan of blood, guts, gore, and psychopaths taking teens to the chopping block, this is the movie for you. If you're a fan of cheesy, badly written, low-budget, poorly acted B-Movies, this is the movie for you.

If you cannot sit through any of what was previously described, this is NOT the movie for you.

While the plot and sound track are fairly unique, I struggle to say that they're good. I think the most redeeming quality of this film is its minimalistic take on the slasher genre. It is, irregularly enough, not driven so much by its characters, but rather the thematic elements of the eerie sound design and enigmatic, spooky looming presence of "The Reaper" (or by his other more apt name "The Sanguinary"). The film leaves a lot to be desired but is at its core is a fun bloody romp for those who enjoy crappy late 20th century movies.

After watching TRUTH OR DARE and KILLING SPREE and enjoying the hell out of both of them, I downloaded Tim Ritter's first directorial effort in hopes it would be a bizarre, inept slice of psychotronic cinema. It definitely IS that, but that doesn't mean watching it is any fun whatsoever.

Released straight-to-video in 1984, DAY OF THE REAPER was shot when Tim Ritter was still in high school. He cobbled together some friends from school, a Super-8 camera and $1,000, then sold the final project door-to-door to video stores in his home state of Florida. It got the attention of the right people, and Ritter went on to be a minor cult icon in the horror world. It takes a lot of guts to do something like this, and he should definitely get some recognition for doing it.

Unfortunately, DAY OF THE REAPER is damn near unwatchable. Half of the shots are too dark to make out what's happening and the other half are tinted a bevy of strange colors. The film was dubbed after the fact with mumbled, nonsensical dialogue delivered by high schoolers who wouldn't make the cut for their senior play. The gore scenes are so ineptly shot that you're unsure if someone is actually being killed. And don't get me started on the "plot."

Finally, it commits the deadly sin of being utterly boring. It's, like, 60 minutes long, and 58 of them are filler. I actually fell asleep watching it and only finished it the next morning due to an obsessive-compulsive habit of completing any film I start. The version I found has text commentary written by Ritter that lambasts the film and occasionally mutes the pain of viewing it, but it doesn't help nearly enough.

If you're looking for the next BOARDINGHOUSE or THINGS, this is most definitely not it. Watch Ritter's later work and pretend this doesn't exist. 4/10 for the effort and the synthtastic score, but, oh lord, is this bad, and not in a charming way.

There is absolutely nothing worth seeing in this piece of utter garbage. I struggled through the first 15 minutes, turned it off and decided to read reviews. No clue how someone could give it a 7. A 1 is being generous. I wouldn't recommend this to even the most die hard horror fans. The horror is that it exists and that someone thought it should be made. I mean no offense to the creators, but this is an unwatchable pile of utter garbage. Do not waste your time. I repeat, don't waste your time. I'm not sure who would enjoy this, but I most definitely did not. Sad that I couldn't make it through it's 70 minute runtime.