Bad Ronald

Several people have commented on the bizarre fantasy aspects of this weird little movie...and for that we can thank the fantastic imagination of its author, the inimitable Jack Vance. Vance is better known as one of the most singular fantasy and sci-fi authors of the last fifty years -- his 'Dying Earth' stories are classics of the genre. Yet as far as I know, Bad Ronald is the only book of his ever made into a movie.

I'd love to see this come out on DVD, along with other classic ABC Movies of the Week like "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" and "Crowhaven Farm".

I've been wanting to see this movie for a long time and I'm glad I finally did. This is a TV movie from the glory days before TV movies were all aimed at bored housewives, before you had a rampaging Delta Burke or somebody like that crusading against the drunk driver who sold drugs to her son, turned out her daughter, and molested her dog. I'd watch Lifetime and the Hallmark channel religiously if there was a remote chance they'd ever show something like this! Ronald is a creepy but at the same time oddly sympathetic teenager played by Scott Jacoby (yes, THE Scott Jacoby!). After he kills a neighbor girl, his doting mother hides him in secret room, but then she tragically dies and a new family with three teenage daughters moves in. The dad is played by a young Dabney Coleman WITH HAIR. The two older daughters were played by the sexy Eilbacher sisters, but the perverted Ronald falls in love with the youngest daughter (Cindy Fisher), who the camera leers at as much as he does (she keeps running up stairs dressed in a short tennis skirt--is this 70's made-for-TV kiddie porn?). When the girls parents go out of town, Bad Ronald makes his presence known and all hell breaks loose. There are no important social messages here, no familial problems are addressed, Delta Burke does not appear--it's just two hours (minus commercial breaks) of enjoyable trash.

I was eleven or younger when I watched his film. I had sat up late watching t.v. with my father (sometimes we would do that until it went off the air--remember those days?). He fell asleep and I ended up watching Bad Ronald, the last thing on that night, all alone.

All I know is, I couldn't stop watching until the end, and I have never forgotten this movie. It scared me so much that I was afraid to get up and turn the t.v. off when it was over, and I still have a surprisingly clear recall of the film more than twenty years later. Surely this says something about the power of the idea, if nothing else.

Ronald's fantasy world was a big stand-out to me, as was the horror of his position, unexpectedly deserted by the only person who loved him.

Many fans of 70s tv horror revere this obscure and neat movie from 1974.And with good reason!Ronald is a shy young man with a wild imagination who lives with his twisted mother.After he accidentally kills a neighborhood girl and buries her,his ma surmises Ronald should hide in a plastered-over room until things settle down.Ma dies and Ronald stays put,drilling peepholes into every room.By this point he's quite deranged and when a new family with pretty daughters moves in,look out!Scott Jacoby is great as Ronald and the whole movie is very creepy.I've seen other movies that borrowed elements of BR(hider in the house,christina's house),but none reached the eerie level of this one.

"Bad Ronald" enjoys quite an impressive cult reputation, despite "only" being a low-budgeted and made-for-TV film from the early 70's, so I simply had to check it out to see what all the fuzz is about. I can't deny "Bad Ronald" has something irresistibly special! The atmosphere is thoroughly unsettling and Scott Jacoby portrays a strangely menacing Ronald. There are no special effects or bloody massacres in this film, yet it's an engaging little thriller with a fairly original premise. Ronald is a geeky and slightly peculiar teenager who lives with his dominant and overly protective mother. He's obsessed with his personally created comic book universe, yet his mother insists on becoming a prominent doctor. When Ronald accidentally murders a young girl after she mocked him one too many times, his mother sees no other solution than to construct an extra lair in their house and hide him from the cops. Then when mommy doesn't return from the hospital one day after a routine operation, Ronald remains hidden in the house and new tenants move in. Slowly going insane from loneliness and paranoia, Ronald mistakes the new tenants' daughter for his comic book heroine. The script is a little too far-fetched to be plausible and it definitely contains too many improbabilities, like the bizarrely noisy neighbor Mrs. Shumacher, for example, and the fatal gal blather operation. But at least it's never boring or exaggeratedly ridiculous, so I'm certainly not complaining. Ronald's parental house provides the film with a uniquely sinister setting, complete with hideous wallpaper & furniture, peepholes and secret cupboard passageways. Especially considering it's a TV-production, "Bad Ronald" is well photographed, suspenseful and it approaches several themes that are appealing to fans of grim 70's exploitation. Recommended!