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The 1970s saw an explosion of TV-movies, and a number of these small-screen features were based on novels. The two examples here, which are some of the most memorable of their day, sit on opposite ends of the adaptation spectrum. While Bad Ronald (1974) took liberties with its source material, Are You in the House Alone? (1978) stays somewhat true to the spirit of the novel. Both features also teeter on the edge of horror, a recurring genre in the “golden age” of made-for-television movies.

Jack Vance was not a horror-only author, so Bad Ronald (1973) is an anomaly in his overall body of work. ABC quickly acted on the success of the novel, with the network ultimately airing its adaptation a week before Halloween. However, Andrew Peter Marin’s screenplay is different from what Vance had penned. Anyone who has read the original novel would understand — maybe even appreciate — the changes in director Buzz Kulik’s version.

'The Exorcist: Believer' director David Gordon Green is keen to helm a 'Bad Ronald' musical.The 1974 horror movie - which was directed by Buzz Kulik - tells the story of Ronald Wilby (Scott Jacoby) a disturbed young man who lives in the walls of a house, unbeknownst to the new family that moves in, and the filmmaker would love to present a new twist on the tale as his "grand finale".When SFX magazine asked David what other projects he would want to direct once he had finished with 'The Exorcist' franchise, he replied: "'Bad Ronald The Musical'! I think that could exhaust everything I've got. Maybe that's 10 years from now."That's the icing on the cake. It's my grand finale. It checks a lot of boxes for me, including something that I love: the undiscovered."It's not every day you meet a 'Bad Ronald' fan,...

Hammer Horror fans already have a new Blu-ray release of Dracula: Prince of Darkness to look forward to from Scream Factory, and now Warner Archive is bringing more Christopher Lee Hammer Horror movies to life in high definition with new remastered Blu-ray releases of The Satanic Rites of Dracula and Dracula A.D. 1972.

Announced on Warner Archive's official Facebook page, the new Blu-rays of The Satanic Rites of Dracula and Dracula A.D. 1972 do not have release dates yet, but they are expected to come out this year, along with 1974's Bad Ronald.

We'll keep Daily Dead readers updated on the exact release dates for these Blu-rays when they're revealed, and in the meantime, we have a look at the cover art, technical specs, and synopses below (via Warner Archive):

"The Satanic Rites of Dracula

Satanic Rites Of Dracula (1974)

New 2018 1080p HD remaster!

Run Time 88:00

Subtitles English Sdh...

The minds behind Monster Fest 2016 out of Melbourne, Australia, have announced that the French horror film Raw will open the festival, which will also feature a screening of Beyond the Gates. Also in today's Highlights: a trailer for Halloweed and a sneak peek of Aliens: Life and Death #1.

Monster Fest 2016 Lineup Announced: Press Release: "Returning this year from November 24-27, Australia’s premier genre film festival Monster Fest is thrilled to announce the Australian premiere of controversial new French horror film Raw as its Official 2016 Opening Night Film.

Raw made its World Premiere in Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year where it was awarded the coveted Fipresci Award and was lauded by critics and fans alike as the genre sensation of the festival.

Raw is the debut feature of French director Julia Ducournau and tells the story of a young vegetarian who discovers her dark side...

Back when I manned the horror section of the video store I worked at, anytime I’d find a customer skimming through all the “S” titles with mild frustration, 99 percent of the time, I knew exactly what it was they were looking for. And when I would finally ask, my suspicions were confirmed. “Do you have ‘The Silence Of The Lamb’”? To which I’d always reply, “Ah, the Hannibal Lector movies are all in the ‘mystery/thriller’ section.” And usually this would spur a conversation with that customer that would begin with, “Really? I always thought the Hannibal Lector movies were horror!” And it got me thinking about a handful of other titles that horror fans might not even think to hunt for in the “mystery/thriller” section. There are the obvious choices like Se7en or Misery. Then, there’s also stuff like The Sixth Sense, which yes,...

Mod, or manufacturing on demand, means studios and DVD labels don’t press the DVD until you order it. MGM’s Limited Edition Collection and the Warner Archive Collection are the two big names in the Mod game right now, and each month they make dozens of titles available on DVD for the very first time. And The Mod Quad will take a look at as many of them as we can handle on a semi-irregular basis. Which will probably average out to some number divisible by four. This Halloween-themed installment includes eight horror films from the Warner Archive including one of the best made-for-tv horror films ever made (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark), a freaky and timely movie about a madman who owns exotic animals (Black Zoo), one of the scariest TV mini-series (Salem’s Lot), the best killer pig movie to ever grace the screen (Razorback) and more. * The...

Put on your black leather jacket, kidnap a young girl and seal yourself up in your bathroom because episode #61 of Junk Food Dinner is here, kids!

This week we see what happens when aliens invade Earth, turning everyone into zombies and the only ones who can save us are eardrum-shattering Japanese punk rockers Guitar Wolf, when we take a look at the off-the-wall Asian splatterfest Wild Zero from 2000.

Then, an awkward teenager must hide between the walls of a sealed-off bathroom in his house after accidentally murdering a young girl, only to have a new family move in shortly after, in the 1974 made-for-tv drama Bad Ronald, starring Scott Jacoby, Kim Hunter and Dabney Coleman.

And finally, a trio of creeps kidnap a young heiress and hold her for ransom, only to have things go south quickly, in the gritty exploitation flick The Candy Snatchers from 1973 directed by Guerdon Trueblood and...

Ah, the Seventies. Horror was alive and well not just in theatres, but especially on television thanks to made-for-tv movies that ran weekly on ABC like 1974's Bad Ronald, directed by Buzz Kulik and starring Scott Jacoby, who pretty much personifies the era.

Read on for Trembles' take on the film, whose synopsis follows:

A shy teenager accidentally kills a mocking peer, and his mother helps him hide in a spare room in their house. Problems arise when the mother goes for an operation and dies, and the house is sold to a new family, with the teen still living inside.

Ronald McWalled-In!

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Warner Brothers continues with their popular Archive Collection in releasing some cult .movie of the week. television films. Ronald may not be as bad as he thinks, but he gets worse when he.s walled up in the house and retreats into his self produced fantasy world. Ronald Wilby (Scott Jacoby) is a creative but geeky kid who lives with his overprotective mother Elaine (Kim Hunter). Ronald wants to be a doctor to help his ailing mother. He also wants to ask Laurie (Shelly Spurlock) on a date but is roundly rejected. On the way back home he.s made fun of by Laurie.s sister Carole (Angela Hoffman). He pushes her and she falls and strikes her head on a...

For me, horror movies will always be fondly, profoundly linked to the sweet, wonderful and wide eyed rapture of my late-night trash TV-drenched childhood. Those bygone, misspent hours when I’d subject myself to every manner of sublime cinema, splitting open fantastic and macabre realities that potentially could and in some cases did, exist. One of the too-many-to-count strange shockers that left a major, destiny altering impact on me was veteran small screen director Sutton Roley’s obscure Sci-Fi tinged skin crawler Chosen Survivors, a movie whose chilly, nihilistic, future-shock premise hooked my Twilight Zone weaned sensibilities while also managing to exploit my acute fear of bedroom invading bats.

Before we proceed, let me explain a bit about that fear…

See, there was this one time when I was no more than 8, I was reading a particularly upsetting issue of Marvel comics’ groundbreaking Tomb Of Dracula series, alone, in my...