Bad Ronald (1974)
Directed by Buzz Kulik
Sometimes you discover movies in a weird way. Bad Ronald is like that for me. I was listening to With Gourley and Rust and Paul Rust was talking about wanting to rent out Bad Ronald from a video rental place. In order to rent it he had to pay a deposit of over $100 because the tape or dvd or whatever was really rare, so he didn’t do it. Then I had to research what the movie was, and had to watch it.
Bad Ronald is about a gangly kid named Ronald that lives with his somewhat overbearing mother. Ronald turns 18, ready to graduate high school and he goes out to ask a girl he likes to a night out. She says no, and he sulks off. On his way back home a neighbor girl, probably like 8 or so gives him the business. He walks over and tries to intimidate her, picking her up and asking her to apologize. He drops her down and she hits her head, and dies. He panics and buries her body. His mom freaks out after he tells her and they agree he must hide in a secret room in the house for a while. A while later she has to go in for surgery and will be gone for a week. Ronald has to fend for himself while staying out of sight. She never makes it home and dies. Now the house is up for sale and a new family moves in. The new family has no idea Ronald is there. Things get creepy.
Omg Rusty even kind of looks like Bad Ronald LOL
THe acting is pretty good. Scott Jacoby plays Ronald and he puts in a good performance, especially for a TV movie! The mom was pretty good as well, for being kind of frazzled and smothering. The oldest girl of the new family, I think her name was Ellen? She was pretty solid and beautiful.
The story is probably the most compelling part. The idea of a guy hiding out from the cops in a secret room in his mothers house, until she dies, then staying there when a family moves in his really creepy. If you haven’t seen this, check it out. Hopefully you don’t have to drop $100+ to rent it right? I give Bad Ronald a B+.
