Movie Details
| Title: | Bad Ronald | |
| Director: | Buzz Kulik | |
| Year: | 1974 | |
| Genre: | Psychological Thriller | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 02.21.07 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 02.21.07 | Weird Wednesday | This nerd sort of kills a girl and his weirdo mom makes him hide in a secret room of the house to evade the fuzz. Then she dies and he stays in there even after a new family moves in. OK.. that's a pretty creepy idea, but for a made-for-TV-movie that is unbelievable. I love that this was shown on TV where kids of any age could watch it. It's such a messed up twisted idea, and what's more, in true 70s fashion the whole movie is from the perspective of the kid! So that's even more messed up! As if they're saying "don't feel bad for this kid... even though he's killed someone, circumstances pretty much make it all make sense. it could even happen to you! pity bad ronald! So, as anyone would do when they're cooped up in a confined space for long periods of time, Ronald spends his time painting. The funny thing is, he didn't go stir crazy or anything... his bizarre fantasy world of Atranta (presumably an asian's version of Atlanta) already existed in his messed up mind... before any of this happened. So in his room he's just bringing his fantasy world to life through paint... and once the family moves in, he drills holes in the walls to be able to peep at the three attractive daughters to Dabney Coleman's disinterested father. And he pilfers food and falls in love with one of the girls and it's about as great as TV back then could get. I can completely believe that if I saw this as a kid, I'd walk around for weeks wondering if there's some dirty insane kid waiting to rip through the wall at any moment. Jesus, that's scary. Aside from all that though, the movie got some pretty big laughs. The nosy neighbor peering into the kitchen, the popular kid offhandedly mentioning that Ronald killed his sister, a few choice lines in the script... the crowd definitely had a good time with it (which helps a lot). It's almost enough to make up for the lack of sex and violence... but I guess with TV movies what are ya gonna do. |
