Bad Ronald

1974

Action / Drama / Horror / Thriller

18
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 67% · 6 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 56% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.6/10 10 2734 2.7K

secret based on novel or book murder death mental illness peeping tom

Director

Buzz Kulik Photo
Buzz Kulik

Top cast

Roger Aaron Brown Photo
Roger Aaron Brown as Sergeant Carter
John Larch Photo
John Larch as Sgt. Lynch
Lesley Woods Photo
Lesley Woods as Aunt Margaret
Ted Eccles Photo
Ted Eccles as Duane Matthews
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
616.32 MB
956*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 14 min
Seeds ...
1.17 GB
1424*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 14 min
Seeds 7

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Coventry 7 / 10

Bad Bad Bad Bad Boy!

"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!
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Reviewed by lee_eisenberg 6 / 10

the evilest horrors are those among us

You'll probably read descriptions of "Bad Ronald" that make it sound like a horror movie. A more accurate description would be a thriller. One of the many TV movies that became vogue in the 1970s, it focuses on a socially inept teenager who accidentally kills a girl and hides in a crawlspace in his house. Things turn ugly after his mother dies and a new family moves in.

It's easy to feel sympathy for Ronald until he lets his imagination take over. Seriously, this boy turns psychotic. It reminded me of the imaginary world that the girls create in "Heavenly Creatures". I wouldn't call "Bad Ronald" a great movie but it's worth seeing. I guess that one could view it as a look at the underbelly of the middle-class lifestyle.

The cast includes Kim Hunter (Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire"), John Larch (the police chief in "Dirty Harry") and Dabney Coleman (the boss in "9 to 5").

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