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BAD RONALD
Ronald Wilby, a senior high school nerdy student accidentally kills a female bully, Carol Matthews, when she refuses to apologize for calling him "weird". With no immediate witnesses at the murder scene, he runs home to tell his overprotective mother. Mrs. Wilby decides to protect her son by hiding him in the main floor bathroom, building a wall and pantry over the door entrance to conceal the hidden room and then tells the police that Ronald has run away for no given reason.
| Unfortunately, Mrs. Wilby leaves for a routine gall bladder surgery but does not survive the operation. Ronald is left alone to fend for himself. After several weeks, the Wilby house is put up for sale and a new family of five (Mr. & Mrs. Wood and 3 young daughters) move in. The youngest daughter, Baps, is uncomfortable with the new home, and is creeped out when she learns that Ronald Wilby, known in the community as Carol Matthew's killer, used to live in this house and mysteriously disappeared after Carol's death. |
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As weeks go by, Ronald becomes more and more restless and is careless, producing noise that arouse suspicions from the Wood family who believe they may have a resident ghost. To pass time, Ronald sketches fantasy characters on his wall, derived from his fairy tale that he authored called "The History of Atrantra". But he becomes too involved in the story, and eventualy loses all sense of reality and falls into a dream world in which he role plays his main character "Prince Norbert". When Mr. & Mrs. Wood leave the house for the weekend, Ronald traps Baps in the Schumacher basement when she tries to flee him. Ronald also kidnaps a family friend, Dwayne, in his secret room. But Dwayne struggles and the noise leads the remaining Wood daughters to come downstairs to investigate. To their horror, they see Ronald's eye through a hole in the wall. Ronald breaks out of the wall and is captured by the police who arrive in the nick of time.
Produced in 1974, BAD RONALD was a low-budget made-for-tv movie that has often been classified as a gothic thriller. The tagline is exaggerated, labelling Ronald as a psychopathic killer. It's pretty clear that Ronald Wilby accidentally killed the neighbourhood twirp Carol when she cruelly called him and his mother "weird". He just wanted an apology, and when she refused, he grabbed her in a fit of anger and pushed her away. She lost her balance and fell, hitting her head on a brick and died. He's not a psychopathic killer. A teenaged bumpkin, excluded from mainstream adolescent groups, Ronald made a hasty decision not to report the murder and instead buried the dead girl's body. The story is about an imprisoned teenager who went mad. He fell into a fantasy world about castles and royalty figures and became more mentally ill as he had no one and nowhere to turn.
The film is a cult favourite and, overall, it's a well-told story with a predictable, albeit, abrupt ending. It is available in limited video release.
