My discovery of the Magic trailer yesterday sparked an interesting (at least to ME) conversation last night between me and a friend. We talked about various horror movies that scared the bejesus out of us as kids, and she asked me if I remembered Bad Ronald.
Indeed, indeed I do.
Bad Ronald was the story of Ronald Wilby,(Scott Jacoby, best known for the Jodie Foster epic The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and for playing Dorothy's son on the Golden Girls),a very UNIQUE young man, who has a rather rich inner life and an unhealthy relationship with his mother (Kim Hunter, from A Streetcar Named Desire and Planet of the Apes. How'd she end up in this? I do not know)
The wheels are set in motion when a neighborhood girl tells Ronald that he's "weird" (that's putting it mildly), and then disses his mama. Ronald pushes her down and she conveniently hits her head on a rock, and dies. Unlike my mother, who would probably have dragged me to the police station by my ear, Mrs. Wilby has Ronald put a wall up over the spare bedroom, and keeps him there (They had something worked out for the meals and such, but damned if I can remember what it was)
This works out great, until Mom goes into the hospital and doesn't come back out. The house is sold to a family with three lovely daughters (Not that he has anything to do here, but the dad is played by Dabney Coleman, and really, who doesn't like Dabney Coleman?) Considering that Ronald was already a tad unhinged to start with, it's no surprise that his makeshift house arrest has made him completely monkeyshit crazy. He's become increasingly obsessed with a fantasy world of his own creation, the center of which is a goddess who's name I can't remember. What I DO remember, is that he has drawings of the goddess, and don't you know it, one of the daughters looks just like her.
I won't divulge any more of the film, lest I give it away. Although, considering that this was a tv movie from 1974, you'd be lucky to find a copy, and if you did manage to track one down, the picture quality is likely to be similar to that of a snuff film.
Just for the hell of it, I did some digging around on YouTube, and I found a grand total of ONE CLIP devoted to this cheesy, creepy bit o' nostalgia. It's several scenes of the movie, set to Creep by Radiohead. Oddly fitting, no? Normally, I wouldn't post one of them there homemade vids, but I like Radiohead, and I like Bad Ronald.
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