The slightly disturbed teenager Ronald (Scott Jacoby) accidentally kills a teenage girl during an argument. He's living alone with his mother (Kim Hunter) who decides that the best way to solve the situation is to hide her son in the house. The result of a night of home improvement is a nice hidden room under the stairs for Ronald.
The police doesn't find him, but some time later, his mother dies.
The boy stays in the house even when a family with three daughters moves in. His mental health isn't exactly improving and soon he develops an obsessive interest in his unwitting hosts.
Bad Ronald is one of the better American TV movies of the Seventies, mostly thanks to a creepy and surprisingly weird basic idea that doesn't lend itself to the kind of melodramatic schlock Seventies TV could become.
TV director Buzz Kulik's direction is workmanlike and solid, the acting more than adequate and the setting nicely developed. Its status as a TV production of its time prevents the movie from exploring the darkest aspects and possibilities of the plot very far, but also keep the film away from becoming a mindless hackfest.
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