Bad Ronald (1974)

ABC
Directed by Buzz Kulik
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

In the upper echelon of made-for-TV movies, Bad Ronald takes a plausible situation and pushes it to the limit. Ronald accidentally kills a neighborhood girl. Instead of going to the police he buries her. He tells his overprotective mother, who decides the best thing to do is wall up the bathroom and hide him until things blow over. She goes to the hospital for a routine operation but ends up dying. Ronald stays in hiding, even when a new family moves into the house. He retreats into a fantasy world of his own making, covering his walls, and himself, with paint and dirt. His fantasies extend to the people in the house: a young girl is a princess, a boyfriend an evil Duke. When he finally reveals himself to the girl, he's filthy and a raving lunatic. She manages to run next door but he locks her in the basement. He kidnaps the boyfriend of her sister and ties him up in his hideaway. One of his peepholes eventually gives him away, and he bursts through a wall in an incredible ending.