Review: BAD RONALD

Directed by Buzz Kulik
1974
74 mins.  Color.
Warner Archive DVD

Bad Ronald shouldn't have buried Carol after he accidentally killed her.  His mom shouldn't have recommended that he hide.  But, if that had been the case, then there would have been no Bad Ronald, and that would've been a shame.

Bad Ronald's birthday is celebrated the day before they celebrate his mother's divorce to his father.  They celebrate with chocolate cake.  Afterwards, Ronald wants to go to a double feature with Laurie, but it so happens that Laurie sucks and only likes football players.  Carol is riding her bike by Laurie's house and makes this point clear to Ronald.  Afterward, Ronald pie-faces Carol in disgust and Carol bonks her noggin on a cinderblock, rendering her, well, dead.  Thus is born the film with the best title of all time.

Originally made as a TV Movie, this little gem is truly special.  I can't even imagine how awesome it would have been to have come home from school and seen this movie on TV?

Well, anyway, Bad Ronald's mom prefers that Bad Ronald not get the electric chair, so she comes up with a hair-brained scheme to wall off one of the spare rooms in the house and create a secret room for Bad Ronald to hide in day and night.  While it's not clear what the end game here is, it becomes a short-term fix that makes for some fascinating interactions through pantry wall.  Mom is pretty set on Bad Ronald getting his exercise and keeping up with his studies.

Whatever the original plan, things get very complicated once Mom needs a gall bladder operation.  A seemingly simple operation turns deadly and leaves Bad Ronald locked in the new secret room of the house with no news or supplies.


Apparently there are no legal hoops to jump through and the bank moves quickly to get a new family into the house, making things rather complicated for Bad Ronald.


The dinner table scene is incredible...

The Evaluation:
For what it is, this movie is the sweetest.  At a brisk 74 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome for a minute.  The outlandish scheme that Ronald and his mother come up with is so ridiculous and surprising that it's very refreshing.  Outside of the evil nosy neighbor, it's played completely straight.  Performances and production is pretty great and the story is completely unique.  Wes Craven, rip-off artist, managed to steal the last act for his People Under the Stairs (which is also crazy awesome, if you haven't seen it.)  If you love little well made obscurities, hunt down a copy of BAD RONALD.

Set Yourself Up:

• Procure some evaporated milk, dried fruit, and other non-expiring foods.
• Put yourself in a place to take it seriously.  If you go into this hoping for a laugh a minute trash film, you will be disappointed.  Its a well-produced, genuinely enjoyable film that should be taken seriously in its own right.

The Box:

About as skimpy a set-up as I've ever seen.  This is my first Warner Archive DVD and I was shocked that the menu consists of one button "play movie."  No scene selection, nothing.  But, no matter, I'm just thankful they put it out so I didn't need to shell out thirty-five dollars to buy the VHS.

- J. Moret

The clip below is sweet, but does contain spoilers:

THE LAST SLUMBER PARTY

This week, Matt and John discuss the giant mess that is THE LAST SLUMBER PARTY.  This shot-on-video debacle divides us on whether the disastrous happenings are entertaining or tedious.

Check out this episode!

Interview with LEWIS JACKSON

This week, I interview Lewis Jackson.  Jackson is the director of CHRISTMAS EVIL (aka YOU BETTER WATCH OUT).  His film is a fascinating and genre-breaking masterwork that is now a mainstay for me every year.  We talk about body horror pornography, how his film was financed by the Mafia and Communists, Fassbinder and his take on what Friday the 13th Part 3 woud've been if he had written it.

Check out this episode!

Review: WAKE IN FRIGHT

Directed by Ted Kotcheff
1971
108 mins.  Color.
Blu-Ray from Drafthouse Films

The Outback may be a sub-par steakhouse, but it's also a place in the wilds of Australia where drinking beer is serious business.  I was in Ukraine once, and there was a certain pressure to finish all of your food, no matter how full and vomitous you feel at the time. I got big time diarrhea.  It was not awesome. The outback is that way with beer.  Its' the social currency that all bonds grow out of.

Wake in Fright is the kind of film that makes you feel trapped.  It captures you and never lets go.  It has a surreal, nightmarish quality that has sat with me ever since I first saw it.  Images of a garish and giant Santa Clause ho-ho-hoing over the town square, a horrifying Kangaroo hunt, and unrelenting heat and dust feel completely overwhelming.

When you grow up in a small town, you understand the idea of a large claustrophobia.  The sense of being trapped in small town that you feel too big for is a feeling like no other.  Its' a strangling, suffocating sensation.  At the same time, it goes both ways.  Those who feel comfortable in the small place, have a sense of fear that others will move on, or think they are better than those who stay.  That deep division seems to be at the heart of the city / town divide.

In Australian terms, Sarah Palin would call Bundanyabba (The Yabba) the REAL Australia.  But, John Grant wants to head back to "civilization."  He simply cannot adapt to the ways of the Yabba.  Tortured by the outback, he's insolent to the locals, dismayed by their unquestioning loyalty to the Yabba, and easily drunk.  He has no understanding of the brutality of the games they play (whether it be gambling, kangaroo hunting or simply drinking beer).  Thinking he's above it all, he underestimates it and finds himself trapped.  He's currently a teacher, bound to the educational system until he can pay a sum of one thousand dollars.  So, he bets his semester's earnings at the local games and loses it all and is forced to stay in the Yabba.  He commiserates with Donald Pleasance (Doc) on his hatred for the Yabba and gets this brilliant response, "All the little devils are proud of hell.  Discontent is the privilege of the well-to-do.  If you've got to live here, you might as well like it."  I've never heard a more perfect description of the ways in which we over-glorify our situations to make ourselves feel good about them.

One of my existential nightmares is a night out on the town with the "boys."  And, that is exactly what the locals (Dick and Joe) see in John.
"What's the matter with him?  He'd rather talk to a woman than drink?"
And, so, they proceed to educate him.  In a turn of spinning camera shots and jagged cuts, he ends up in Doc's little shack and the existential odyssey takes continual turns for the worse.  Kangaroo gruel and beer for breakfast and Pleasance's sheer madness bring the tone to a fevered dream.

Wake in Fright is a masterpiece.  It's a perfect film.  The photography is stark and striking.  Taking place over the Christmas holiday, it has quickly become one of the best Christmas movies I've ever seen.  It captures the fish-out-of-water nightmare of being a city kid being in with the tough guys.  Both introspective and exploitation, it is extremely engrossing and thought-provoking.  Along the same lines as Blue Velvet, it is an unforgettable experience.  Mostly notorious for its controversial Kangaroo hunting scene (which is hauntingly horrible), it really should have become known for its' fantastic script and performances.

Losing it all.

The physical copy:

The process that a film like this takes is truly fascinating.  It went through multiple edits (The US and UK titles being Outback), that were quite different.  Damaged prints were carted around the world for decades.  The original negative went missing for years, only to be found again in 2000 at the Mountain Vaults in Pittsburgh.  (Near the Wampum Mine where they filmed Day of the Dead.)  A pain-staking digital restoration provide us with the current, and beautiful, version available from Drafthouse.

The disc also has some great special features:

Audio Commentary with Kotcheff

To the Yabba and Back - a documentary from Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood)

Q & A with Kotcheff

A report on the rediscovery and restoration

Weird segment in weird show, Who Needs Art?

Chips Rafferty's obituary

And a wonderful booklet with essays and photos 

-J. Moret

podcast: SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT

This week, Matt and John discuss the 1984 Christmas slasher film, SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT.  After watching his parents get brutally murdered by Santa Clause on a deserted highway, young Billy stocks toys during a wonderful montage and then shoots a co-worker in the back with a bow & arrow, and we rejoice.

You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or you can listen here:
Check out this episode!

-J. Moret