# Yet another "help me identify this old movie" thread... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-help-me-identify-this-old-movie-thread/163180 "2003-03-21T18:46:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-help-me-identify-this-old-movie-thread/163180/1 "2003-03-21T18:46:13Z")
This is something that I saw pieces of many years ago on TV. I don’t know if it was a theatrical movie that was on TV at that time or a made-for-TV movie. The basic premise is that a teenager accidently murders another teenager. Rather than face possible charges, his mother (the only relative he lives with) walls off some rooms in the house for him to live in and tells the authorities that he ran away. Teen lives in the house in that manner for a while. Later on, another scene reveals that the teen hasn’t seen his mother for a while and he’s worried. However, there’s not much he can do (what’s he going to do? Go outside and look for her?). Eventually a real-estate agent enters the house with a stranger who is looking to buy the house. While there, they discuss the poor fate of the woman who lived there, who died and whose only relative was a fugitive. In the end, a family ends up buying the house and moves in. The kid continues to survive by stealing food from the family and otherwise being very quiet. I don’t remember how the movie ended. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone? Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-help-me-identify-this-old-movie-thread/163180/2 "2003-03-21T19:31:53Z")
How about **Bad Ronald**? ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-help-me-identify-this-old-movie-thread/163180/3 "2003-03-21T19:36:32Z")
It sounds like _Bad Ronald_ to me too. [IMDB info](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0071186) ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-help-me-identify-this-old-movie-thread/163180/4 "2003-03-21T19:44:39Z")
Yep, I think that was it! Thank you very much. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-help-me-identify-this-old-movie-thread/163180/5 "2003-03-21T19:53:36Z")
Eeeek, I simply must add that I vividly remember this movie and it creeped out my formative years. ( I would have been 10 or 11 when it first aired.) Him peeking out from his hidey-hole, spying on the new family … gah! However, I also spent years idly reconnoitering various houses and buildings I found myself in, wondering if a person could be suitably walled-up inside it, and would they escape detection. The movie had a quality that could really capture a kid’s imagination, don’t you think Zev? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Maci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Maci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maci)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-help-me-identify-this-old-movie-thread/163180/6 "2003-03-21T20:18:58Z")
I remember this movie too. Didn’t he also draw elaborate pictures all over the walls of his room? IIRC, he falls in love with one of the daughters of the new family and tries to murder her boyfriend. In the end they discover the hideout by the light shining through a peephole, whereupon he crashes through the fake wall and ends up curled up on the floor having a breakdown.