Growing Pains

"Terrence and Laurie Morton" lose their son when the latter accidentally takes poison in his father's lab. Barbara Kellerman plays Laurie, a diplomat, while Gary Bond plays her scientist husband. The grieving couple wind up adopting another boy, and he is an evil one, like the kid in the movie "The Omen." Crazy things happen soon after the adopted boy reaches his new home.

Overall, I was disappointed with this episode, expecting a more tense and edgy story than what was delivered. It was a bit flat, and the ending was nothing to rave about. Some of the acting was weak. The son who died was almost laughable when he staggered around in the backyard. It looked so hokey I thought I was watching a young Curly Howard of Three Stooges doing a parody of someone slowing dying. This was early on in the episode and was kind of a omen of the cheesy story that was to follow.

The evil boy who replaced the son was too nerdy looking to be convincing. This sort of storyline has been done numerous times, and far better than this. Yes, it had a few creepy moments but they were few and far between and the 51 minutes of this program seemed more like 151.

Storywise, the fourth episode to "Hammer House of Horror", "Growing Pains" is the weakest of the first five I've seen so far. This is not to say however, that the film has no redeeming qualities. On the contrary, it does feature many creepy moments and it builds up atmosphere and a certain level of suspense. After the death of their own son, successful married couple Laurie (Barbara Kellerman), a diplomat, and Terence Morton (Gary Bond), a scientist, adopt a boy named James (Matthew Blakstad). Even tough the boy is polite and well-behaved, something seems to be wrong with him, however. Shortly after he moves in with his new parents, mysterious thing begin to happen... The child-possession theme had been made vastly popular in the 70s by films like "The Exorcist" or "The Omen", and it is therefore clear that the Hammer Studios would devote at least one episode of their short-running 1980 TV-series to a similar theme. Which is all fine, of course, but it is also obvious that this particular episode looses a lot of its impact due to sloppy writing. The episode is quite atmospheric and there are some genuinely creepy moments. Furthermore, it has to be appreciated when a child actor succeeds in playing a sinister part, and Mathew Blackstad does here, without exaggerated overacting. Yet this does not fully excuse the weak story which is full of holes and inconsistencies. You won't hear me complain that the concept, which had been used many times by 1980s, is unoriginal, but merely that it could have been thought through a little better. Yet, "Growing Pains" isn't all bad, and while it is the weakest H.H.H. episode I've seen so far, it is still entertaining enough for its approximately 50 minutes.

Barbara Kellerman ("The Monster Club") and Gary Bond ("Wake in Fright") play Laurie & Terence Morton, a diplomat & scientist (he's determinedly trying to solve the problem of world hunger). They lose their son William (Christopher Reilly, 'The Story of the Treasure Seekers') under tragic but bizarre circumstances. They end up adopting another son, James (Matthew Blakstad, "Young Sherlock Holmes"), who has an uncanny ability to sense when people or things are unhappy.

James starts out subtly creepy, and his character keeps getting creepier, in this so-so episode, which is absolutely no great shakes in the entire "evil kid(s)" horror sub-genre. The acting isn't so hot (especially from the child actors), and the horror content pretty mild, even though we have some amusingly gross moments and a formerly docile dog who starts getting bloodthirsty.

More political than other 'Hammer House of Horror' episodes, this still doesn't add up to much, and *is* a comedown from the first three that were aired. Even the ending lacks real punch.

Five out of 10.

ooooooooooh this is one with bad acting. For me only the child gives a good performance. The story is okay but also the editing and sonorisation could have been done much better. Watch the part with barking dog. You see that the dog doesn't bark but you hear him bark. And he bites, but hey, they are pulling the dog away but even that is bad edited. It isn't that bloody or scary. Even the beginning of the episode is sadly acted by another child. He's dying but what the hell, he's choking, no no he's doing the Sint Vitus dance, in fact it's so bad that they explain what is going on. Anyhow, it has been aired as number 4 in the series, just enjoy it as it is....

After the unexplained death of their son Terence and Laurie Morton adopt a boy called James . James is a strange boy , very withdrawn and unexplained occurrences start happening

This is a very obvious reworking of THE OMEN where new found surrogate parents start suffering all sorts of unfortunate events that escalate . I found THE OMEN a very enjoyable and atmospheric horror movie so despite being somewhat formulaic this type of story isn't necessarily a bad one . The problem with this episode - and it's a big one - is what has cropped up from nearly all the comments on this page and that is it suffers from really dreadful acting

First of all the cast all talk in pronounced posh middle class accents that make the Queen and her brood sound like chav scum in comparison . It's the sort of accents you rarely hear outside of film and television and draws your attention that you are watching a film or television show . Barabara Kellerman was a relative prolific actress at this time and almost always played the same type of whiny girly character and over acts in a scene where she can't gain control of a steering wheel in a car . This over acting is magnified by the opposite effect of her fellow cast member Matthew Blakstad as James who being a passenger in a car veering wildly out of control doesn't literally blink an eyelid . No matter what happens to James he goes through the entire episode with an entirely gormless inexpressive expression on his face

If there's one saving grace to the episode the opening pre title sequence contains a Hammer trade mark and that is obvious day for night filming . This involves sticking a dark lens over the camera dimming he amount of light seen . It was never that convincing but did become a traditional aspect of British horror film making , but that's hardly a reason to seek out this episode of the show