User Reviews

Hammer House of Horror: Growing Pains starts as 10 year old William Morton (Christopher Reilly) breaks into his father's lab & eats something he shouldn't, within minutes he has suffered a violent & agonising death. William's parents Terence (Gary Bond) & Laurie (Barbara Kellerman) are obviously upset but sensibly decide to move on, they adopt a young boy named James (Matthew Blakstad) but things don't go too well. Besides maggots in the dinner steaks & James gutting his toy rabbit with a knife he seems almost possessed...

Originally airing in October 1980 here in the UK Growing Pains was episode 4 from this short lived British horror anthology TV series produced by Hammer studios that comprised just 13 episodes across a solitary season, directed by Francis Megahy I have to say that I thought Growing pains was the single worst Hammer House of Horror episode but then there had to be one 'worst' episode didn't there? The script by Nicholas Palmer starts off quite well & has a reasonable ghost story as it's central concept but the last 15 minutes when the ghost of William show's up it turns into some unintentionally funny comedy. I thought the story could have been told much better than it was, for a start if William blamed his father for neglecting him what about his mom? Surely she did too? I mean she wanted to 'replace' him just as much as his dad. Then there's the fact the little bugger ate the chemical on his own, I'm not being funny here but it's his own bloody fault he ended up dead! Then there's no explanation whatsoever as to why he is able to come back from beyond the grave & pester his parents & as a whole Growing Pains just doesn't work that well & is poorly written with bland character's & increasingly sillier situations.

This TV series looks very good, it was obviously shot on proper 35mm film & the experience Hammer had in making feature films was obviously used here to make these 50 minute stories look cinematic. The total lack of studio filming & the fact it was shot entirely on location means they have a realistic look too even if it is somewhat dated, I'm not being funny here but don't you think late 70's Ford Capri's with 'go faster' stripes down the side look awful?! There's a distinct lack of gore in this one, sure there's some cut open rabbits but nothing else, this is also rather light on scares & while not wishing to sound unkind I think Growing Pains works better as a black comedy than a straight horror. The acting is forgettable, I'm not sure if the makers wanted Blakstad to put in an annoying, bland & emotionless performance but that's exactly what they got.

Growing Pains is my least favourite Hammer House of Horror episode, maybe I'm being a bit harsh because it's still watchable I suppose but since so many of the other episodes are so good this can only be described as a disappointment. If you by the Hammer House of Horror DVD boxed set leave Growing Pains to last...

This fourth entry in Hammer's House of Horror series is definitely the most bizarre thus far, but sadly also the least intriguing one. The whole set-up is good and there are some really creepy moments to enjoy, but it eventually all leads to an implausible and idiotic denouement. "Growing Pains" opens with a young boy dying in his parents' garden after having consumed poison from his dad's science lab. The father, Terence, is a biological researcher trying to make bunny-rabbits bigger for food sources in the Third World and the mother, Laurie, is a diplomat. After the loss of their son, Laurie adopts James from an orphanage and they try to be a family again. James behaves strangely from the very first moment, however, as he seems to be in contact with the deceased son's spirit. Mysterious events begin to occur, like the family dog becoming wild and uncontrollable all of a sudden (he eats ALL the cute bunnies!). The climax sequence doesn't work, because – SPOILERS – it portrays Terence & Laurie like uncaring and cold-hearted parents, even though they absolutely weren't to blame for their son's death. It's best to focus on the first half hour, as there are a couple of suspenseful sequences and eerie images of a local graveyard. Otherwise a forgettable and disappointing episode.

Diplomat Laurie Morton (lovely Barbara Kellerman, who tries hard with her thankless part) and her workaholic scientist husband Terence (a solid performance by Gary Bond) adopt a strange boy named James after their son William dies. Odd and troubling things begin to occur soon thereafter.

Director Francis Megahy not only relates the reasonably engrossing, yet derivative "Omen"-esque story at a plodding pace, but also crucially fails to generate much in the way of either tension or spooky atmosphere. Moreover, this episode further suffers due to the key miscasting of Matthew Blakstad, who alas comes across as dorky and annoying instead of creepy and menacing. However, Norman Warwick's serviceable script manages a few decent twists and turns before reaching a genuinely chilling and surprising conclusion. In addition, there are some nice bits of nasty gore concerning mangled rabbits peppered throughout. Both Norman Warwick's sharp cinematography and John McCabe's spirited spine-tingling score are up to par. An okay episode.

This story has all the creepiness you would expect from a Hammer production, as a married couple is plagued by a series of unfortunate events after they adopt a young boy following the death of their natural born son. As if to preface these unusual occurrences, the new son James (Matthew Blakstad) states that he gets 'thoughts in his head', thereby suggesting the idea that maybe he's the cause of the unnatural phenomena disrupting the family. A car the mother (Barbara Kellerman) was driving goes out of control. Maggots appear in their steak dinner, a stuffed rabbit literally spills it's very real guts, and the mild mannered family dog goes berserk, killing the father's (Gary Bond) experimental rabbits and attacking him as well. The business with the rabbits was a bit over the top, as there's no explanation how Nipper could have opened their cages in the father's laboratory, so you have to skim over the inconsistency there. What it all boils down to is an apparent payback for the parents lack of attention toward their first son, which appeared to be taking place with James as well. It's nipped in the bud so to speak, with the father's demise following the appearance of the first son's apparition, as if seeking atonement for his neglect while alive. It's a bitter ending for the mother who quite late comes to understand what had transpired, as she hugs her new son with a renewed sense of what family should mean.